The Mighty Mississippi

We made it! As RAGBRAI tradition calls for we dipped our front tires in the Mississippi River as we rolled into our final destination -LeClaire, IA. We went to the FedEx truck, gladly turned our bikes over to their care and WALKED (not biked) into the sunset.

Our sunset happened to be a beautiful spot three feet away from the Mississippi River--and 20 feet from another train! LeClaire is the most tourist oriented town we've seen. We enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant (with plates, forks and chairs), washed our clothes and visited with local shopkeepers. Eloise, the grandmother of the sandwich shop owner, fed us some amazing hummingbird cake. She's going to mail us the recipe, when it arrives, we'll make some for everyone. That is the Iowa way after all --be open, caring and friendly. And feed everyone!

We enjoyed a nice evening and morning amongst familiar faces. Jim and Tom, two Floridians we camped next to the very first day, happened to be next to us again last night. We couldn't believe that with 10,000 people on this trip we still kept running into each other. We woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise over the Mississippi and the largest barge we've ever seen--12 containers in all. It was a nice and relaxing way to cap off our trip.

We'd like to thank everyone that sent us well wishes and supported this adventure. Your thoughts and prayers were greatly appreciated!

We want to put a team together for next year ....let us know if you are interested!

THANK YOU! [check out the Des Moines Register's Photos of RAGBRAI]

CELEBRATE!

Editor's Note: Pop the champagne corks, folks: Emily and Paul finished the ride! They are now waiting in line to dip their back bike wheels in the Mississippi.
Em says:
We arrived 1 p.m. sharp. We're done.
(I asked her by text message if she could believe it. She wrote back):
No, can't believe it has been a week. It is all a blur. I'm in shock and happy to be off my bike and walking!
More to come later.

The Bounce Back.....

We're happy to report that after yesterday's "ride of shame" we finished today's ride on a good note. We had a great ride thanks to about 68 degree weather and all day cloud cover. This morning was beautiful. We went over the Cedar River and saw the collapsed train bridge ( from the recent floods).

We've finished the 64 mile ride with energy to spare. We are heading to the campground's water park now! I have some interesting stories to share, but need to find juice for the blackberry first!

By the way, this is a picture of us with Satchel Page (yes he produced i.d. to prove it). He is known as the "root beer man" as he has it on tap. We were happy to see him today as he is always located in the last few miles of the each day's ride!

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Lance Sighting

Remember that five person bike we told you about? Check out this entry and illustration by Brian Duffy from the Register. It is a hoot --real story...

Most riders never knew that Lance Armstrong was on the ride yesterday. Starting later in the day he cruised under the radar wearing a plain white jersey. His cover was blown outside of Ames when the Mable family aboard their five person megabike saw him come by. Not believing who they actually saw go by, Dave Mable asked a rider who had dropped back from the Armstrong group if it was, in fact, Lance himself. The rider nodded. The Mable train cranked it up to catch onto the back of Lance’s wheel. At this point, most people would say “Hi Lance.” Not Dave. He yelled, “Hey wuss — on the Trek. Real men give the Mable train a push.” Lance turned and gave Dave the Jan Ullrich look then dropped back to visit with Dave, his wife, Dee, sons Ryan and Noah, and daughter, Anna. Then the Mable train ran out of steam and fell off the pace.

Another one of our favorites --this is totally how we felt, particularly on day two!

