RAGBRAI (July 30, 2010)

What happens in the corn field stays in the corn field ... and with my love of coffee, Gatorade and water, along with my enlarged prostate, I have left a lot in the corn fields.

Tomorrow is the last day of the week-long RAGBRAI ride across Iowa. It has been said that if a person has participated in RAGBRAI, no explanations are required ... and if a person has not participated, it cannot be properly explained. I agree; however, just to give a quick "taste" of what the ride is like, the video shows a little over one minute of riders ... it goes on like this for five to six hours. Pretty amazing ... upwards of 15,000 riders per day. As to "tasting", the clicking sound in the background is made by gas-powered ice cream making machines ... I can attest to the fact that the peach ice cream was delicious.

The week has been a joy; I have spent the week with an amazing group of friends ... the rides have been mostly enjoyable ... and as a bonus, my 50 pounds of clothing and camping gear have been carried in the bus (as opposed to hanging off of my bike racks).

Phase two (or maybe phase three) of this year's trip will be starting next week ... heading east from the Mississippi River. Total miles now just over 3050.

Oh, one other thing. If, like me, you have disparaging opinions of towns and cities in Iowa, you really need to come back here and take a look at this part of the country. It is true that there is a lot of corn and soybeans, but the towns and cities (and people) are very much different from my previous thoughts. I spent this afternoon walking around the older part of Dubuque; there are structures that are comparable to structures I have seen in Paris and London ... stunningly intricate detailing.

'Tis late ... time for sleep ... life is good.

Eye of the Beholder (July 21, 2010)

Rich and I have pretty much finished up our tour of North and South Dakota. Rich met-up with his family today in Yankton, SD, and will be spending a couple of days with them prior to starting the RAGBRAI ride on Sunday.

This segment of my ride, which started in Williston, ND on July 8, has been very hard on me. We ended up doing much longer days (mileage-wise) than I usually do, and this caused me to experience a great amount of leg-muscle fatigue and sagging spirits. The increase in mileage was due to my having set a schedule based on highway maps, as opposed to the Adventure Cycling route map that we used. Adventure Cycling routes take riders off of the primary and secondary roads onto meandering and hilly roads, and greatly increase the total miles and difficulty of the daily rides. Add in quite a bit of camping and I was not a very nice person to be around ... my apologies to Rich.

Eye of the beholder ... due to my mental state, I did not find most of North Dakota and South Dakota to be a visually attractive area. In contrast, Rich said he thought the entire ride was beautiful. Kind of tells me that how we feel greatly affects what we see ... I will have to make sure that my feelings in general are positive toward life.

The next two days will be low mileage days, getting me to Sioux City, IA in time to participate in the annual RAGBRAI ride across Iowa. I think my legs should be back in good shape by Sunday.

The adjacent picture is of a Catholic Church located in Marty, SD. The structure is stunning, both inside and out. It was built in 1942 at a Catholic boarding school for the children of tribes in the Midwest. The stone was quarried and shaped in Indiana, then shipped to South Dakota. Usually the first thing you see when approaching a town is the water tower. In this case, the spire of the structure rose to much greater heights than the water tower. Pretty amazing structure ... sitting out in the middle of a reservation.

Major rain storms hitting this area today and tomorrow ... we got drenched riding into Yankton today (but it is a warm rain). Hope to stay dry tomorrow.

I will have about 2700 miles in this summer's ride when I reach Sioux City, then another 400 miles or so after RAGBRAI. Hopefully my legs and spirits will be such that I will head farther (further??) east in early August.

Following the Missouri (July 12, 2010)

After about five weeks of riding eastward, I am now heading south.

Rich finally completed his "Tour de Denver Airport", and arrived in Williston on Wednesday, July 7. I spent the day lounging around the City Park, watching World Cup soccer, and generally riding around Williston ... a good rest day.

Currently, Rich and I are in Bismarck, ND ... lounging in the comfort of a Motel 6. The past four days of riding have been hard on me. On July 8, we rode the 74 miles eastward to Stanley, ND, followed by 65 miles to Minot (rhymes with "why not"), then 71 miles south to Pick City. Yesterday we continued on to a campsite 61 miles south of Pick City. Today's ride into Bismarck was a much needed rest-ride ... 29 miles. My legs and my spirits are weary.

Camping has been the rule of the nights of late. Most of the towns allow camping in the city parks, so we have been setting up the tents adjacent to swings and swimming pools. It is a less expensive way to travel, but amenities (coffee, wifi and white porcelain) are sadly lacking. In Minot, we were paid a 10:00 PM visit by a park police officer advising us that camping in the park is against city laws ... but he said that since we were already set-up, we could stay as long as we left reasonably early. I had chatted with this same guy around 7:00 PM; I think he may have received a complaint from a local citizen.

I said good-by to the various riders I had been traveling with over the past week or two. Sean and Dave, Wes and Martin, Tom and the group of seven ... they were all continuing east on the Northern Tier route. Sorry we parted ways as it was enjoyable having a small community of riders with which to share experiences.

As mentioned, we are heading south. We are following the Lewis and Clarke route, which follows the Missouri River ... our ultimate goal is Sioux City, IA. I made a short stop at a historic site ... Double Ditch Village. This site was occupied by the Mandan Indian tribe from 1480 until 1790. There were about 10,000 Mandan Indians in this area prior to the population being reduced to 1200 by small pox in the 1780's. Think about that ... this site was an active community for over 300 years. Phoenix was founded a little over 150 years ago. The history of the North American tribes still leaves me in awe.

Weather calls for storms and rising levels of heat. Guess the glory days of cold and wet travel are through. All of the rain that this part of the country has been receiving has provided a most wonderful green landscape ... really quite beautiful.

