2015 RAGBRAI tour *Part 2*

We found this guy by chance

  We rode the next day with the RAGBRAI crew to Eldora.  There were no super antics that happened, just good clean fun.  It was hot and the heat again grabbed ahold of me and took me for a spin.  I did stop and help a young woman who had a flat but nothing with her to fix it.  I try to not play bike mechanic on the ride but sometimes it just makes sense.  It was easy to find shower and food in Eldora and then it was hanging around the square, lounging and having a couple drinks.  When it was time for sleep, we rode around for a few minutes trying to find a good spot where we wouldn't have to put up our tents.  This is when we rode by a small group of people that asked, "Do you want to see Saturn?"  I thought it sounded fishy but after double checking, off we hopped and sure enough an amateur astronomer was zoomed in on Saturn.  It was super wild to look at it.

  We did find an ok spot to sleep but it turned out to be a bit close to the driving action so there was a bit of traffic until quite late and started up pretty early the next morning.  We grabbed a little breakfast and ended up sitting alongside the route as there was quite a traffic jam of everyone trying to leave town.  We made coffee and nibbled until things cleared out and then we were on our way.

  I found riding out of town after 9 the riders we met were more my style.  A few more baggers and general attitudes of calm and fun.  We stopped at a stop for coffee and cruised into the first rest town after only 9 miles or so.  We stopped just for a quick bathroom break and then cruised out for the next grueling section of 7 miles to our last stop with RAGBRAI.

The most difficult mechanical all week

In Ackley, we wandered through the streets and happened by Aaron, whom we were somewhat looking for that morning.  We grabbed a slice of pizza and hung out watching antics and people for a good amount of time.  We then found a shady spot near the library where Cayley could change her cleats over to her sandals and departed town.  It was only a mile or so until we turned off the route and apart from the normal, "You're going the wrong way!" shouts, one person bellowed out, "Come back!" which was the second of memorable quotes from the week.

  We turned onto Franklin Ave which turned into gravel after a short time and went straight north for as far as we could see and then some.  Cayley did have a flat tyre, having a 10cm nail go through the rear but fortunately not through the rim.  There was shade nearby, so changing it out was not much of a bother.  Back on the bikes, we continued to ride north on gravel until just outside Nora Springs, IA.  I had a small mechanical with a loose rear fender bolt but thanks to a well documented packing list, I had the correct wrench to make the repair super slick.  At Nora Springs we took a shade rest and topped off liquids before making the short trek over to Rock Falls.

I love this place!

  There is a fabulous campground at Rock Falls with the best showering facility I have encountered at a campground.  There is also a great little bar and grill just a short walk away from camp.  We cleaned up and walked up to the bar.  The place was packed!  Turns out it was two dollar burger night and most of the town had shown up.  We were able to find a couple stools at the bar, sitting down next to the former owner of that bar.  He was a friendly gent and I talked with him most of the evening.  Weirdly enough, a couple other RAGBRAI'rs stopped in for ice so they could make cocktails out on the road.  They were also done with their RAGBRAI and were heading to Osage for the evening.  They had ridden over from Denver and it just amazed me that we would bump into them there of all places.  Total bill for 3 burgers, 2 orders of fries, and 6 beers totaled $23.

  I miscalculated our mileage for the next day so we started a bit lazy which I would change if doing it again.  We didn't have Butch follow us out of town like I had happen to me the last time I left Rock Falls, and we found what I thought was a great route over to Northwood, IA for breakfast.  Stocking up on drinks again, we again found wonderful gravel routes over to Geneva, MN for lunch.  There is a nice little bar and grill there which we used for lunch last year and again I don't think they disappointed.  Turns out we were a bit of talk and while we rested in a park after lunch, several locals came over to talk to us.  I haven't had that happen too often and it is a bit flattering.

  The maybe worst part of the entire tour was the stretch after lunch riding into Owatanna.  I am not a big fan of this bit of road and we took a direct route as it was getting later in the day and we wanted to conserve a bit of time.  I was not feeling very spirited at this point and when we stopped at HiVee for supplies, I did not have a lot of fight left in me.  Not being a huge distance from Nerstrand State Park, we headed out and shortly found even more good gravel.  The back way into the park is gravel and just a little bit hilly.  I used my small ring for only the second time during the week.

  Also very nice shower facilities at this campground offered pleasant cleanup after having a bit of dinner.  We were expecting rain overnight so we prepared everything and hunkered down for the night.  And rain it did.  There was quite a storm and the ranger the next morning told us we received over an inch.  I did end up with a bit of water in my tent but being the last day, it was not a big issue.  We made the little ride over to Northfield for breakfast where we bought food from a TRAM'er.  She was donating her tip money to the MS Society so it was one of the few times when my tip was more than my actual bill.

