Flying V Formation

The last day is always bittersweet...you know you will miss the people and being carefree on your bike but a part of you is ready to be home. We had discussed the night before that we wanted to stick together as much as possible for the last day and to be rolling out of camp no later than 6:30 since we knew not only did we have the 70 miles of the planned route but estimated that we would get about 10 bonus miles that day due to where our campsite was and where our cars were parked! 

We made some food time and had a good pace line going as we made our way out of Iowa City. One lady was being a real jerk and she was mad at us but we just laughed as we climbed past her on every hill. Our first stopping town was about 20 miles out. When we rolled into town we were in need of food and with so many short stops between our next long stretch we also knew it was our best bet to get breakfast here. As we wandered the streets deciding what to eat...we made friends and took a picture with a giant turkey, then we spotted a sign for pancakes at the church 2 blocks off of the main drag....so we thought this would be a good place to go and as we set out to see if we could find the boys they were eating breakfast sandwiches but were game for pancakes as well. Free will donation, no line, and pancakes made with love...it was just what we needed! And aMethodist Church no less...our faithful readers know our history with the Methodists!  They did us well this year! 

As we walked to breakfast though we had a near disaster...Jamie had a banana in his back pocket and he took it out as we were walking down the street and was so proud that he had a banana but he dropped it and just as we were finishing saying banana down...Pauly steps on it squashing it like a bug and almost falling. It was a straight out of the cartoons type moment and we were all dying laughing! We were just glad that Jamie didn’t also get his hand squashed reaching for his banana! Luckily the Methodists were giving away back up bananas so Jamie was able to replace his banana!!  

After we left West Liberty we headed towards Wilton. We went through a few other small towns but we didn’t stop. In Wilton we had some pie. I had raspberry and I think that brought my total to six pieces for the week. At this point our group had split a bit. Ed headed out first, Ray and Vince were together and then the rest of us stay together. As we left Wilton guess who jumps right on Stacey’s wheel???  Matthew!  The kid from the other day. He stuck with us for quite awhile, but he’s kind of a free loader!  He never took any turns pulling his own weight!  I’m pretty sure Matthew has a crush on Stacey as he saw her again later in the day and yelled to her!  

Stacey and I split from the boys when they stopped for Beekman’s ice cream. We weren’t really hungry and just ready to keep rolling. We knew we could catch up with them later. We stopped about 15 miles from the end to get some watermelon and just take a little break. Little did we know this break was right before a big hill. We wouldn’t have stopped had we known we’d have to climb this hill from a dead stop. Oh well...only adds to the challenge!  We stopped in Blue Grass to get some food and wait for the boys to arrive. They all showed up and we got some food and had some good laughs again. Jamie still had his banana!!! As we left Blue Grass we knew we only had 10 miles left!!

The best part of the day was riding the last 10 miles of RAGBRAI together. Flying V formation of badasses! Part of the ending miles were on the highway which made it really important to stay in the right lane as if you wandered into the left lane you would be road kill! Most riders were respectful of this except for this one guy who was yelling that he was pulling a "trailer" and that it was hard to stop...first it was a freaking hand truck ghetto rigged to his bike and second dude what are you thinking! So he made a comment as he rode by us and Vince gave him a little salute and then the same guy struggled to get going after he stopped on the bottom of the hill...karma maybe?! It’s always cool to have people cheering as you ride into the finishing town!  As we came to the dip site the line was super long and since no one really wanted to wait that long we went down the road some more to another spot that we could dip our tires as this is an important RAGBRAI tradition and especially for the new guys in the group. 

After we dipped our tires we rode the few more miles to our meeting point and had officially eneded our ride. We grabbed our bags, packed our cars, said our see ya laters, and said we needed a reunion during the year and it looks like Pittsburgh just may be the spot! We’ll add a bonus blog of stories we forgot to tell admins pics we didn’t get uploaded in a couple days!  

For the week I rode 488.8 miles and Stacey did around 452. We really lucked out with weather this year as there weren’t any unbearably hot days!  It’s always sad to see this come to an end. Until next time RAGBRAI....

Team Dirty

This morning we moved a little more slowly then any other morning. It was a combination of many of them doing the century loop and it being Friday! As Friday hits we all think how we need to only set up our tent one more time and do many of the things we do for one more time. Last night it was super cold like couldn’t get warm type of cold, it made for some challenging sleep. I will also say at this point in the week our tents stink! 

We had 10 miles to the first town and it was crazy getting out of Siguorney as they did not have very good traffic control! As there was not much in the first town we decided to ride the 5 miles to the next town for breakfast. Some breakfast burritos and a cinnamon roll to get the body going today! There was some amateur wrestling going on and a brass band playing that have probably been playing together for a long time! 

As we were leaving Keota I saw a sign that said Snedigar on it. Sure enough it was the mom of a college friend Sami Allen! It was so good to see Sami’s Mom and catch up a bit. 

