After almost a year of training & planning, last month we went to Iowa for the (Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI. It was the 39th year RAGBRAI was held, and the first time my Dad, sister Toni, and Bill participated.
The event lasts 7 full days, and we made it to the 4th day before the incredible heat & humidity made us choose to finish our participation. As Bill said, the ride was an absolute joy, but camping in (heat index calculated) 100+ degree heat & humidity just about did us all in. Not to mention the price gouging - $5 for each cup of plain old coffee, c'mon! It's not even that expensive in Monterey!
However, we did get a lot of great pictures & stories. Here are a few, and there are more to come...
Here is our first campsite, the night before the first ride:
Alas, about 2 hours after these pictures were taken, a serious weather front came through... tornado sirens rang out (Needless to say, I freaked - I know what to do in an earthquake, but tornados? Those suckers are scary!), and after the threatening weather moved on, our shade structure was halfway across the field and one of the poles was bent beyond repair. An ominous start to our adventure :-/
To beat the heat, Toni made each of us a "Barrel of Monkeys" coolie - neck bandanas with gel inside that became cool when soaked in water. Yeah, we pretty much wore our coolies every night at the campsite!
Bill purchased a do-rag / sweat band thing that really helped keep the sweat out of his eyes while on the trip, but was also a bit too tight, creating a stubborn, week-long headache. Ouchie!
A picture of our campsite right before the storm hit:
And at 5:45AM the next morning, our three bike riders hit the road! They had over 60 miles and 4,000 feet of elevation to climb before the day would be done. And all three were doing so on very little to no sleep... Yikes!
Later that day I laid in a ditch by the side of the road to get out of the sun. Ahhhh special memories
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