Return to RAGBRAI - 2017

Welcome back faithful blog readers!  It's time for another year of RAGBRAI!  We know we have lots of returning readers, but a lot of new followers as well!  We hope you all love reading about our crazy week on a bike pedaling across Iowa!

This year we are probably as undertrained as we've ever been. I have gotten in quite a few long rides outside, but I haven't done any consecutive days of riding!  Hopefully my bum will be nice to me this week. Stacey had shoulder surgery 10 weeks ago!  Her doctor said she should be ready to ride a bike in 10 weeks, so here we are!  She's had a lot of rides on the trainer, but only a handful outside. I have no doubts we'll power through and still have a great week!  This is a picture of Stacey's first ride outside. 

Maybe it's because we've been super busy with work or maybe because we feel like we're veterans, but the lead up to RAGBRAI hasn't seemed nearly as stressful as in the past!  We've gotten way better at packing and now we only pack the necessary items. My bags are only 32 pounds each. The first year we struggled to get them under 40 pounds!!

We've got a lot of things we're looking forward to, but our mantra all winter and this spring was #pieandpickles. We can't wait to get some great church lady pies and Stacey is in search of pickles on a stick!! Of course we'll have pancakes, Thelma's cookies, and Mr. Porkchop. Unfortunately Mr. Porkchop passed away last fall so this is the first year that he won't be at RAGBRAI. Thankfully his sons have taken over the business so we'll still get our Iowa chop!  They actually have a whole day in honor of Mr. Porkchop, so I'm pretty sure that will be our day for grilled deliciousness!

This year will be a little different because Roger and Larry won't be camping with QCBC. We were sad when we learned they wouldn't be in camp with us, but they were still going to do the ride. It just means we will have to have more Iowa Craft Beer tent stops to try and find them. Unfortunately, Roger told us that Larry had to have surgery a couple weeks ago so we won't be joining. We are going to miss his daily food report, pajamas, and flowered pillow case!!  Get well soon Larry!!!

We have a few last minute prep things to do today and then we load our bikes on the truck tonight!  We got smart this year and got our pedals taken off before we left Indiana!!  No more struggling to do that ourselves! 

Not to be forgotten...RAGBRAI always means Farm Camp for Gabby. She is so excited for her week at the farm. She's currently checking cows on the pasture!  It's rainy so she may not get lots of other Farm Camp adventures today, but I know she'll have a ton of fun!