50 Years of Pedaling - RAGBRAI 2023

Ok I haven’t been pedaling for 50 years but this is the 50th Anniversary of RAGBRAI. The motto this year is One “L of a Ride!  Welcome back to my blog of the ride!  

An early wake up call this morning to catch the bus in the Quad Cities. Since this is a big anniversary they are expecting A LOT of riders this year. Typically there are 9000 registered week long riders and then several single day riders. This year they have said there are 28,000 registered week long riders and they are expecting some days to have 60-70 thousand riders. So needless to say the bus drop off was a bit busy this morning. Several charters were leaving from the same place QCBC does. That was a first for sure. 

There is a good crew of people riding this year. Ray, Vince, Carlos, and Ed have all returned from Philly. Just missing Paulie and Jaime to make a complete “Philly Boys” contingent. Gary is also back and probably an adopted Philly Boy by now. Chris and Emily have returned as well!  So I’m excited to have a good group of friends and crew with me this year. By the time I got to the buses they had all claimed a seat on the bus. I had told them that if they wanted bus brownies then they needed to save me a seat!  Food always brings people together!  

Murray and Boomer came to help with drop off. They got a lot of pets and love from the Philly boys and people who were sad to have left their dogs behind at home. They even made it one ladies Instagram!

We have six buses this year. I don’t think everyone is camping with us but just using a ride to the start. Since the ride ends in the Quad Cities there are a lot of people busing from the end town to the start. I sure hope we don’t have 6 buses of people for our 6 showers!! Emily, Chris and I got a picture before we got on the bus. 

The excitement and buzz is high for sure on the bus. Lots of cheering as we finally pulled away. I think the lines are going to be long this year and patience will need to be at an all time high.

Speaking of all time highs…the temps this week are supposed to go up and up each day. Some weather outlets are predicting high temps over 100 towards the end of the week. Here’s hoping for a solid popsicle and slip and slide week!!

You can tell it’s been a few years since Vince has been in Iowa. He’s out of practice on his farm knowledge. “Hey Dorice…I thought corn was supposed to be knee high by the Fourth of July. Why is it so short?” Well….those are beans! A five year hiatus from RAGBRAI will do that to you!! As long as he remembers that he shouldn’t pee in a bean field we should be fine!

We made it to the halfway point on the bus…it’s like ants scattering when the buses get parked. Everyone scatters and rushes to get food and a nice bathroom. That Casey’s gas station bathroom might be the last great bathroom of the week. It’s the little things. I’ve already had a first on this RAGBRAI…I slept on the bus. It was maybe 30 minutes but it happened. I’m exhausted and thinking about a tent nap and that never happens. Must be because of all the cleaning and stair trips I made at my parents the last few days!!

Arriving into Sioux City we went past one of the RV campgrounds and it was packed before 2:00 pm with a line mile long waiting to get in. Our campsite is a ways out from the main expo so we went past the expo and then found our site. I wish I could do it justice as to what happens when 6 buses pull up to an empty camp site…people are scattering everywhere in all directions to find a good piece of real estate. I got my bags and headed off to a more open area. Ray and Ed ended up going that way too. When we go there we got a big area by some trees with lots of open space. By the time I had my bag unzipped we had been surrounded by other people. Thankfully I yelled across the field and Chris and Emily were able to get a spot by us too. Both them and Ray have upgraded to larger tents this year. I think we’ll be able to have movie night in Emily’s tent…it’s HUGE. It may serve as a tornado shelter it’s so big!  I have to give myself a Pat on the back for getting my tent set up so quick given the fact that the last time I set it up was the day after RAGBRAI last year!!

After we got set up and got our bikes reassembled we headed to the expo. There is a nice bike path along the river so we were able to ride that. As we got closer we had more and more people, tents, bikes, etc. to navigate around. There are so many people here. The Hilton Garden Inn probably has more people camping on every square inch of grass outside the hotel than they have rooms inside. 

The tradition of RAGBRAI is to dip your rear tire in the Missouri River and then your front tire in the Mississippi River when you finish. Many years our starting town isn’t that close we haven’t dipped but this year it is right on the river and we got pictures!  Hopefully I can crop these two guys out when I get home!  Love the slogan here too, “Dip your rear, Get in gear!”  God willing I’ll be dipping my front tire next Saturday in Davenport!  

Emily, Chris and I walked around the expo and got some dinner. I opted for a rice bowl. It was good but not awesome. I also ended up buying a new pair of cycling sunglasses because mine had huge scratches on the left lens and I think I would have been severely annoyed by Tuesday if I kept wearing them. 

On our ride back to camp, I was talking to a guy named Anthony. He and 5 friends came to ride from California and Seattle. He said it had always been a dream of theirs to do it, so they decided this was the year. Little did they know it was an anniversary year and they were in for the largest RAGBRAI ever. His friend Jody from Seattle talked to Chris a bit since they are moving to Seattle in a couple weeks. We’re already making friends!

I got to talk to Bob tonight at camp. This is his 34th RAGBRAI and he still seems to be going strong. He always asks about Stacey. I’m beginning to think he likes her more than me!!

I think it will be an early night tonight. I’m tired and tomorrow will be a long hard day. Lots of hills and over 80 miles. Time to organize my tent and get some sort of routine figured out for packing and what not. I had briefly thought about grabbing a quick shower but that seemed like a lot of work. Good news though we have 2 shower trucks. So hopefully we don’t have to wait forever tomorrow!  The other good news is that the cell signal has been pretty strong today, so I hope that means this blog will post!!

I’ll leave you with the sun setting over camp!  Oh and if you’re new here…Welcome!!  Please know this blog is typed on my phone, while standing in lines and any other spare moment of the day so it will have typos and poor grammar!!