RAGBRAI 2012 (July 29, 2012)

RAGBRAI 2012 comes to an end.  Seven days of riding.  Seven days of sometimes great, sometimes not so great.  Seven days of overpriced (for the most part) not so great food. Seven days of joy.

Once again, Carey and Mike Jensen, and Beth and Ben Johnsen, were very generous in including me in their traveling circus ... 20 to 25 friends riding and busing across Iowa during the 470 mile, 7 day RAGBRAI adventure.  To say that the event is crazy is an understatement, but the activities in and around the bus are much more sedate ... kinda.  Carey, Mike, Beth and Ben have been doing RAGBRAI for many, many years (Carey 16 years, I think), and offer we newcomers a level of friendship, advice, laughs, conversation, snacks, drinks, etc., etc., etc. that makes for a great experience.

This is the third RAGBRAI I have experienced with this group, and I think it was the hardest.  The mileage of three of the middle days were in excess of 90 miles ... each day with the temperatures in the 104 range ... humidity in the 200% range, and headwinds.  Arizona heat doesn't even come close to what Iowa heat feels like when it is this hot and humid.  Very, very energy draining.  Fortunately, the last two days the temps dropped, and the enjoyment increased.

Kim had made the decision back in South Dakota to experience RAGBRAI ... and experience it she did.  She too traveled with Carey's troupe ... a real test to be inserted into a large group of high-energy people after having biked over 2500 miles in relatively low-energy surroundings.  Add that to riding with 15,000 other riders and, as she said, "It feels very claustrophobic!"  Her opinion of RAGBRAI went from "never again" to "maybe it's not so bad" to "I'm kinda glad I have experienced RAGBRAI ... but probably not again (except for the root beer floats!)".  A big part of the improvement in attitude towards RAGBRAI (I think) was that Kim and several of the bus-ites became friends.  I had no idea how many fans of the TV program "The Amazing Race" there are ... guess I have missed something not having seen the show.  Not only are these people fans, but many of them want to be on the show.  Amazing ...

A big part of RAGBRAI is the daily search for food and liquids.  The basic approach is you get in line and hand $5.00 to $7.00 to the money taker, then eat the massively-produced average food handed back to you.  Water is usually $1.00 for a 12 ounce bottle, and Gatorade $2.00.  You get the opportunity to purchase some pretty bizarre food items ... the oddest I saw was "bacon-on-a-stick" ... one slice of bacon on a skewer.  Fortunately there were some very tasty smoothies offered, and the root beer float delight became a daily treat for Kim and I.

A very strong positive of the trip was the overnights that had been arranged.  Five or six of the overnights were at homes of friends of the bus core group.  Part of the RAGBRAI tradition is that residents of the overnight towns play hosts to large groups (such as our group).  At three of the homes a magnificent spread of food was included.  Also often included was the offer of sleeping in the air conditioned houses.  Sweetness, indeed.  The generosity of the hosts was over the top ... the question a number of we non-Iowans asked of ourselves was if we would agree to allow a busload of strangers into our house for a night.  Something to think about ...

Upon watching the above video, I realized that it captured two Tucsonians ... Carol and Peter.  I happened to talk with them on the last day's ride into Clinton.  For those of you who regularly ride in organized Tucson rides, Carol and Peter are the couple with the "chaise lounge" bike.  They are the couple on a tandem at the very start of the video in long-sleeved white shirts ... odd coincidence that they are on the video.  In addition to Carol and Peter, I bumped into a number of Phoenix and Tucson area friends, and spoke with a number of other riders wearing Arizona or GABA jerseys.  Great fun.

So RAGBRAI 2012 is over ... now we are heading into Illinois and Wisconsin, then taking a ferry across Lake Michigan to the Grand Haven area.  At this stage we have logged just under 3,000 miles over the past two months ... approximately 1,000 miles lay between Clinton, IA and Washington D.C. 

And now it is off to the Atlantic Ocean!