We got to Wellman and it was crowded going through town. Like bump into each all the time busy. But I was able to make my way over for some delicious peach pie today. It was a piece of pie and a bottle of water for $4...what a steal. We ran into Glen here and talked to him for a bit.  This was the scene mid way through the walk in Wellman. You can’t tell how big the hill of people was. 

As we were leaving Wellman we had a little tailwind and Stacey picked up a stage 5 clinger!  He was on her like a fat kid chasing the ice cream truck. Now the best thing is that he looked like he was about 13!  I think he was attracted to Stacey’s teenage mutant ninja turtle socks! Well this clinger hung with us all the way to the next town. About 7 miles and we tried to drop him but he hung on going 21-22 mph!  When we stopped we gave him kudos and talked to him a bit. Matthew is from Florida and this is his 7th RAGBRAI. He’s 17 and the kid can ride!!  

When we got to Kalona we had to get the famous Kalona homemade ice cream bar!  It was AMAZING!!We ran into the boys and they all had one too. Kalona has a big Mennonite and Amish population so the food was on point. Lots of homemade with love items!!  The town had a great feel and the music was good so we hung out there for awhile!  

We made it to Riverside and there was a human foosball game so stacey, Vince and I played a game. We played awesome defense!  Let’s just call ourselves the Steel Curtain!  The people on the other team were mad that they weren’t getting the ball!  That may be why they started kicking at Stacey when she fell on the ground!!  No worries she was fine!

As we were leaving Riverside I got a message from my parents that they were in the next town. We spotted them and talked to them awhile. But that was after we got our tails kicked by some good wind and hills. How fitting that we had hills as we rode into the town Hills! We talked to my parents for awhile and Vince and Ray stopped to say hi as well. Stacey had a little unclipping incident but she made some new friends as she tried to get herself untangle herself from her bike. 

As we rode into the final town we had some good headwinds to fight and of course a few hills. As we were rolling along in a decent pace line a kid about 11 years old just crashed in the middle of the road on his bike. The kid was super tough and quickly got himself and off of the road. We stopped to make sure he was ok and in true cycling fashion he asked his dad if his bike was ok...well it wasn’t in the best shape but fixable. Thankfully he felt ok and we keep on going. As we came into Iowa City we had quite the ride to our campground. As we were coming around the corner a lady on a recumbent bike stopped and was blocking the road and Dorice had to do some fancy bike handling not to crash into her! (This was after the near death by porta pottie I had earlier. This guy bee lined his bike right to the row of them but didn’t look to see that I was coming behind him. Our shoulders touched but I was able to avoid collision. My RAGBRAI almost ended by being bike checked into a row of stinky porta potties. What a way to go out!!) We finally made it to the campsite and met up with the boys who were getting settled. We slowly settled in to camp and my parents showed up. They got to educate the boys in farming!!  That all took awhile and since we were miles from the nearest shower and we were all hungry we made tonight no shower Friday. #teamdirty. Wet wipes for the win!

We then headed downtown for dinner and some buying of RAGBRAI items...the boys said we couldn’t call it shopping. We decided to do one last family dinner #teamdirty together. Dinner brought us many laughs and some free items such as cooling towels and sunglasses. After dinner we were all beat and decided to catch the shuttle back to the campsite. Now to get back to camp we actually needed to switch shuttles to get there. We went on the first shuttle only to have Ray and Ed not be able to get on so the rest of us stayed on and they took the next shuttle. Well we were on the general campus shuttle that does a campus route before bringing us to our drop off point for our shuttle transfer. We get off of our shuttle after our campus tour only to find Ray and Ed across the street getting off the transfer shuttle that took them to the wrong place twice. With no other shuttles in site we decided to walk back to our campsite. At first there was a lot of tension due to the shuttle mishap which we then turned into jokes and laughs by the time we got back to camp. What is another 3/4 of a mile walking after the all the biking we have been doing! So the night ended on a good note with us all safely tucked away in our tents hoping to not be freezing tonight and rolling out early tomorrow for the final miles! We plan to stick together as a group tomorrow so we can do the tire dip together and see each other off at the end of the ride. 

Mullet update...we have added another one!  I think that brings us up to 6 for the week. Majestic is camping near us tonight so that’s always a win!

Vince’s quest for a pig to kiss was accomplished today. He said after he kissed it, it kind of nuzzled up to him! I’m pretty sure Vince loves that pig! 

Ray met a goat named Lucy and Pauly met some nice sheep so I’d say today was a win for animals!

Today was also college jersey day!  We had Vince representing the Marine Corps, Ray representing Villanova, Ed was wearing Drexel, Jamie had Minnesota and I of course was representing the Central College Dutch!!  I think I saw 8 other Central jerseys and I talked to several other alum that didn’t have a jersey. I also saw one Ball State jersey and we had to educate her on Chirp Chirp!  I guess they didn’t do that back in the 70s when she was in school!!  Since Ray and I took a college day picture together last year we had to recreate it this year. 

Victory!