White Flag

There's a team here named "Team Draught." Their motto is "if you ain't having fun, lower your standards." We lowered our standards today-- of ourselves.
We want to pedal every inch of this state, but we need a break and the forecast calls for more wind and rain. So we are catching the "Sag Wagon."
I don't think either of us thought we'd complete today. You could see that in our eyes. That was confirmed this morning as we rode through freezing rain and frigid wind (I'm guessing 20 MPH). We've never been so cold. It was bad.
We haven't been going into town at night to enjoy the parties. So we are hoping to feel rested enough today to party tonight.
We are depressed about giving up short of today's goal. After all, we did a much tougher 83 miles a few days ago. I for one immediately had regrets when getting on the van. But, Paul's knees are done and the cold did me in.
I wondered if we were making a mistake when, as fate would have it, we missed two other opportunities to sag. We tried to wave the first guy down. He waved back and kept driving. We hopped back on our bikes and chased him down only to see him loading the last two bikes the trailer would hold. I kept thinking that this is a sign we should keep pedaling. So we did. But then abandoned the day soon after. This is our yearly vacation, not a death march!
The break will allow us to finish the last two days on a strong note.

Tacos, great; 78 mile ride, not so

We passed the half-way mark Wednesday!
Iowans are a kind, warm caring people -- but they are liars. I can't tell you how many times we heard "this is the last hill, I promise," only to face another and another. It wasn't until the 55th hill that we realized they just told us that to keep us from quitting. And we came close to doing that several times today.
The 78 mile ride was really tough on us, physically and mentally. In fact, I lost it about the last mile. I'm surprised it took me that long to melt down; figured it would happen Tuesday. Paul was a great help getting me through it. He is suffering from seat and leg soreness. I've got seat issues too and now have numbness/weakness in my right hand from putting too much weight on my handlebars. We decided not to go to the Styxx concert Tuesday night and instead saw the chiropractor. Not sure it helped, but that might be what got us through Wednesday. We could hear the concert from our tent though and the fireworks were great!
Anyway, parts of Wednesday's ride were great (not the stinking headwinds, though). My two favorite parts of the ride were:
1) We were so slow that we rode in with the drunks. They party in each town we pass through and then haul at the end to make it to camp in time. It was entertaining, to say the least.
2) There was a huge downhill toward the end of the course. Nothing like racing 30+ MPH down a hill with a team of people as rock music is blasting. Reminded me of the Tour de France. OK, they don't do this with a boombox, but a girl can fantasize, right?
We continue to be amazed by the people on this ride. The unicyclist, a 20 year old guy from Kentucky, passed us today. I saw a one-armed man and tons of kids. That motivated us to keep going.
We've recently really enjoyed dinner with a farmer and soil scientist, both from Nebraska. Did you know you can buy a great house there for $40'K? We also chatted with two thirty somethings from Des Moines. One of which has his 11 year old son riding with him. All of these people have something in common: They can't believe we came all the way from Florida to do this ride. Truth be told, after Wednesday, neither can we.
The conversations with people are really interesting. They ride up next to you and start a conversation about anything! Part of the time you're pleased to have a riding buddy and the other half bothered because you can't talk AND bike up the hill. Eventually one of you says "have a nice ride," which is code word for "I'm outta here!" Our Gator paraphernalia has been a big source of discussion!
As we finished our ride, we passed through an Indian reservation-- the Mesawaki (spelling?) Tribe. I think they have a team riding. Anyhow, you could see their land was affected by the floods. We thought it looked like a FL swamp: trees in water. Tonight we ate at their booth: Indian tacos. So good. We watched them hand-make this bread that they fry and layer with taco toppings.
If we sound excited about the food, we are. Last night really marked the first time we enjoyed eating. We underestimated how hard it is to eat when you're not hungry. Though we do this at home, here you have to eat even when you're hot and sick to your stomach, because you need fuel. You wouldn't even believe the type/amount of food we've been eating each day!
Tomorrow (Thursday) is 73 miles of hills. Paul points out that we stink at figuring out (from the map) where the hills are. So we'll just take them as they come. For Paul, he passes the time getting up the hill by looking at the scenery. For me, I count turns of my pedals. For some reason that annoying Subway jingle, "five dollar...five dollar...five dollar footlongs" got me up the hills!

