RAGBRAI XLI 2013 -Des Moines to Knoxville, 49.9 miles and 2,920 feet of climb

Wednesday.  Des Moines to Adelphi to Runnells to Monroe to Knoxville.

The ride had a beautiful start, routing past the Capitol.  The building is enormous and beautiful.  It certainly seems to outsize our St. Paul version.


I like this picture.  I thought about photoshopping the cyclist onto the pillar where the two men on horses are hanging out, but it looks good as is.


I didn't take pictures, but after Capitol hill the ride meandered through the state fair grounds.  The food stands were open for breakfast and although they weren't running when we went through, the skycars/gondalas opened for rides later.  We didn't eat at t he fairgrounds.  To me, it conjured the idea of eating cheese curds and corn dogs for breakfast.

Instead, we ate in Runnells.  Adam found the equivalent of a McMuffin down the street, and I stopped at the church for a Christmas breakfast of biscuits and gravy.  The whole of Runnells was done up with a Christmas theme and Santa Claus - a living one, not an animatronic sort - sang me a carol as we rolled into town.


When you run out of Christmas ornaments, improvise.  In this case, a festively decorated banana tree.


Here's the historical society.  I couldn't quite figure out why the LDS no longer had their church.  It seemed like it probably had something to do with the Mormon Trail (alt link to a free online book at the National Park Service), but it wasn't obvious.  Google street view for the Mormon Church in Runnells shows the historical society, so it's not like it just moved down the street.


I liked the local color on their timeline which included phrases like "torned down".  Very rural Iowa and Minnesota.


Cyclists and the back side of the historical society.  An old townsguy told Adam we could get water if we just walked around to the door on the back.  We walked in and I tried the second door and it wouldn't open.  So I went up here near the tractor to the water fountain and Adam went to tell the old guy.  He led Adam to the back door at a glacial pace, telling him there was no way the door was locked, and then simply opened it with a some sort of magical old guy wrist action.


Crowds!


Rhubarb Strawberry ala mode.  A very good piece of pie even with the flatter crust instead of the flakey crust.


On Wednesday they routed us over the river.  We were required to stay on the right to avoid the separation gaps and told, "Do not stop!"  There were three cops there to ensure we kept moving.  Halfway across there were two cyclists pressed up against the side replacing a flat tire, so there were exceptions to the rule.


Live motion river action.


In Knoxville we ate at the church.  I'm not sure whether to title this picture, "Go home bench.  You're not a gate.  You're drunk."  or "Bench, stop hanging out in Gate's friend zone.  She's making you carry her saying while she hooks up with Jesus."  In the end, it's a mean trick by Jesus and/or the bench.  There's literally no way to be saved in this context.


Although I don't drink and bike, or even drink at the end of a bike day or before a bike day, drinking is a big part of RAGBRAI for some people.  You can get an idea of how much alcohol is expected to be consumed by counting the trash cans in the beer garden.  Unlike previous years, this year there were a few microbreweries selling beer on the side of the ride and even a few stands for Templeton Rye.


The advantage of having a bus.  Portatoilets and shade.


Team Mayhem.  It seemed to have a number of Minnesotans on the team.


This guy rode his Fat Tire facsimile all the way across Iowa.  Looked like a lot of work and it made a lot of creaky/squeaky noise.


Keep Calm and Chive On!  These were not the drunk guys.  Or at least not the same drunk guys we encountered yelling for Heather in Des Moines.


The Cutters bus.  That's a good name for a team, ala Breaking Away.


By the way, this was our entry into Knoxville.  Definitely different than our entrance anywhere else.


A day four crowd.


Back to Knoxville.  If you can't see it accurately, go to the very large version of this photo and check out that charging station for the team next to the Budget truck.  I'm surprised it doesn't just explode or melt.


Bikes, bikes, bikes in our sleeping field.


This guy, who Adam called Pinky, set up next to him with the exact same tent.  Adam asked him if he had custom poles and he said yes, he had indeed replaced them, because the poles that came with the tent were total crap and constantly broke.  You can see the dent from Adam's broken pole in the picture.  That's a good picture of our luggage semi behind Adam.  From where we were camped we could enjoy the nearby karaoke which included an awful rendition of Sweet Caroline, which we heard at least five times during the ride.  It must be the Ring of Fire of Iowa.


Later in the day I walked across the road and discovered that there was a historic town, cheap pancakes in the morning, free water, and a beautifully laid out camping area.  The grass is greener on the other side of the road.  We never wandered too far from the luggage trailer, but apparently sometimes it's worth a short excursion before setting up tents.


And more random cyclists.  Find yourself!

