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.
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Love the video - the Amazon River of cyclists. Great seeing you on several of the Ragbrai days. I will be following the rest of your riding with great interest and wish you the best.
ReplyDeleteWe hooked up with RAGBRAI also. It was a hoot. Once. Did you see the soda fountain in Dubuque? I'm sure that's where it was. We since took up searching out real soda fountains all over the country on our motorhome trips. Once we parked in a small Kansas town and did a several hundred mile loop of the state finding many soda fountains. We even saw the Greensburg soda fountain before the tornado took it away. The 50 year soda jerk (70 years old) survived and I hear they are going to rebuild it. We like to do theme trips sometimes.
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