RAGBRAI XXXVI Recap

 

We've now arrived back in Altoona after our week-long adventure on RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) 2008.  It was the 36th time that the ride has been organized and sponsored by the Des Moines Register newspaper.
Mandy and I did the ride with Jack and Judy, our good friends from Yuma, while Mark and Sue were our support crew.  We loaned our tandem to Joe and his daughter Patty for their ride, and caught up with them several times along the route.  Tom, another member of the Foothills Bike Club in Yuma joined up with us several times during the ride.  We ran into a number of other friends from Texas and Yuma as we pedaled along, as well as meeting all sorts of new friends pursuing the same goal as us -- traveling the 471 beautiful miles of Iowa on this year's hilly route.
We started in Missouri Valley and rode west to east, stopping overnight at Harlan, Jefferson, Ames, Tama, Tipton, North Liberty, finally ending up at the Mississippi River at Le Claire.   Rather than go into detail of each day -- which Mark has covered in his blog, we'll just recap the highlights that we observed and captured on the ride . . . . . . . just drag your cursor over the picture for a description, and double click on any picture for a larger view.

Our one mechanical issue (and unsolicited advertisement for Tiffin)- - - - - - when we woke up in Ames on Wednesday morning, one of the valves in the toilet in our motorhome had broken.  Mark and Sue detoured to Des Moines and spent all day trying to get parts to fix it, but the eventual solution was that Tiffin Motorhomes (our manufacturer) Fedex-ed -- at their cost -- a brand new toilet to us at our next stop in Tama.  Mark confirmed with them at 3:00 in the afternoon Wednesday, and we had it by 10:15 the next morning.  Mark and I installed it in 20 minutes and we were on our way.  Talk about great service and support!! -- it's the reason we bought a Tiffin!



The RAGBRAI crowds  - - - - with 12,000 to 14,000 people riding, supporting, and otherwise involved with the ride, there were crowds everywhere as we traveled through the small towns of central Iowa -- on the roads, in the towns, waiting to get water or to go to the bathroom, pitching their tents or parking their RV's. . . . . .


The RAGBRAI food  - - - - - with that many hungry bikers pedaling 60-80 miles per day, there were all sorts of opportunities to replace lost calories.  Many of the towns look forward to being on the route (which changes each year) because of the money that their stores, organizations, and churches can make from the influx of riders and support crew.


The RAGBRAI "teams" and their support busses and names were a never ending source of amusement and and laughter -- here are some samples . . . . .






Of course, the blog would not be complete without some shots of our own RAGBRAI "team" and crew as we pedaled, ate, and partied our way across Iowa . . . . .
 






All in all we had a wonderful time and look forward to doing it again some year.  We learned some lessons about doing the ride and look forward to a flatter route.  Many thanks again to Mark and Sue for their help and support for all of us, and to our friends who rode with us as we realized one of our cycling goals.

RAGBRAI 2008 - Wednesday update

Just a quick update since (as we've found everywhere) WiFi is very limited, with 10,000+ riders all trying to get on line one way or the other . . . . . .
We're in Tama, IA after our fourth day of RAGBRAI and all is well.  The rides are a bit more difficult than we'd anticipated, but all are doable -- we just need to remember that we have all day.  We've ridden over 200 miles and no major incidents.  We've had a few hassles with the motorhome -- the toilet mechanism stopped working last night, and Mark had to take it into Des Moines to try to get it fixed today.  No parts were available so Tiffin will be overnighting a new complete toilet to us at the campground by tomorrow morning -- we'll install it and be on our way.  Its the reason we are so convinced that TMH not only makes the best motorhomes today, but backs them up with unbelievable customer support.
We're on another 70 mile day tomorrow with 12,000 of our best cycling friends.  We'll update the blog when we can, but will do some complete posts with pictures next week. 