"Recovery" Day

First, we'd like to thank all of you who have been sending us well wishes. They helped push us over the hills. Today was "recovery" day. I put that in quotations because 56+ miles didn't help our bodies rest. We are having a great time, but there are parts of our bodies that aren't recovering well. Mainly those parts of our bodies that touch the bike. Butt But'r (name of a chamois cream product) is great, but it doesn't go too far!

Really though, today was easier. To the left is a picture of a small "roller." That is what people in Iowa call hills. Paul and I call them something different, but it is not suitable for posting. I wish we could have taken pictures of yesterday's rollers --they were much more impressive than this picture--but we were too busy trying to stay upright on the bike! We both beat our land speed records yesterday. 37+ MPH going downhill and I went up a hill 3.8 MPH. Paul actually did 5MPH.





Luckily, we had a ride with only small hills except for one giant monster that lasted for 1 mile. It curved around and was a blast. Both of us considered unclipping and walking up the last part, but the screaming fans (with free water and beer in hand) kept us going --we made it! I would personally like to thank the woman that squirted me with a water gun on the way up the hill. That really helped. And, to all the Iowans that had their hoses/sprinklers/water guns and water balloons ready for us as we drove by ---Thank You! Word on the street is that Lance Armstrong road with us today. We didn't see him (probably went by too fast) but I know neither one of us wanted to be seen walking our bikes up a hill as he passed us by!


Our work up these hills pales in comparison to what we've seen: A five person bike (three adults and two kids), handicapped bikes, a rollerblader and a unicycle!




Tonight, we are staying in Ames on the campus of Iowa State. It is a treat. Styxx is holding a benefit concert for flood victims tonight. We're going to try and go. As promised, we want to tell you stories of the characters we meet, so we are going to go round some up. Have a great night!

Hallelujah, and pass the oxygen

We did it!
83 miles plus. First 60 miles were either straight up or down-- literally, no flat spots! Last 20-plus miles were rolling hills. It was the hardest thing we've ever done!
Too tired to say more.

This is not a drill!

Late-night dispatch:
At 2:15 am the campground was awakened by loudspeaker — "severe thunderstorm, hail, etc. Evacuate to emergency shelter immediately."
On cue, the wind went crazy. Paul and I grabbed our shoes, threw our bikes in the tent and battened down the hatches.
It's now 2:30 am and we are stuffed inside a morton building with thousands of other people waiting to see what happens now. Hopefully it goes around us. We need sleep.
.....Looks like a false alarm.
All ok.

Characters

It is hard for me to explain the type of characters we're meeting along the way. So, I've included a few photos in this blog posting (more to the right --click on the Iowa sign).

The "red bull" rode into town with his entourage of other riders all wearing white with a red bandannas (running of the bulls) yelling "ole, ole, ole, ole." It was funny.

The bus is just one example of some we've seen. Most have a drinking-related name. Not my favorite though --"Mega-Sore-Ass."

And this last group...I just don't know what to say.

Iowa Is Not Flat (Part 2)

Paul and I limped into town. 60 miles down (only 9,902 more people to meet). We really struggled at the end. The sun here is hotter than Florida. The hills, though as plentiful as the beginning, got a little easier. I was so uncomfortable that when I got back I decided to forgo the long lines at the showers (ok long walk) and instead showered in my bathing suit under a hose with half the campground. Paul decided to go the traditional route. We are finding a pattern here --they don't like trees. There is literally no shade anywhere. So, we've begun a game of find a church, vendor tent, anything that gets us out of the sun (ie. the telecommunications trailer I'm typing this from).

We took the advice of Juan, a young guy we met from Chicago last night -he's riding the ride in honor of his friend who is fighting cancer (he rode with him last year). He told us to go at our own pace, stop often and eat every chance we could. And we did.

I have to say, that people here are so encouraging --riders much more fit and skilled than us rode by and shouted kind words "keep going," "almost there," "you can do it" (which by the way was also on all the Miller Light signs along the way --"huge hill coming --you can do it!".