  The tailwinds were phenomenal almost all the way into St Paul and we covered the 50 miles in something like 4 hours.  That was with a couple stops as we were not in a huge hurry and it was quite hot and humid.   It felt a bit like cheating riding the wind like that all the way home, but it was a nice easy end the the week.  All those sunny days and miles behind me and not a bit of sunburn, one tiny mechanical and tons of smiling makes me think it was a successful vacation.

2015 RAGBRAI tour *Part 1*

Wow, it has been a while.  It turns out I did a fairly thorough recap of the week so I think I will break this up into two parts to make it a bit more readable.  I just finished my 3rd consecutive RAGBRAI tour.  We rode right around 550 miles over 7 days which I feel pretty good about.  I have a 600 mile tour set for the end of August so this feels like a very good warm up for that.

4 heading out for breakfast

  We headed out with three last Saturday morning after picking up my newly altered Chaco sandals.  I did not plan well and did not have enough water with me.  That sent me into a pretty solid dehydrated state by the time we rolled into Northfield.  We ate some lunch and I was still not feeling very healthy and fortunately everyone was up for a small nap.  Well that felt good.

  Unfortunately, it did not help my pedaling mood and it was a bit of a slog into Faribault.  We picked up some dinner supplies and headed down the trail to Sakatah State Park.  We VERY quickly decided to skip the bike camp site and head to the regular campground.  We also made dinner as fast as possible to try to escape the swarms of mosquitoes.  WOW they were insane!  A quick shower and crawled into the tents to escape the swarms.

  In the morning, we packed up super fast and rode into Waterville for some breakfast.  It was here that Ken departed us and we continued down the trail.  I tried to start drinking regularly and it did eventually pay off but this day was not to feel much better than the previous.

  We made it into Minnesota Lake for some lunch and fortunately found a bar open (Sunday at noon).  I ordered a burger and fries and a PBR, it is a RAGBRAI tour after all.  Here, my riding partner was barraged with smartphone questions and when trying to explain what we were doing, the bartender replied with, "You don't want to ride gravel!".  Oh, but we did.  We caught a couple z's in a small park by the lake and after resupplying, set off to find some southern Minnesota gravel.

We did not choose this route

  The winds had picked up a bit by now and not in our favor.  But the gravel was quite spectacular and it really wasn't too long until we wandered our way into Blue Earth.  I was seriously overheating now and had to take a small break to escape the sun.  It was here I had the thought (or guidance) to search for "park" instead of "camp" and behold, a nice little park popped up just 8 miles south of Blue Earth.  We again, grabbed dinner supplies and set out for camp night number 2.

  I must have had the right combination of liquid because I felt a bit better on the ride to camp.  It was easy to find and it was 8 miles of gravel to get there (bonus).  The mosquitoes were much better but the showers not quite so nice.  We had a light dinner and hit the tents pretty early.

  The next morning we had some light rain but it wasn't enough to need rain jackets.  We rode about 5 miles into a small town to grab some breakfast in Elmore, MN.  While eating, it rained pretty solid but stopped by the time we were ready to roll out.  We had a small panic about finding water, but fortunately there was a hydrant right along the road.  Off to the small roads of northern Iowa.

  I started feeling better this day and with a long day ahead of us, we wasted no time in tackling a long stretch of freshly graded Iowa gravel.  We did make one small navigation error when leaving the town of Lakota but it only added a couple miles, and it was very nice gravel.  The tailwinds began kicking in and we cruised into Algona after a busy road section, ready for lunch.  We picked some groceries and lunched in the grass outside the grocer.  And of course, all too soon, it was time to climb back on the bikes.

  We wound our way through Algona, picked up some final snacks and headed out west into the wind.  We battled the somewhat headwind for a couple miles before turning south on what was a fairly busy road.  We watched several large trucks and farm equipment head down our direction but as there was no other option without going a ways farther, we embarked down the busy road.  Fortunately the heavy equipment didn't last long and the tailwind really started to push us along.  We rode that wave all the way into the RAGBRAI route stop at Clare.

RAGBRAI found!

  Unfortunately, we had been riding for quite some time and didn't really feel like starting the drinking, so we moseyed with the riders over to Ft. Dodge.  I felt the little bit of experience I have kick in and we rode straight to the high school where showers were.  After cleaning up, we found a nice camping site and set up tents.  Then we were off to procure dinner and some drinks.  Eventually, after walking WAY too far, we headed back toward our camp and hung out with some friends.  All-in-all a good day.

  Up next : RAGBRAI finishes up and the road home.