RAGBRAI XLI 2013 - Perry to Des Moines, 49.9 miles and 1,308 feet of climb

I don't think I mentioned that when we were in Perry it rained.  Hairball was playing that night and we were thinking of going, but first we went and found some fruit and turkey and vegetables at the grocery store.  On the way back Adam asked some of the locals sitting in front of a house near the campgrounds, "Have you heard, is it going to rain?"  To which one of the women replied, "Why, are you a witch?"  Apparently Adam looks like he might melt.  We closed up our tents and then went in the community center where we'd paid the extra $2 so in addition to a shower, we had access to the pool, which we didn't use, all we could eat A/C, and any facility we could break into including the senior area with some tables.  We were still eating when people began rushing in from outside absolutely drenched.  The rain continued for quite a while and included some hail.  Nothing tent damaging and not even noticeable if you were inside eating strawberries and cucumbers.  Hairball was cancelled, so we didn't miss anything.  We'd have probably just gone to sleep anyway.

I also forgot my Day 1 quote that Adam enjoyed: "My pocket is really hot. Is that my phone?  Oh, no, it's just me."

It was also in Perry that we stopped for fast food, only two days into the ride.  We hit the McDonald's for lunch.  To give you an idea of why, it was so hot that we heard the rider who had been in our area of McDonald's right before us had passed out and had to be hauled away in an ambulance.  A chocolate shake was definitely in order.

So where were we?  Day 3.  Perry to Washington Township.  Washington Township to Minburn.  Minburn to Dallas Center.  Dallas Center to Van Meter.  Van Meter to West Des Moines.  West Des Moines to Des Moines proper.  A true city at over 200,000 residents.

A version of this was what greeted us most mornings because of the dew.  A lot of people cover their bikes with a tarp or some piece of cloth and a seat cover.  For the most part we just wiped down in the morning, hoped there wouldn't be excessive rust, and got pedaling.  But this is the result of the rain.  Everything had to be put away or ridden wet.


Chris Cakes at Washington Township.  This was the only real Chris Cakes place we stopped, sponsored by the local Lions.  Real in that there was someone in charge of the pancakes who had obviously made a lot of Chris Cakes.  The pancakes on the ground are the result of folks who are scared of pancakes and can't quite figure out how to catch them on their plate.  Admittedly, he was blazing fast with the flipping, but I caught all four.


Adam didn't have breakfast.  He chose to embrace the out aspect of PIPO (pancake in, pancake out) while he had access to indoor facilities.


We were behind this guy at one point during the day.  The funny thing isn't just the muffin top and shirt, or the jeans shorts, or the sandals, or the lack of a helmet while 29,999 other people are wearing one.  The funny thing is he looks like Boss that I work with and bike with and geocache with.  Enough so that a good friend of his wife's who saw this photo today asked if it was him.  If you look up the hill, the guy that's off his bike is actually pushing a woman on a hand-driven recumbent up the hill while pushing his own bike as well.  It involved push, let her do 3 or 4 rotations while he pushed his own bike, go back to pushing her.  He didn't want to leave her behind at the top, presumably because she seemed developmentally disabled, so he coordinated all of it simultaneously.  Some definite dedication, and a caring human being.


Minburn.  Not so important for this sign and the cycles...


...but for this piece of raspberry pie ala mode.  The Methodist Church lady that made it (could have been a guy, but usually they're mid to older age women) layered an extremely thin layer of crust between each layer of raspberries.  It removed some of the tartness of the raspberries even without the ice cream.  A supremely well architected piece of pie.  And delicious.  I sat right there on the sidewalk and ate it, despite having seven pancakes not much earlier.


Dallas Center.  The meeting town.  This was near the color wars, a more localized version of the colored powder runs they have in these parts.  Later, there were a bunch of guys near our tent watching people walk past on the sidewalk (more about them later) and one of the color war guys walked past with green powder all over his head.  They asked him if he'd been in a fight with a leprechaun.  To which he good naturally replied that he'd thrown down with a pile of leprechauns and it had turned into a real orgy.  AND IT WAS GREAT!  That orgy was slightly to the right (viewer's right) in this picture.


In West Des Moines.  I stopped for a cup of coffee.  Excellent Americano, but the bathroom was out of order.  All I wanted was to make space for the coffee.  But I fully understand the desire to hang a sign on your precious bathroom to assure that half a dozen clenching RAGBRAI-ers don't overload its capacity.  This was an interesting store because the owner was taking old truck parts and turning them into sofas.  Great idea for trucks that might not be repairable.


In Des Moines, we decided to find a laundromat and wash clothes to avoid a last minute search later in the week.  No one really knew where to go, but the bus driver helped us narrow in on the safest laundromat he knew of based on our directions via smartphone.  This was the safest one.  In the Latino district with a couple of guys who didn't speak English.  They were pretty cool and loaned us two loads of laundry soap when it became obvious there wasn't any for sale and wouldn't even take payment.  It was a haul to get there, but there were plugs for recharging phones near the mural, so we managed to do multiple chores at once.


After washing clothes we headed downtown to find food at an Italian restaurant and then to the river to check out the booths and people and watch the bands.  Live, Sponge, and a couple of other sort of big name bands were playing.  We left before they were done because, for the most part, they were sort of boring.  The only exciting part was when the sprinklers on our hill went off and about a hundred people sprinted off the grass.


Here you can enjoy the not-so-exciting concert for yourself.


And some more of it.  The venue was cool.  It was a great place to sit in the shade and watch the river.  According to the Des Moines police, no riders were arrested this evening.