We've enjoyed meeting people from all over: California, Philly, Hawaii, you name it! Putting up our Gator flag on the fence behind our tent last night was a really good move. People from all over Florida came by to say hi.

Paul and I are very worried about tomorrow--80+ and we are told the same climb per mile as today. Please keep us in your thoughts. By the way, we had a couple signs from all of you today by way of the music that would ride by us (people bring their boomboxes). Mom --I heard Meatloaf twice. Binky --heard Johnny Cash all over. Lolo--Akon"Smack That" got me up one of the hills!

Lessons Learned in Iowa

We've learned a few things in Iowa:

-Dirty old men are dirty old men. I made the mistake of asking this guy why he had a bone on the top of his helmet. Turns out, he is from "Team Boned." Next thing I know I got a bear hug and sticker from these two.

-It's a small world. I met Sue and Mark from Venice. He is a chef at Sharkey's on the Pier. Their riding for Team Livestrong. Word on the street is that Lance will be here for a day.

Then today, I saw Alice who is riding for "People for Trees." My aunt Laura told me about her before we left for the trip, so I emailed her. I said hi to briefly on a climb today. But, I couldn't stop. It was all I could do to make it to the top.

-Iowa ISN'T flat! and it is really hot!

Iowa Is Not Flat

For all of you that told us Iowa is flat, you lied. Unreal. We saw more hills in the first five miles than we've seen in our four year cycling career. Paul rocked up the hills. And was such a gentlemen --he waited at the top for me on each. At least it was cool and overcast. Now,17 miles from our ending town today, we are back in the sun. Must keep moving. We will write more later.

Bikes and hogs

Welcome to Iowa... land of trains, cropdusters, trains, corn, trains and ... a hobo poet named "Iowa Poet Blackie."
No folks, we aren't making this up. "Blackie" pulled over on his Harley to ask us for directions to the RAGBRAI activities. He then proceeded to tell us his life history (and sell us his self-published book.) We're pretty sure that his hobo lifestyle is out of choice rather than necessity, seeing that he rides a Hog. I really can't wait to load the photo of Paul and Blackie. Until then, you'll need to rely on this description from Paul: Santa Claus fallen on hard times, wearing overalls, leather jacket as he recites his train-hopping poetry.

But let me back up. Paul and I arrived at the campground, a local high school in Missouri Valley, by way of Lincoln Town Car. Can't say that went over well with the Teva-sandal-wearing, Subaru-driving crowd. Thank goodness we were one of the first arrivals.
We were promptly greeted by tenting neighbors -- a young guy from Fort Myers and Jim, a sports memorabilia dealer from Tampa. He is a card. His (guessing here) 70-year-old body is not only going to carry him the 470 miles across the state, but the guy is going to ride all the way back to the starting point.

In between watching a yellow cropduster zoom surprisingly close time and time again to cover a cornfield, never-ending trains and the hills that lie ahead, we've been wandering the town.
We met Jeff from St. Louis. He and his brother Steve are riding RAGBRAI to "bond" -- though Jeff was quick to point out, "I guess we probably could have gone fishing instead."
Because it is as hot in Iowa as midday Florida, we are seeking refuge at Gurney's, a local restaurant recommended by a rather stout fireman. We've learned to always trust that a fat man knows where the good food is served!

So we write this from a table full of traditional Midwestern food. Our waitress, Pat, just informed us that the movie theatre shows one film a day, at 7 p.m. We're thinking that a movie might be a good heat avoidance strategy. So, bye for now. Thanks for all the well wishes we've received from home!

Exciting News- A New RAGBRAI Friend

I had a fortuitous run-in with a community leader and his wife last night. Turns out Jacquie will be riding her third RAGBRAI this year! Relief-we'll actually know someone going into this adventure. She'll be riding with "Team White Bus" and has promised moral support if needed. Thank you Jacquie --we look forward to seeing you in Iowa!