Today’s blog will be a RAGBRAI first as most days we ride together but today after 30 miles in we took separate paths...more on that later. 

We intended to roll out a camp as an entire group today and we were mostly successful in doing so but had a minor hiccup while getting onto the route for the day. Ray couldn’t get clipped into his pedal since it was all mucked up with dirt so he stopped to take care of that so we waited for him on a corner but after some time when we didn’t see him Jamie went back to find him since we thought if it was taking this long then he must have a mechanical problem..we’ll Jaime couldn’t find Ray but he did find Pauly so we decided to roll on. Since there we several ways out of town we suspect that Ray turned off of the road we were on before getting to the spot where we were riding. 

The first town was pretty crowded and didn’t really have anything we wanted for breakfast but we did make a stop at the church in town as some of us needed water and some just needed a quick snack. I’m pretty sure the guy collecting the money despite having a price sheet was just making things up. We had breakfast in the 2nd town, they were these mini Dutch pancakes (Poffergies) and some fresh blueberries...man did I need some fruit in my life! After a some fuel in the system we went on our way. At this point we still had no idea where Ray was. 

The day of SFG 

We rode for some time together before I split off from the group to stay on the route for the day as they went for some bonus miles. In the next town of Montezuma I did some shopping for bridesmaid dresses, had a burger in the town square while listening to this dude playing a tuba...I think playing on RAGBRAI was a highlight of his summer! As I was getting ready to pedal on I came across the best roadside lemonade stand that a 4 y/o could run! She was calling out for customers, had fresh lemons in her fancy containers and had your cup ready to go, not only was she awesome but totally a ham for a picture and then even took a picture of me with my lemonade on my phone and she took a picture of the random guy behind me in line too...she was fantastic and her proceeds were being donated to the local animal rescue. 

Next in Deep River I made a new friend George who is from Gettysburg PA and is on his 11th RAGBRAI. We chatted at the Iowa corn tent while he had some corn and I had some watermelon...he said he has a friend who rides too but who is more the party his way through the week type-he even said he is not sure if his friend brings a change of cycling clothes...gross! After chatting with George it was time to pedal on as there was one more stopping town before the end town. At first I just thought I need some time off the bike in this last town but as I came into town there kids were selling giant freezy pops and well never pass up a popsicle on RAGBRAI had to be followed. They had quite the operation going and just a heads up if the oldest kid goes to get you change you then get the job of cutting the top off of everyone’s ice pop! Hey at least they trusted me with scissors that is more than I can say for some. It was just what I needed to the end the day and head to the final camp...so the day of SFG was a great one! Two more days of riding to keep my leg attached...I might just make it! ...pictures will be posted later for Stacey’s day because we don’t have great service to get them to my phone!

Day of Dorice...ever since I signed up for RAGBRAI this year I wanted to the do the extra century loop. This is when more miles are added to the normal route so you can ride 100 miles in the day. I have never done a century so I thought it be fitting that my first be on RAGBRAI!  Since we knew Stacey’s hip couldn’t handle the extra miles we split up. Some of the Philly boys were planning to do it so I wasn’t totally solo. 

The search for Ray continued ubtil the ride split into two groups. We waited for quite a while at the loop start hoping to find him but to no avail. Ed had gone on already so Pauly Jamie and I started the loop. When you do the century loop you get a special patch. They gave us the patch only 7 miles in to the extra 36....seems a bit premature, but oh well. I actually didn’t even look at it when I got it because I hadn’t earned it yet. We just got some water in New Sharon because we were still on the hunt for Ray. 

As we left New Sharon we had nasty head winds. I mean not fun...have to pedal downhill winds. Jamie and Pauly helped pull me through some of them but many times I couldn’t keep up, plus it was super early and I didn’t want to burn out my legs. While riding in these amazing winds we had a spotting of Majestic mullet!!  He was taking picture of the landscape. So wenknownhe started the loop, but I didn’t see him in camp!  We eventually got a little reprieve on the winds but there weren’t any towns for food, so it was tough. Hydration was key today!

When we finished the loop we still had about 40 miles to go. We had told Ed earlier that we would all meet at Mr. pork Chop on our second time by. I was HUNGRY but a pork chop just didn’t sound great then so I had Thelma’s ice cream instead. 

After a little break in the shade we all decided to roll on. The guys were tired and I was just ready to get moving again!  As we left we had some awesome tailwind!  I was loving it and moving at a good clip. My legs felt great and I was ready to roll. I made it to Montezuma before the boys so I took the opportunity to get a picture to prove I was there and sunscreen up....man we go through a lot of sunscreen!  Ed showed up first and then the other two. The boys really wanted grilled cheese but I couldn’t do it so I had some legit cherry pie from the Methodist Church...they come though again!  I think we can officially take the Methodists off probation now. This wasn’t cherry pie filling...this was grow cherries in your back yard pie!! 

