RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) happened last week, and now I’m back home and ready to report on how it all played out! I’m doing day-by-day posts, so if you’re interested, be sure to check back for each day’s happenings. It’s an amazing event! I can only imagine the planning that goes into hosting over 10,000 riders in those small rural towns.
Days Leading Up to RAGBRAI
My friend Lynn and I have been training since March for this event. Her brother Grason was kind enough to let us use his motor home for the week. He and his wife Jeanne live in a small town near Des Moines, Iowa, so the first order of business was to drive to their house. Lynn’s husband Mike agreed to be our driver, so that was our team: Mike, Lynn, and me. Mike and Lynn picked me up at my house on the Thursday morning before RAGBRAI, and we pulled out of the driveway around 6:30 a.m. We arrived at Lynn’s brother’s house around 7 p.m. He and his wife Jeanne were such gracious hosts! They treated us to dinner out both nights that we stayed there. Thursday night we dined on delicious Mexican food, and Friday night we went to a great restaurant called Tojo’s in Jamaica, Iowa. Look at this pork tenderloin sandwich that Lynn and I shared.
Mine is the one on the yellow plate because I like my sandwiches with the works! But you can see on Lynn’s red plate how huge the tenderloin is. The bun is dwarfed by it. So good!
We went into the town center the next day and visited the local bike shop, picked up some necessities for the week ahead, and had lunch. While we were there we had Mike take our picture in front of this giant bike structure.
We spent that afternoon sitting around the table at Grason’s chatting about growing up, family life, farm life, and growing older. It was really nice getting to know more of my friend’s family. I was able to meet all 3 of Grason and Jeanne’s daughters, one of the boyfriends, and Grason’s gorgeous, sweet dog. This is the view from the deck on the back of their house:
Who wouldn’t love sipping coffee and contemplating life while looking at THAT view every morning?
On Saturday morning we were ready to head to Council Bluffs for the expo! So here is our team getting ready to hit the road to the town where it is to all begin:
And here we are ON the road.
See that space above the driver? That is to be my bedroom for the next week.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa: EXPO DAY!
We arrived in Council Bluffs around 11:15 a.m. The expo was slated to start at noon. Mike parked the camper at a good overnight spot in a parking lot right across from the Horseshoe Casino. We walked over to the MidAmerica Center where the Expo was, and I had to snap a picture of this structure that I had seen so many times on the RAGBRAI website:
It was unbearably hot and humid the afternoon of the expo. We were glad to have the first-timer’s meeting and the driver’s meeting to go to, since they were in an air-conditioned building. We did walk all of the expo, though, and bought a few items and had lunch. Also took advantage of this photo op:
If you’re a first-timer at RAGBRAI, you’re considered a virgin. It’s common practice to use a marker to write the word VIRGIN vertically down the back of your calves. And on the route, we saw many riders who did that. We opted out of that particular tradition. Eating pie along the route is also popular. The church ladies in all the small towns you pass through bake delicious pies leading up to RAGBRAI. The rhubarb and strawberry rhubarb go fast, so you have to get there early to grab one of those! Another tradition is to dip your back bike tire in the Missouri River before the ride begins. Then at the end of the ride a week later, you dip your front tire in the Mississippi. Hence the sign that says, “Ready to dip”.
Once we were done with the Driver’s Meeting (which was very informative, btw), we went back to the camper, changed into bike gear, and followed the signs to the tire dip. Lo and behold when we got there, the official RAGBRAI back tire dip was a wading pool. They said the river was too high and dangerous, so they were playing it safe this year. We said NO WAY, and paired up with another team that was finding their way down to the REAL Missouri River.
And here we are with our back tire dipped into the Missouri. On our way back to the camper, these are just a few of the many tents we saw that were scattered around the MidAmerica Center:
Seeing them made us thankful to have the use of Grason’s motor home.
We changed back into street clothes, went over to the casino to grab some dinner, then walked back to the camper and watched the fireworks display that signaled the end of the expo and the start of RAGBRAI! We organized our gear for the next day, set our alarms for 5:15 a.m. and hit the hay.
DAY 1 of RAGBRAI!
The plan was to get up at 5:15 and start riding around 6. Wouldn’t you know at 5:13 lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. So we stayed in bed until around 7, at which time the rain was coming down. It let up some while we were having coffee and an English muffin, but by the time we decided to leave (around 8:30) it was raining again.
This team bus was parked in a lot across from where we were parked. A lot of teams use old school buses like this. They put their bikes and gear up top and the cyclists can ride inside. Their support driver meets them in the designated meeting towns (usually around half way on the day’s ride) and the overnight towns.
Today’s ride went from Council Bluffs to Atlantic. It was 59.9 miles with about 2,825 feet of climb. I was a little wary of riding in the rain since we never had, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The main problem for me was that I foolishly didn’t pack any rain gear, and I was really cold most of the morning. The rain finally let up a little after noon. The hills had started just before that, so I was beginning to thaw out as I worked to get over them.
I mentioned earlier that pie is a popular item on RAGBRAI. These ladies were on the side of the road between towns promoting their berry best pies. I actually didn’t have any pie on this first day.
This photo is pretty representative of much of the scenery along the route. Iowa is a beautiful farming state. All of the different shades of green and the blue skies made for a pastoral ride. Lots of corn and lots of soy beans!
Avoca was the meeting town on the first day. It was about 40 miles into the day’s ride. We had lunch there and a fun time dancing in the street with fellow riders.
The next pass-through town after Avoca was Walnut, and it was a fun town, too. It’s amazing how the townspeople go all out for the cyclists. As we entered the town, we were greeted by Uncle Sam!
This fellow was in front of a cool kitschy shop welcoming all of us. There was also a booth down the street where you could buy a pair of the nuts he’s sporting to tie onto your bike. We passed on that. Ha!
This man rode by us on his oversized penny farthing (a high wheel bicycle). It was built by local blacksmiths in 2001.
I can’t remember what time it was when we finally got to the overnight town of Atlantic, but we were glad to have arrived!
The steepest hills of the day were NOT on the route itself, but were in this town. We had to climb them as we made our way to where Mike had parked the motor home. It was the first time all day that I had to walk my bike up a hill. Where Mike parked was about 4 blocks from the YMCA. We showered there for $5. There were 3 showers and a long slow line, but it felt good to get the road grime off our bodies. We ate dinner from the vendors downtown and caught the first few songs of the Hairball concert before heading back to the motor home to rest up for Day 2.
This day’s post was fairly long since it included the days leading up to the actual start of the ride. Subsequent posts for each day should be shorter.