Tomorrow we head 56 miles, or so, to another campsite ... ah, more sleeping on the ground.

Life ain't so good sleeping on the ground.

Travel Nightmare (July 7, 2010)

No, I am not referring to my travels on the bike.

I am in Williston, ND today, waiting for the arrival of Rich Torkington. Rich had a flight out of Phoenix yesterday at 6:00 A.M., which was to make a connection in Denver. When he arrived in Denver, he found that he had been "bumped" from his flight on to Williston. As of about midnight last night, he was still in the Denver airport. A true travel nightmare.

Several of the others I have been riding with over the past week are taking a rest day here in Williston, so guess I will hangout with them and await Rich's arrival.

We "eastward-bound" riders have benefited from tailwinds over the past three days of riding. The 56 miles to Wolf Point, 60 miles to Culbertson and 49 miles to Williston were all made spectacularly easier by this wonderful atmospheric occurrence. We have shared city-park campgrounds with riders who are heading west (falls under the banner "Travel Nightmare") ... to say that they do not share our enthusiasm with the wind-patterns of the past several days would be an understatement. The adjacent photo is of a gentleman by the name of Don with whom we camped in Culbertson ... I told Don I would caption the photo "That poor son-of-a-bitch who is riding westward into the headwinds". I think we all try to extend some sympathy, but secretly are very thankful that the wind has been with us.

When riding toward Culbertson the other day, I reconnected with Tom. Tom and I rode together between the towns of Concrete, WA and Libby, MT. It is good to see Tom ... seems like we are long-time friends even though we only rode together for about two weeks or so. I am not sure what causes the "bond" with other riders ... maybe it is the mutually-shared discomfort of trying to get up and out of the tents in the morning, or trying to not hear the ever-present train horns throughout the nights. Whatever the reason, a real bond does develop.

So, the plan for the day is rather undecided this morning. The Germany vs. Spain World Cup soccer match is on TV early afternoon, so may try to catch that with some of the others. Maybe a haircut and browsing the only bookstore in town. The day of rest is probably needed, but I feel bad that Rich's adventure is getting off to such a bad start.

Road Warriors (July 3, 2010)

It's a nasty battle out here on the road. The enemy attacks unceasingly ... dawn and dusk are the favorite times to attack, but daytime random attacks also occur on a regular basis. The marks left on my body are clear evidence of these blood-sucking attacks. But I fight back ... swinging both arms and hands, and most effectively, spraying on the bug repellent. Damn mosquitoes are everywhere.

The last three days have been "scenically" somewhat unexciting, but that is not to say there is no beauty ... it is just much more subtle. The 48 miles from Havre to Harlem, 51 miles on to Malta and 72 miles to Glasgow have all been heavily affected by the winds. The ride to Malta was highlighted by a change in weather/wind direction with 20 miles remaining. Prior to the change, there was a slight side wind, but within a few seconds, the temperature dropped about ten degrees, and a very powerful tailwind developed. These last 20 miles took about 45 minutes ... flying and smiling.

Yesterday's 72 mile ride also had a strong tailwind. I averaged almost 15 mph for the entire ride ... again, flying and smiling.

The past several nights I have been camping in city parks, which allows one to meet other cycling tourists. It is odd, there is this small community of riders out here ... riders that ride at different paces and take rest days at different towns. Because of this, we all tend to meet one another along the road. Tonight, there are five different groups/individuals camping in an RV campground here in Glasgow. The conversations have been lively and very entertaining. My social experience on this year's ride is much improved over last year's ride.

I have met riders from New Zealand, Belgium, France, England, Czech Republic, Alaska, Washington, California, Utah, Minnesota, Michigan, New York and Massachusetts (not necessarily in that order). Great people all.

The two guys in the adjacent photo I first met back in Sandpoint, ID, then again this evening. They are heading to Madison, Wisconsin for the national "transplant" games. Sean (on the right), had a kidney transplant last year. Dave is a dialysis technician who worked with Sean prior to the operation. They are riding the Northern Tier to promote Cycling for Organ Donation ... learn more at www.cyclefororgandonation.com. I am fortunate to have met these two guys ... it has been a joy sharing time with them.

Lots of different stories and lots of different life views ... most entertaining and educational.

Two thoughts come to mind: 1) Life is good, and 2) hope the wind is at our back tomorrow.

Plain Plain (June 30, 2010)

Not a lot to say about the past two days of riding. Other than lots of green and brown rolling hills, trains (115 cars is my record count to-date), grain towers and small towns, there just isn't much to observe.

There are a number of dinosaur-related archeological sites scattered throughout the area, but I have chosen to not take the side roads to the sites. The metal artwork is outside of the town of Raymond, MT ... definitely a point of interest on today's ride.

Yesterday's ride, a 70 miler from Shelby to Hingham, was longer than I had planned. Originally I had planned to stop in Joplin, which would have resulted in a 54 mile ride. However, I met three touring cyclist in Chester, and they intended to camp in Hingham. I arrived in Joplin early afternoon, and still felt good, so I opted to travel on to Hingham and join the three in the City Park. Was a fun evening accentuated by a massive wind/rain storm in the early evening.

Today's ride into Havre was an easy 36 miler. Havre is a town of approximately 10,000 people, which makes it the largest town I have seen since Sandpoint, ID. I opted to hotel-it and take the afternoon to do some much needed shopping. It was quite enjoyable riding my bike around town without all of the panniers/weight. Found a very nice used book store, which was like an oasis of culture in this windblown lightly populated area of Montana.

Just a few more days until I meet-up with Rich in Williston. I am looking forward to riding with him along the Missouri River.

Hope the wind is with me.