We saw Shaun and Kayla leaving Montezuma and they had just finished the loop as well. It was Kayla’s first century!  Congrats Kayla!  I really wasn’t hungry and just wanted to pedal on so I told the boys I didn’t plan on stopping at the next town. I’m glad I told them as we were leaving because shortly after we left town they ended up in a pace line. I was with them for a bit and then just like that they were gone. I couldn’t hang. I later found out that they were going 28-29 mph...so yeah not going to keep up!  Jamie dropped back too so at this point I just pedaled on. I felt great and the tail wind was a great help!!

At this point there were about 22 miles left so I decided I was just going to power them out. I was having a great ride day and my legs felt fresh. I figured Pauly and Ed were still in front and they’d beat me back to camp. But as I’m going down a hill I passed Ed. He saw me and we chatted a bit. The only thing I was stopping for was a pickle!!  By the time I got to Keswick I absolutely needed that pickle. I got one and I was on my way. I ran into Ed again and he said to go on because he needed to get a slushee. 9 miles Togo and I’d be back to camp. It after that when I finally found Ray...back at camp!  Whomp whomp....he beat us back!  But I did arrive to something else glorious.....Stacey had set up my tent!!  Yay thanks buddy!  That was a very clutch move and much appreciated. Word on the street is Ray helped her do it. Thanks Ray!  The boys all came in about the same time. They met up for Beekman’s ice cream!!

Overall it was a good day!  I got in my first century, I felt great doing it and I had some tasty treats. What more can you ask for??  It was a tough day of wind and hills for sure. Over 4500 feet of climbing. Thankfully the temperature wasn’t too bad but the sun was strong. God bless sunscreen!!

Mullet Update—-I saw the most AMAZING mullet today in one of the towns. Nobody was there to witness it and I couldn’t get a picture so you'll just have to believe me. It’s by far the best I’ve seen and gives Majestic a run for his money!

Farm Camp update - Gabs is loving camp. She especially likes to go check cows at the pasture!  I think Bria is a good mentor!!  While Gabs loves farm camp I think she’d also love RAGBRAI!  Today I saw thrrr dogs being pulled along. I think we could rig up something for her for next year. She’d need an umbrella though...she hates sun!!!  Gotta get the girl some shade!  

I think this could be the perfect set up for her. She’s have her head out checking out all the things!

Vince update. He hasn’t kissed a pig yet but he did go on a fishing expedition...that’s all we’re saying about that!

We’re beat so we’re ending for now. More on all the gloriousness around camp later!

Struggle Bus Wednesday

It’s day 4 of RAGBRAI and that is usually the time when the wheels start falling off and we get a little crazy. It started with a struggle to get organized and out of the tent this morning but we stil got rolling around 6:30 this morning. Today all 7 of us rolled out of camp together as we all agreed we wanted an easy riding day....bahahahaha. We got to the first stopping town of Nevada which is the home of of Uber driver from last night and he even sent us a text to have a great time there this morning! We followed an important RAGBRAI rule...never pass up fresh mini donuts on RAGBRAI! Topped off the tank with a breakfast burrito from the American legion and we were off! Vince decided to take off early and roll through some of the ride by himself but we met up with him later in the ride. 

We rolled into Melbourne where the boys had watermelon and we had pickles. We then had some cool picture opportunities like sitting on an old tractor like a 5 y/o kid. 

As we got ready to roll out of Melbourne we thought we had lost the boys but as we walking through to get back on the bike there was Ed, Jamie, and Pauly eating a Thelma’s ice cream sandwich...never a bad choice! So we waited for them to finish and then went on. The boys had committed to getting Mr. Porkchop today since the new guys hadn’t had it yet...so 4 miles out of town we got to our destination of Mr. Pork Chop. There was an excellent guy singing and it was a great spot so we hung out for awhile. The boys got their first pork chop and we had Thelma’s! We also ran into our Air Force friend Steve from last year. When we chatted over corn last year he was getting ready to retire from the AF but he told us today he signed on for one more additional year so he said when we see him on RAGBRAI next year it should be as a retired from the AF. Who knew you could bond with someone so much over an ear of corn! 

 Since we were all on the struggle bus we chilled for awhile!  Stacey, Ed, Jamie, and Pauly left because they were feeling the leg stiffness set in. Ray, Vince and I hung back to chill a bit longer. We wanted to listen to the singer more but he was taking a break. So we rolled out at well. Little did we know what was in store for us. Lots of hills!!  Like I’m tired of riding you hills! Like my butt hurts hills! Like I’m tired of this wind hills!  When we got about 6 miles from Newton we saw it....exactly what we needed on this struggle bus day!  A GIANT SLIP AND SLIDE and a zip line!!  

Even though it was a cloudy day we all went down the slip and slide and a few of the boys did the zip line!  It was a great way to end our day!!  

Our campsite tonight is awesome!  We have food, showers, and a band all right where we are camping. Now the showers are COLD. Not just cold...but ice bath out of shower head cold!!  But we didn’t have to wait and we walked about 15 feet to get to it!! Plus they supply a towel so no need to hang ours out to dry tonight! 