RAGBRAI -- day 1

Just a quick post to update our readers on our 2008 RAGBRAI -- Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  We drove to Missouri Valley, IA on Saturday in preparation for leaving from there this AM.  Things got a bit stormy last night, but no rain - didn't even have to turn the AC on last night as there was a bit of a breeze.  Today's ride to Harlan, IA was 59 miles and 3797 feet of elevation gain.  We left about 7AM and were safely at the end point by 2:00 with bunches of stops along the way.  We had our first Iowa pork chop from Mr. Porkchop's stand, and other traditional goodies as we slogged our way along.  The temps were in the 80's and very high humidity, so we sweated quite a bit.  Jack got in first, Greg second and Mandy and Judy came in about a half hour later.  Mark and Sue had the motorhome parked and the beer cold by the time we got there so all is right with the world.
Tomorrow's route will test us all -- its 83 miles and 5239 feet of elevation gain on the way to Jefferson, IA.  Hopefully the weather won't be too hot, but the humidity will probably still remain high, so we'll have to stay hydrated.  Mark may post some pix on his blog for those of you who want to see more (www.didelottravels.typepad.com) and the Des Moines Register and RAGBRAI websites should have some good coverage also (www.ragbrai.org).
Hopefully more info tomorrow, assuming we survive.  We'll post our pictures as we can.

Exploring Iowa

We've kept up our preparations for riding RAGBRAI (which starts a week from Sunday, on July 20), by finally getting in some good hill work and some miles.  However, in addition to that fun, we've managed to stay employed at Adventureland and keep up our sightseeing. 
Over the past two weeks we've visited several interesting places within a short drive from our location here in Altoona -- Pella, Iowa (which is famous for its manufacturing industry specializing in high end doors and windows) is also a very quaint Dutch community about 45 miles southeast from Des Moines -- and, in a completely different vein, the Iowa I-80 Truck Stop, about 140 miles east of us, which bills itself as the largest truckstop in the world.  It was having its annual Truckers Show and Exposition this week, and we took a drive over there.  Joining Mandy, me, Mark, and Sue on the way to there were Jim and Yvette, who we met in Texas several years ago, and who stopped here to see us this week on their way back to the Austin area.
Here are some shots of downtown Pella - we were there on a beautiful day, and really enjoyed the visit.

There was an interesting glockenspeil in downtown Pella which did a show every other hour and displayed mechanical figures of the history of Pella -- including the famous western gunfighter Wyatt Earp -- who was born here.  The nearby courtyard was decorated by some very detailed ceramic pictures with traditional Dutch scenes.
 


This last weekend was the Fourth of July, and, as you might imagine, the park was very busy.  In addition, there were two fireworks shows -- the Casino/Racetrack next to us had a spectacular show on Friday night, and Adventureland had their own show on Saturday night.  We didn't get much in the way of pictures, but both the shows were outstanding, with thousands of people coming to see them both.


Our friend Richard had alerted us to the truckers show at the I-80 Truckstop a week or so ago, and Mark and I talked the ladies into a trip there for our day off this week.  Jim and Yvette, who were in town, also came along and we had a wonderful day looking at new and custom Freightliners, Kenworths, Peterbuilts, and Volvos -- and collecting all the swag we could.  The best swag item -- for me, at least -- was all the free fuel additives that the representative from Howes Lubrication was giving away.  I'd used their anti-gel and fuel conditioner for the past several years, and he loaded me up with all sorts of free samples of new stuff -- not sure if it will do any good, but it can't hurt.  Their new fuel conditioner/injector cleaner additive is "guaranteed" to increase your fuel mileage by 4.85% -- its worth a try, with diesel still at the $4.60 level and lots of miles to drive after we leave here in September.
In any event, here are some pictures of some neat trucks, and of us just having fun on our day off -- and the BBQ afterwards.
On the road again, on the way to the I-80 Truckstop -- Mark, Yvette, Mandy, and Sue.














How about this for a custom dashboard?




















The same truck from the passenger's door -- the finish work was amazing, and the driver used the truck daily -- his trailer was in back of the truckstop waiting for him to hook up and get on the road again.






This truck and sleeper were custom-made for this disabled trucker -- this was also a working truck;  this guy drives it daily all over the country.














Some other interesting trucks and general shots of the show.
  







The whole gang with their swag and the truckstop in the background.






(Mark really outdid himself on his blogpost of the Truck Exposition, using all sorts of bandwidth to post many more pictures than we did (although its his bandwith, so I guess that's fair .  . . . . ).  Go to his blog to see many more super trucks)





Sue's not that sure that Mark can attack that pork chop with just a plastic knife and fork.









It was a relaxing drive back to Altoona . . . . .



We did take a slight detour to Kelona, a small farming community south of Iowa City, that still has families of Amish farmers living in the area.  Mandy went looking for a new quilt for our bed -- this one was beautiful, but we passed it up.



We invited Bob and Vicki over (they had to work that day) and finished the day off at our campsite with a few refreshments, some barbequed brauts that we'd gotten at the meat market in Pella the week before, and a bit of BS-ing.