RAGBRAI - Day 7 - Washington to Muscatine - (49.7 miles, 1314 feet of climb) - End of Ride (+420)

Day 7, the last day.  Washington to Muscatine.  Our goal was to finish before noon.  The only downside to that was we beat the truck set up in again and Ming didn't get to experience what the end of the ride is like when there's a crush of thousands (or at least hundreds at a time) of people trying to dip their tire in the river.  That's something to be experienced, if only once.



One more picture of packing in the dark - I think we were on the road by 5:15 a.m.on the last day.  Adam looks like he's packed fissionable materials.  He had a new tent this time, so he didn't have to worry about trying to pack up a jumbled collection of busted poles.  Ming, however, had a fiberglass pole tent that didn't survive.  He was generally patching it together with duct tape and sticks until Tun loaned him a pole repair kit.  At which point Adam remembered he had a kit as well, he'd just been reserving it in case his own pole broke before loaning it to Ming (actually, he forgot he had it).


My sandals.  Pictured solely to remember they gave their life.  During the trek to the laundromat, one of them lost the grip on the bottom.  Only an issue on the slippery morning baggage truck ramp and when trying to walk evenly on two shoes of different heights.  I pulled the bottom off the other one.  And then it's strap broke.  However, I could velcro the straps together which kept them functional for an hour or two at a time before re-jiggering. Farewell, sweet princes.  May you rest in the Washington landfill peaceably.


Time lapse photo of a bunch of riders.  Adam makes an appearance and there's a fun rider who gives me the peace sign and a big smile.  Made me wish I'd had her on regular speed filming.  That was someone who was certainly happy to have done the ride.

The Columbus Junction swinging bridge.


Ming on the bridge.  He accused me of shaking it on purpose.


Another view of the bridge - total strangers.


Here's me crossing the bridge with some wobbling only to find Wisconsonites on the other side.


More bridge video, just because I had it.  Filming was sort of dubious - I was worried I'd tip over a side or drop my phone.  Those people in clipped shoes crossing the bridge - very daring.

When we pulled into Muscatine, this was taped to the ground  Must be a bicycling team - I just hadn't heard of them before.  Yep - looked 'em up.  25 members.  But no one I know.  I was familiar with Team Roadkill and Team Loon.


End of the ride - tire dip in the Mississippi River.


Ming took this nice action shot of me within a few dozen feet of the finish line.


The three of us dipping our tires.


The luggage as Jen came to pick us up.  I didn't take a picture of it, but my bag, which I've had since RAGBRAI 2007, took a beating getting dumped off the truck each evening.  This reminded me of it because it was one of the first bags on that morning, but we had a hard time finding it as it had rolled down the time scale.  I used Adam's duct tape liberally to patch up four big new holes, not including one that ripped through the handle area and bent the handle.  It lived a good life.


And that's all he wrote.  2016 RAGBRAI come and gone.  Ming's looking at another non-Iowa location next year.  I'm conflicted.  I like the every-town-has-something nature of RAGBRAI and the 8500 week riders + day riders aspect.  You're never far from trouble.  You're never far from a fix.  You're never far from food.  You're never far from another bicyclist, even if you lose track of your own team.  I figure in another few years another friend will ask me to go again and I'll reassess then.  In the meantime I'm going to take a look at one of the mountain rides and get a taste of something different.

Flooding

We drove to downtown St. Paul today to take the car for an open air ride, see the flooding at the Mississippi, have stomach-churning amounts of ice cream at the new Nelson's in St. Paul on Snelling (we shared two child sizes between the three of us and still couldn't finish), and do a bit of antiquing at the nearby stores on Snelling.

The Mississippi was wild, particularly as we were at the Showboat only 8 days ago.  At that time, you could walk out to the steamboat.  Today there was at least a block of water between the shore and the boat and the ticket office was deep in water.  You can see where the walkway down to the shoreline is in this photo - those flags mark the top of the stairs.


The Mississippi was actually down a little from where it must have crested.  Hopefully it will go down a bit more before all the water from later today kicks in. It looked like someone was dumping a bucket of water on the neighborhood.


There's the Showboat and the tickethouse.  Understandable why the U of MN is putting Jekyll and Hyde off for a while.


The playground.  We could see the St. Paul Yacht Club on the way to the park and it was way out into the water.  That's not unusual as it tends to go under with even a little bit of flooding, but it seemed excessive even for their location.  I usually ride down into St. Paul along the cliffs which come out at the Club.  There must be a mile or more of water along the trail which would stop passage even if the trail wasn't closed because the cliffs were loose.


This is the picture they're showing on the news. Now it's on my blog too.  They have receptions there.  I hear they moved a lot of weddings and receptions to lower town St. Paul to sooth the tears of upset brides to be.


It's the apocalypse.  Wildlife reclaiming what was previously a human area.  I'm surprised lions didn't start chasing us like something out of Will Smith in I Am Legend.  Swimming lions.


Not our footprints.  Going in the water is a no-no.  These are the footprints of two people who were yelled at by the mounted police.  Eryn was excited to see the police on horses.  She had no sympathy for the barefoot waders.  We left after talking to Kuz's cousin for a while, who was undoubtedly taking much better pictures with his 7200 than I was with my iPhone, to go find ice cream and an antique cat key hanger.  We pulled into the garage just as the rain came down.  Good timing to a good afternoon outing.