Last night after family dinner some of us headed downtown to take in the entertainment. We knew that we would have a good chance of seeing Roger as Ames is his old stomping ground as he played football at Iowa State despite him being a cyclone we still love Roger! Sure enough we ran into Roger and his wife Theresa (last year known in the blog as Roger’s lady friend-congrats guys!). Unfortunately Larry was back at their camp site so we didn’t get to see him but we are happy to report that he still packs his pajamas and has added a flower towel instead of his flower pillow case to his packing list this year. We love Larry and hope that we may run into him on the ride still. 

Today we give a special shout out to Carlos who is here with us in spirit as Jaime is using all of his camping gear and we really appreciate the camp chair! Thanks Carlos...but we really need to work on Jamie’s packing skills so next time a more specific list for him amy be helpful! Carlos this blog is written from your chair many times!!  Don’t worry Carlos your chair is being well taken care of tonight. It’s sleeping in Stacey’s tent so it doesn’t get wet!

Majestic Mullet Update: Majestic joined our tent area last night but he not only joined but basically put his bags right on top of Jamie’s stuff. We think he was trying to make it an apartment complex for the two of them. We have learned that he wears the same cycling gear everyday (we hope he washes it) and he has only one bag that is similar to a large backpack and that is it! His hair is still on point after all the miles of riding and that is a true testament to how truly majestic his mullet is. No new mullet sightings in general today but we still have 3 days of riding left! 

Another reason we are on the struggle bus is because most everyone has lost something or struggled in the past 24 hrs. Vince lost his prescription glasses and his famous white hat!!  Pat you’ll love that the hat is gone. Jamie lost his glasses but luckily we had the same Uber driver twice and he found them the second ride. Ray lost his glasses, gravel patch and phone cord. Luckily he has found them all. They were all in his bag that he had searched “so many frickin times”!  I have lost my beloved tent stake. Now this stake has been with me for four ragbrais and it’s a little special as it was bent!!  Very bent!! But it worked and I miss it!  Stacey hasn’t lost anything accept maybe her mind. She was so excited about seeing a pig so Vince could see it. When we looked further that “pig” was clearly a dog!!!  Ed hasn’t lost anything but I think he was in a food coma today!  Paul bought women’s chamois cream today!  We should have let him go with it but we told him so he could exchange it. Needless to say our team struggle bus has made for a lot of laughs!!

The best part of the day was when my college friend Stephanie came to hang out with us at camp tonight. She brought her two little ones June and Gabe as well. It took a while for them to warm up to us but Ray bribed them with cookies, Paul was hanging with Gabe  and Vince was in his element. We thought Gabe might take his first steps at Ragbrai but it didn’t happen!!  As you can see June was pumped to have her picture taken!!

We are currently finishing up the blog while waiting out a thunderstorm in the building next to our tent. Some rain and lightning so we decided to be safe. But don’t worry we learned from earlier this week and all our stuff is packed up nice in our tents and the rain fly is on!!

Meet our other friends!

We realized we haven’t said much about Vince lately so Pat this part is for you!  Vince is having a great time and we’re super proud of all the things he’s doing!  He’s really embracing the RAGBRAI experience!!  He was like a kid in candy store when he was eating Thelma’s!  He won free lemonade, got his picture taken with raccoons!  His week will be complete once he kissed a pig. We haven’t been able to find a pig for him to kiss yet!  We’ll keep you updated on the pig search!

We feel like we’ve focused so much on the Philly boys that we haven’t told you about some of the friends we’ve made. Shaun and Kayla are a Father daughter from Colorado. This is their first RAGBRAI and they are loving it!  This was a bucket list item for Kayla. She’s a highschool student and she has been scarred by the group showers with older women!!  Then there is Glen from Georgia who has a goal of doing a week long ride in all of the states (he has 22 done) and this is his first RAGBRAI super nice guy but he is a talker! We usually get his daily run down of what he has done when we see him in camp after the ride. For our faithful followers Ralph is back for another year! He became a grandpa this year so his son in law is not on the ride with him as he has a little infant to take care of. 

We got rolling about 6:30 this morning and for the first time on RAGBRAI we didn’t know where to go since we usually just follow the crowds. So we thought if we went back towards downtown we might see other bikers and find our way out of town...we’ll we had a group of other riders from camp following us out and we gave them the disclaimer of not knowing where we were going but for some reason they trusted us and followed us out! 

We had some great tailwinds going out of town and not nearly as many hills. It was a good morning riding. We passed a lot of wind turbines so that was pretty cool!

The towns on today’s stop left a little to be desired. Not a lot of fun things to do or eat. We wanted breakfast but we weren’t feeling any options. We decided to ride on and then we saw it. The glorious sight of smoke ahead. That meant only on thing....Mr. Pork Chop!!  We ate our earliest pork chop ever at 8:15 am!!  It was glorious!  We also got to witness a woman from Texas eat her first bite of Mr. Pork Chop. You would have thought she just won a million dollars!  It was hysterical!  I’m pretty sure she is now a Mr. Pork Chop convert!!  