Back at camp.  A very patriotic tent.  I hope that rope was really long if he was doing the same thing in the high school football fields.


One of the many buses.  We were seeing new buses right up until the moment we pulled out of the luggage pick up on Day 7.  There are what seems to be an infinite number of teams.


Some teams, like The Donner Party, went with trailers instead.  I was worried about tenting right next to a team with that name.  There was another trailer on the ride that was half this size, but the side opened into a luxurious two bed bedroom with all sorts of amenities built into the walls.  Sort of a hard top tent.  It was beautiful.  Reminded me of those wooden boats the Kennedy's drove.


I think this was near the Dream Team.  A group of high school students Iowa picks to do the ride.


Big pole, little bike.


The shower line.  I can honestly say the only time we were ever in a line of this size was at the Community Center in Perry, and that was inside, there were chairs, there was A/C, and there was a big fan.  The Perry experience traumatized Adam.  He did not like the single temperature showers with about 100 naked guys in a space designed for 10.  And the Harlan shower had been hot water only, which was bad in a different way.  To be honest, we didn't even take a shower in Des Moines.  The 49.9 miles, 1308 foot climb, day didn't lend itself to much sweat.


More buses!


Our campsite for the evening.  That's Heather's tent to the right, through the wheel.  Heather was there with her dad, brother-in-law, and sister.  To the other side of us were the sidewalk-walker taunting guys who made fun of leprechaun man and anyone else walking past.  Mostly in a good natured way.  Heather was over talking to them for quite a while.  It is entirely appropriate to use the phrase, "Feeding the bears."


So later that night.  1:45 a.m. to be exact.  The guys came loudly crashing back into our area, yelling about the lake, how they got back from the lake (running), a variety of other things that had us worrying they were going to stumble over or tents or worse, puke on them, finally punctuated by "HEATHER! HEATHER!!!"  After a number of neighbors told them to shut up, it finally quieted down.

Which leads to the following story that happened two days later in Fairfield.  I may be paraphrasing, but it's very close.  I call the story, Heather's Midnight Stretching.

Me (with Adam, surprised after turning around at the water hose near the tents): Heather! We owe you a thank you!
Heather (with her sister, neither of who knows us): For the late night stretching? 
Heather’s Sister:
Adam: ….
Adam: ….
Me: Um…no. We were in the tent between you and the guys in Des Moines who came back drunk to yell about the lake and scream, “Heather!!!!!” at 1:45 in the morning. 
Heather’s sister: We’re so sorry about that. 
Me: It’s ok. It’s funny now. We were worried they’d fall on our tents at the time. 
Sister and Me: Have a good ride!

RAGBRAI XLI 2013 - Harlan to Perry, 83 miles and 4,239 feet of climb

Day 2 was Harlan to Kimballton to Elk Horn (home of the Karras loop if you wanted to do the century) to Hamlin to Guthrie Center to Springbrook Lake Park to Yale to Washington Township to Perry.  You get a lot of towns on a long day.

Time to tear down.  I like to show pictures of just how early we were getting up.  Later in the week we got more efficient at packing, so we were on the road even earlier.


When the sun did come up, it was beautiful.  Photographing cyclists heading into a sunrise in the fog and mist, it's difficult to take a bad shot.


I liked this one too.


Here you can follow me into the fog!


And a shorter version for folks who don't have the patience to watch over a minute of video.

Day 2 had a particularly good breakfast not too far outside Harlan.  Pancakes...but with blueberries!  And a decent cup of coffee.  Damn fancy.  Breakfast as it should be on the ride.



Adam carefully cutting up his cakes.  Look at how fresh he looks before doing 83 miles!


Kimballton was the first town of the day.  This is the city mural.  See that girl on the rock, she's an exact replica of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.  I thought my sister might want to know she doesn't have to go all the way to Denmark to get her Disney Princess fix.


The little mermaid sign as you enter town.  From afar, this sign looks a little mannish.  I had to stop to and take a good long stare to understand what I was looking at.


Here she is.  There's a button to play a little blurb related to the statue built into the wall nearby, but there were too many people to hear, or else it was broke.


They like their murals in Kimballton.  This one was open to signing, so you could geotag where you were from in the US (or in the oceans if you were from abroad).


If you wanted to sign Minnesota, a very deformed Minnesota lacking it's telltale peak, you had to climb a ladder and pose all Inconvenient Truth style.


In case you weren't looking carefully, there's Elliot and E.T. in his basket.  I don't know what it had to do with the Little Mermaid or the signable mural, but it was amusing.


We get around to some more of the important stuff.  Strawberry Rhubarb pie.


Guthrie Center - the midway point for the day.  It was hot by the time we got to Guthrie Center.  We spent a while soaking up the shade and drinking cold things to reset body temperatures.


For example, I had a smoothie.


This is Yale City Hall.  You probably can't read the signs, so I'll zoom in for you...


Ut oh!


In case you're from Yale City and you want to send Adam a ticket, here he is next to his bicycle and the sign.



Adam walking in town


Another video of lots of RAGBRAI-ists.  Hopefully someone will find themselves in a video.