Enthusiasm of Mary Cole

Well today was not for the faint of heart!  They weren’t kidding when they said there would be hills! 

This morning was a slow roll out of town. It was super crowded and it took us over 31 min to go 5 miles. Everyone’s spirits were high and excited to start so that helped for sure. As we got out of Sioux City we suddenly came to a stand still and everyone had to dismount. We were crossing two sets of railroad tracks that went at an angle after a 90 degree turn…it was definitely the safest way to cross the tracks because there were way too many people. They actually had police there to control traffic and keep people safe.

Today was also the mile of silence where they ask people to silence their stereos and not talk to honor cyclists who have been killed by motorists. Did you know that in 2021, 961 people were killed in the US while riding a bike?  Keep that in mind the next time you get angry seeing a cyclist on the road. They just want to get home safely like you do!  

I lost Ray, Chris and Emily in the first 20 miles, so that meant today was a solo riding day for me. I stopped for a breakfast brat at the Iowa Craft Beer tent. That place was packed and a total zoo. The good news to that was it broke up the traffic on the road. The first town was 30 miles today and that is a really long way by RAGBRAI standards, but I will say the houses and people along the route were great about having little stops and opportunities to rest or get some fuel. 

I saw quite a few people Dream team and I talked to Nora one of the Dream Team members. She is doing her first RAGBRAI and she said she was having a great time so far!  The Dream team is a youth team out of Des Moines. The kids train all spring and summer and if they do all the training they get to keep their bike and gear at the end of RAGBRAI. It is a really cool program that gets kids on bikes!

Did I say already that today was hilly? They just kept coming!  They weren’t long or all that steep, but constant. At the top of one of the hills there was a family giving out free freeze pops!  It hit the spot for sure and they refused to take any money. They said they gave out 1300 in about 2 hours. 

You know you’re in trouble when they stop counting miles to the next town and instead they say, 3 hills until Washta. Once we arrived in Washta they said it was the coldest town in Iowa…that must not be the case in July!  They did have a fun bubble snow machine so I decided to take advantage. I’ve never had a grilled cheese on RAGBRAI and everyone raves about them. So today I decided to give it a try today. Grilled cheese with tomato and bacon. It was good…but not awesome. Then I decided to go for the first piece of pie. I went with strawberry rhubarb. It was definitely homemade and the crust was great BUT…the rhubarb was still crunchy. That’s not my ideal in pie eating. 

While eating my grilled cheese I got surrounded by 8 guys from VA all on their first RAGBRAI. Their support driver is one of their daughters and she said she’s just here to wrangle them and keep them in line. After 30 min around them…I hope she is getting paid well. 

One of the next towns was Quimby, population 250. They are know. For their watermelon festival every year. They were giving away free watermelon and it was COLD. When I got there at 12:30 they said they were starting their last pallet. They started with 3000 lbs of watermelon!  That was a lot of watermelon but it was sooo worth it! That little town of 250 people served A LOT of watermelon. 

From Quimby to Storm Lake it was starting to get hot. I stopped at a couple places just for some shade and water. Approaching Storm Lake I was excited to be back in land of the BVU Beaver alma mater of the great Sharon Feld!  We rode right by the track where I won a conference high jump title back in the day at Central. 

As we rode into Storm Lake we went past a nursing home and many of the residents were sitting outside under several tents. They had the best shade of the day!  I rode up and talked to them for awhile. I asked if anyone wanted to ride with me tomorrow….all said no with varying levels of vigor…but one shouted YES!!  Mary Cole, I will pick you up in the morning!  I love that kind of enthusiasm! We all should approach life by saying yes to more things!!

We have a great camp tonight on the lake. I have a lake view right from my tent. Ray got the great spot and was even a nice guy and got my name on the shower list. Vince, Carlos, and Ed all had a great day too. They stopped for the all you can eat Belgian waffles and I’m still kicking myself for passing that up!! 

After getting my shower we hopped on the shuttle down to the expo I got a double cheeseburger and fries and it was amazing. Definitely the best food of the day. Followed that up with some delicious rolled ice cream from a local ice cream shop. 

While eating I ended up sitting next to Andy who had the thickest British accent you could imagine. You would have thought he lived there, but he has been in the US for the past 43 years!  He went to Kalamazoo College and loved it so much he decided to stay in the US. He travels all over the world and seems to have quite the exotic schedule. It was fun to talk to him and get to hear his perspective on the Monarchy, the Midwest and life in general. 

After we got back from supper we were sitting around chatting and all of a sudden this guy said hey can we use your tree?  It was Jimmy Ebensberger and his daughter Amber. They were setting up their clothes line. They know my dad and do RAGBRAI every year. This year Jimmy has two new knees to help him spin up those hills!! It’s possible that Chris or Emily may decapitate themselves on the clothesline if the get out of their tent in the middle of the night, but hey what is RAGBRAI without a little excitement!!?!?

Today we covered 73 miles and my Garmin had us at 2966 ft of climb. Sure seemed like more than that, but there were lots of downhills too. My top speed today was 41.4 mph. You know it’s going to be a good downhill when there are signs saying steep downhill ahead!  It was fun to fly down that and not have to go up the same grade once you got down!!

I’m hoping for a calm warm-ish night tonight. Last night got a little chilly. And I’m also hoping this blog will post. We had great cell service when we first got into town but as more and more people arrived I lost all connection. I had zero service on the route today and I think it’s just because there are sooooo many people!

Tomorrow is a shorter and flatter day!  Which is welcomed after today!! And as I finish this blog…there is country music blaring from Vince’s tent. Maybe he’ll sing me to sleep!!