At the next town we stopped for water and to use the porta potties. While in line for the porta potties we started talking to the guy behind us. We learned that he also grew up in NJ he told me a small town in Northern NJ...So of course I asked which one...his response was Denville ha the town right next to where I grew up. After talking a few more minutes we then discovered that we went to the same HS just many years apart! So I had to take a picture with Roy! That is the crazy thing on RAGBRAI you never know who you may meet! 

We rolled on and finished our ride with one last stop for some homemade ice cream from Beekman’s a RAGBRAI staple that we have never had so we figured why not. The ice cream was pretty good...the peach was much better than the raspberry but still a good experience. We saw Pauly in line on our way out and finished our ride. 

When we got to Ames we got to do a lap around the Iowa State football stadium so it was cool to experience where the Hawkeyes lay the smack down on the Cyclones. We took a picture booing the mascot and went on to our camp site.  

It was a soggy mess setting up our tents and letting everything dry from last night! Oh and by the way it got cold last night! So cold and soggy tents are not a great combo...but like always we survived! 

We had a shower truck shower today so no naked awkwardness!!  We all decided to go to dinner together at Hickory Park!  Ragbrai first for us but a good night eating at a local place. Headed downtown for the night!!

RAGBRAI Rules 4, 5, and 6

We have learned a lot today. Added 3 new rules today! We don’t even know where to start!

If any of you are worried about our supplies or ability to eat at camp Jamie has us covered. This rookie brought 24 clif bars, 24 package of crackers, 2 pounds of trail mix, 3 full roles of toilet paper, 1 large roll of paper towels and 12 pairs of underwear...in his words...what am I going to do with 12 pairs of underwear?!!  Let’s just say that he over packed a little!  

We had an epic morning today and we were out of camp by 6:20!! Record time for us. Probably because Stacey didn’t sleep too well. We got to see an awesome sunrise while climbing hills on our bikes and just cruising along. 

Today we had about 20 miles to the first town which for RAGBRAI is the maximum distance they usually let riders ride before there is a stop over town. Now at home that is a quick midweek ride but when you are on a mission for pancakes it seems like an eternity! Since the first stopping town was rather small we bypassed it since it was only 3.7 miles to the next town and that proved to be great move...pancakes, eggs, and sausage for a free will donation at the K of C! Combine that with a nice park bench and it was just the RAGBRAI breakfast we needed. 

After having breakfast we all met at this huge Iowa sign and got a full group picture in front of it! Pretty cool photo op for the whole gang. Today we spent most of the day riding and hanging with Jamie, Ed, and Paul. Next stop was in Templeton where we waited for Ed and Paul to get free corn and had to break Paul out of jail. Nothing like rolling into town with a friend dressed as a prisoner and having an old jail waiting for him! 

We continued through Templeton and got to see the Templeton Rye distillery!  It was a cool looking place, but we didn’t stop.  Just some drive by pictures!  

We had a light lunch in Coon Rapids and then we kept rolling with the boys. Ed was waving us to come meet him but we had to fill up some bottles so once we got to where Ed was he was gone. So the five of us kept rolling. Eventually we caught up with Ed and then he said the reason he was waving us on was because Lance Armstrong was right there. So rule #4...always come when Ed calls and we are faster than Lance because we had passed him on our bikes and didn’t even see him. We saw him again later though!!  

We had some killer hills and headwinds today and it was hot towards he end. We had a good pace line going through the headwinds and we made some more friends that jumped on our line. 

We got some amazing watermelon in Scranton and that was all Pauly had been craving. Then we headed for our last 9 miles of the day. About 4 mile soutside of the ending town a local orchard had made a corn maze just for RAGBRAI so we had made the decision to stop there and test our escaping skills which we weren’t too concerned about considering we had an escaped prisoner with us! There was a group of about 10 cyclists who were testing their escape skills with us..and as you can guess we made it!

After the corn maze we went into the general store and talked with the workers at the Orchard they were super nice and told us that we had to go on the big jumping pillow and let me tell you it did not disappoint...I’m pretty sure they are going to be booking our first trampoline performance soon...Jaime and Pauly will be our backups as they still have some work to do to bring their routine up to par with ours! RABRAI lesson number 5, never pass up jumping on a giant pillow! I mean when your legs are already dragging since your ~70 miles into your ride you still have to jump! 

It was hot when we got to camp and setting up our tent in sweaty clothes and blazing sun after riding 70 miles is not fun at all. We got another pool shower today. Now the shower was less than ideal. Group shower tree with a button you had to push every 3 secs that expelled ice cold water. But hey the pool was fun.  Pauly had bet any of $5 if we got the life guard to blow their whistle. We were all chilling in the pool when Jamie tripped and “fell” into the pool the lifeguard asked if he was ok and blew his whistle!!  Jamie officially wins!!!

