RAGBRAI Wrap Up

I realize now that 2 weeks has passed since I rode Ragbrai, you all have probably lost interest, if you had any in the first place. I was sorely disappointed that there weren't computers along the way to almost real-time report on what was happening. That took the wind out of my sales. And I couldn't exactly bring along a laptop. I barely could keep up with charging my cell phone.

I didn't get to tell you about Joe's Wet Shack, the semi-truck trailer converted into a very efficient shower system. Despite that, it always had a really long line. I can't go on about how I slept in a city park like a homeless person, albeit with a few hundred others, a large part of which were also sleeping.

I would be remiss if I did not report on the cherry pie situation. The first pie I had was bad. Not made well, and made my stomach upset for miles. But after the first one, I found a piece a day that were good. The churches generally had the best pie.

The overnight towns varied greatly in what was offered to you. You could just get an open field to put up your tent and hope the portapotties were fairly close by, or you could get a community college with multiple showers, outlets and computer labs, all in air conditioning. You never knew what you were going to pull into. I heard of another ride in South Dakota where your overnights were at colleges, and you got to stay in dorms. That would be fabulous. One town we set up in was right on the grounds of an elementary school, but they wouldn't open the school!

I was struck by the fact that although there around 20,000 riders, we kept seeing the same people over and over. We saw these two older guys, Jim and Roy, several different days, and camped close to them twice. Jim was amazing. He talked about how he does kayak triathalons, and he rode the optional century loop on the day we did 80 miles. His friend Roy almost dropped out at one point. They were very different. We saw several others multiple times. I felt like age was trying to catch up to me on this ride. But I'm seeing that as you age, sure you have more aches and you don't heal as quickly from muscle pulls and such, but if you make a few allowances here and there, you can still pretty much do whatever you want to do.

For me, after struggling for the first 4 days, by Thursday, I started to feel stronger. Friday's weather was epically horrible, with pelting rain, 25 mph winds mostly in your face, and temps down around 60. We were going about 8 mph for a stretch. The road conditions were bad that day as well. That made that day difficult, but after we set up camp that night, I felt fine.

Saturday was probably my best day. I actually felt the strongest that day of any. I found a few pace lines where I could draft along, and my average speed was high. That was fortunate because the hills in the last 10 miles were murderous. One hill went up very steep for quite some time. It looked like we were near the top, when we encountered a literal "cruel twist of fate." You looked to the right and realized that the hill turned right and kept going up! But it was made nicer by the fact that there was Beekman's homemade ice cream at the top.

I found the people to be quite nice on the whole. There were some people that were unbelievably obnoxious, but there always are those types. What I noticed a lot as well was incessant talkers. There was one guy we sat in a lounge with that talked nonstop. He regaled us with the story of how he lost like 400 pounds and started riding. Interesting story, but he wouldn't stop. I think he would have kept talking if we left the room. There are a lot of people that just want someone to talk to.

I would someday like to do this again. I know, however, that I need to save up a lot more money. I wouldn't take a cot, but I would like to have a nice camp chair with a back. I would also bring a separate charging stick that could fully charge my phone two times. I would bring a full-sized pillow and I would do a lot more road riding before the event, and a little less trail riding.

So there you go. I know you are disappointed to not have more detail, but times change. Laptop trailers go away, and elelctrical outlets become popular. Approaching the dip site in Guttenberg, I had tears and emotion. The week had some low points for me, and it was a relief to finish strong. The Mississippi was a welcome sight.