We got the shuttle into town and we were going to hit up the Catholic Church for lasagna but as we were walking there people told us it was sold out. So we headed to the VWF where we got a spaghetti dinner!  It was good and just what we needed after the ass kicking day we had. Dinner was just Stacey, Jamie and I and we had a great conversation!  It’s nice to hear the rookies thoughts on the first few days! We left and walked around looking for ice cream. The wind picked up a little and you could tell it was going to rain...maybe a light annoying rain...and then the wind shifted, the temp dropped and it started raining hard. We headed back to the VFW for shelter and got in just in time before the skies opened and it downpoured and rained sideways. For about 5 minutes it was total monsoon. This is where we get RAGBRAI rule #6: no matter how nice it is when you leave camp...close up the windows and put everything in your tent!  Now we faired much better than our Philly friends (mental note...put all your stuff in your tent and put the rain fly on!) but still an important lesson and for the record...last year Stacey’s tent was at risk of collapsing at any given moment and today her new tent was dry even with the windows open no water got in...but for the clothes, towel, and biking stuff drying outside of the tent well that was a different story! 

All in all another great day! Today wiped our legs out pretty good with all the climbs and headwind! Now we relax in our tents and listen to the concert going on in downtown as though we were there...yes we can hear it that clearly...at least it drowns out Ed’s snoring! 

Mullet update: while there was no majestical mullet sightings today we did notice mullet #5 a ginger mullet. But ginger mullet loses points as he was not wear a helmet! WTH ginger mullet protect the flow and your brain! Also if we tell you to “bike off” we may or may not be cursing at you! 

Moving Day

Last night we had some good laughs with the boys. The best was when I was talking with the Philly crew and my back was turned to the majority of the camp site. One of the guys says “oh my gosh that guy is naked” I said, “ nope not turning around” “wow he really is naked” “nope not looking” “he’s right by your tents!” “Nope not looking”. At that same Stacey walked out of her tent and was spitting out her tooth paste. It was perfect timing to look like she was vomiting because of the naked man!  

Oh and we had to convince Paul that there are no alligators in the “moats” around Onawa. 

Last night in the tent was cold and damp. Stacey wore her JETS snow hat...in July!!  She also assumed the coffin sleeping position. I was in the cocoon sleeping position with the blanket over my head. We got packed up in record time and we were on truck A....boom!!  The boys were not ready to roll out when we did. Paul still hadn’t packed his tent!!  

Today was a short riding day...before heading out though we got to witness majestic mullet wearing their fishnet shirt over their cycling jersey...maybe it’s a good luck thing 🤔. We had a RAGBRAI first and a new RAGBRAI rule “never pass up pancakes on RAGBRAI”. The first town was only 7 miles out so we passed up eating breakfast there since the next town was only 6 miles from there so we opted for breakfast in the next town only to be disappointed that their fire department was serving biscuits and gravy...umm no thanks! With little other options we rolled to the meeting town of he day before having “breakfast” which was awesome pulled pork sandwich from the Ute fire department and Dorice had a piece of special berry pie homemade by the Lutheran Church Ladies. There was a great slip and slide in Ute but we opted out because it was super cloudy and we wouldn’t dry quickly. 

We found ourselves in jail at Charter Oak (seems to be a RAGBRAI tradition) and sending a post card (a RAGBRAI first). As we were getting ready to leave Ute I heard someone yell my name...now you don’t hear too many people yelling Dorice anywhere let alone on RAGBRAI!  It was two of my college AT classmates!  We haven’t seen each other since we graduated. So great to see Todd and Scott!  

Today had some hills...like sneaky hills. Ones you didn’t think were bad at first but then halfway up you realize that you are struggling. There were a couple moments when we looked and saw 4-5 hills in front of us. Thankfully the kids makes signs and this one cracked me up. Ns are hard kid... I get it!  We also had a great watermelon stop on the side of road!  You can’t beat good road side watermelon!  

It took us awhile to find our campsite. The town of Denison is super hilly and I felt like we’d never see the QCBC signs. But as we crested a hip we saw the most glorious sight...no not our camp...but free BACON!!!!  Now bacon is awesome but free bacon can’t be beat!!  One guy asked if it was turkey bacon and he was almost shot. Iowa is known for pork production and Dennison’s motto is centered around Bacon. 

We got bonus miles getting to camp...good thing we had some Bacon power to make it there! Our campground tonight is less than ideal....slopes, rocks, gravel, and tons of crickets! So we tried to find a suitable spot to set up our tents which proved to be a tough task...after settling on a spot Ed said they were on this little patch across the access road so we scoped it out. So after already having our tents set up we picked them as is and moved them to better real estate. We still have a slope but not all the other fun stuff plus we are by our Philly boys in case we need an ax! Because when you go camping you bring an ax...ok Pauly! 

Next it was the search for a shower but first we had to check out the local aqua fun center! We love WATERPARKS and pools on RAGBRAI! Not only did we go in the pool, down the water slide, and did a cannon ball off the diving board! Bonus we took a real shower after the pool...no pool shower for us today! Biggest problem was Dorice didn’t pack my water wings! What type of an #accentmom is she?! I’m a good mom!  I accompanied my child to the pool! 

We kind of struck out on dinner today. We tried the Zion Lutherans and the sold out, the senior center sold out, so we ended up getting a decent taco salad which supported a local school. It was delicious!!  We then headed to the main stage for a very intense game of Jenja....did you know Stacey has never played Jenja?!?  What the heck??  We had a good crowd watching us. A local town lady tried a move and knocked it over so we’ll call it a draw! Then we took in the dueling pianos!  It was a good fun night of singing along and dancing!  

Since we have so many Philly readers the boys are doing well. Jamie, Paul, and Ray all did the gravel loop. I think they got their rear handed to them but they had fun!  Ed and Vince came in about the same time we did. They also enjoyed the pool!

Mullet update...we are on #4!  And the majestic mullet continues to impress with his outfits. Today absolutely did not disappoint!

Mullets for Days

We got to the buses with no issue this morning!  No major storms so a big win over last year!  We actually beat the Philly boys to the buses, so we decided to get on bus 4 and we were nice enough to save seats for all of them. Apparently Ray went the wrong way leaving the hotel this morning. We’d expect that from one of the rookies, but not Ray!  

My mom was nice enough to make us cookies to share on the bus. Unfortunately I left the cookies in the seat (remember we were nice saving seats for them) and Ray sat in that seat. No more cookies...they were being held captive!!  Ok he did share but they were gone before we got to the starting town. 

There was a lot of sleeping on the bus. I think Ray and myself were the only ones who didn’t sleep. And if you’re caught sleeping they take pictures of you and send to their friends. Don’t sleep when the Philly boys are around!! We also spent a lot of ride educating Ed and Paul about the difference between sweet corn and field corn. I’m still not sure they believe us that you shouldn’t eat the corn we will be riding by for the next seven days!  Oh city folk!

As we rolled into camp we had a little bit of a walk from the bus to our campground. Tonight our campground is the outfield of the HS baseball field. Seems about right that a few ATs are camping out on a ball field! We set up our tents like the champs that we are...no fumbling around and no issues....bonus is no worries as Stacey has replaced her broken tent from last year! With tents sent, bikes put back together and plenty of time we headed down to the expo to check out things and get our elusive bike Iowa shirts that we failed to secure last year...VICTORY! 

Mullets for the win....the current RAGBRAI mullet count is at 3...our majestic mullet friend has supplied us with plenty of fashion tips and ideas it’s a cross of bringing back the 80’s to things that your friends shouldn’t let you wear! 

The majestic mullet is bringing fishnet shirts back...yeah

Complete with cargo jean shorts to go with that...yeah

An aero helmet as their cycling “hat”....yeah

All together bringing the 80’s back....yeah 

So this is how the above went down:

Hey, look at this outfit...fishnet sleeves and an aero helmet.

Oh my gosh it’s him...mullet man!!!!

Disclaimer we are trying to get a good discreet picture of the mullet man to share but we have to be sneaky!

A little entertainment on things heard at camp:

- I mean setting up a tent isn’t that hard

- I have no idea what I’m doing...I need to read the directions

- Oh I don’t answer when my wife calls, I just tell her the service is bad....disclaimer this was not any of the Philly boys

Things heard on the bus:

- I’m about to break out my nuts....disclaimer this was one of the Philly boys

-Are we there yet?

Oh and for our football loving fans, new Philly guy Jamie is a software engineer and he was on the team that created the yellow line to signify first down on TV. I think we can all thank Jamie for that little piece of football viewing!!

For our faithful yearly readers Bob has decided that he’s going to use a tent tonight. No cot under the stars for him tonight!!

Gabby is loving farm camp. She was doing a great job checking cows today in the pasture!  That was until she got too close to some calves and the cows chased her back into the Kabota!!

Tonight we had dinner at the First Christian Church-while there was no pie there was chicken and noodles, green beans (yeah vegetable), mashed potatoes, cole slaw, a roll, and cookies! So glad I got to eat dinner with Dorice and learn about her Mom accent. As we were eating dinner we had 2 guys come and sit next to us and Dorice asked if they would like some water and she offered to pour them some...as she is pouring them water the one guy said you’re very good at that I guess moms are really good at those things....it took everything in my power to hold it together! Glad I’m hanging out for the week with someone who has solid Mom skills! Let’s be honest...I’m pretty sure the guy thought Stacey was my kid!!!  So as we are getting ready to leave we were having a conversation with the pastor and he said to Dorice “where are you from? You have an accent” Loved it absolutely loved it since I’m usually the person who getting told they have an accent. So just hanging with the #accentmom for the week and riding our bikes! 

We’re going to end for tonight!  Here’s hoping we can get this sent!