I much prefer to have my laptop with me when we tour, but then I also prefer to have a real bed, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, and a hot shower every night! Having someone move our bags from tent to truck and back to tent each night in hot van trucks did not seem like good transport for my laptop, nor did a pannier on my bike in the daily heat and humidity (not to mention having to carry it with me every time we leaned our bikes together in search of food, restrooms, or festivities!
The biggest advantage to having it with me though, is the recording of details. You’ll notice in my summary below that I am vague about which day or town we might be in. And I know I missed some details that were fun for us on one of the best people watching events we’ve ever attended. But owell, this is what I have. Next year when we do Japan and (if I can talk Craig into it) the Atlantic coast, I’ll try to bring my laptop along!
I wrote most of this on July 29, after we had returned from Iowa on “a perfect bonus day.” We hadn’t planned to be home from RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) unitl the 30th, so driving two long days was totally worth having an extra day to get caught up, do laundry, and chill. In two days we would leave for Port Angeles to do the Tour de Lavender and Ride the Hurricane rides (and be there for Dad’s appointment on Monday). After that we would have less than a week before I ride Obliteride, and then just a few more weeks before RSVP. I’m so happy to be making up for all the bike trips we canceled last summer!
The drive to Ragbrai was not so bad. We traded off driving every 2 hours or so, and we stopped at both Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. The latter would be fun to ride through, although a bit hilly; the terrain was so interesting and we saw buffalo (who greeted us at the entrance) and antelope. Despite the threat of a speeding ticket near Sturgis (which the police officer generously downgraded to a no seatbelt ticket), we made good time; we even stopped in Missoula to check out Adventure Cycling’s headquarters since we had been unable to on our cross-country ride in 2021. (Later on the Ragbrai ride, someone saw our Seattle gear and asked if we had stopped in Missoula because they saw our names on the register.)
The second night we stayed at a cute, mini log cabin beneath some towering grain silos. That was in Wall, so of course we wandered through a mostly deserted Wall Drugs, which we had seen advertised for 30 or more miles on I-90; definitely underrated. Well is also where we had perhaps the worst meal of our lives, at one of only a few restaurants (the other one being noticeably busier – should have known). We sat outside, pestered by flies, and I ate only a few bites of fish and chips that tasted like paste and were still dripping oil. Back to the hotel for a bottled beer and potato chips!
We stayed in Sioux Center the night before the Ragbrai expo, at a new Fairfield hotel next to a golf course. Ate at an unimpressive but edible dinner at the bar in the same complex, and then got decent sleep in the last bed we would sleep in for 8 days.
Ragbrai was an experience to be sure. We opted for the official tire dip on “day zero” – they bussed us to the river (which we later found out wasn’t even the Missouri but a tributary) and we rode 30 miles back to Orange City where the expo was. It was actually a great warm-up ride and then we enjoyed seeing all the food and bike vendors and bands at the expo before retiring to our first campground before the rain started in an already soggy and muddy field.
The first few days were easy, the next few were really challenging (one due to opting for the century and the other due to extreme heat, humidity, and headwinds all day), but the last three were relatively easy and cooler. We got tired of camping quickly, although the OOS charter made things so much easier for us than it could have been. We also got tired of the same food options every day (and lines for them), even though there were a few that we repeated often (“award winning” grilled cheese sandwiches and pickle pops, falafel or gyro bowls).
We kept our bags fairly organized despite overpacking (the charter had allowed us two bags apiece, up to 50 lb apiece, so it was a luxury). The portable fan for the tent was a gem. The double air mattress was awesome until it stopped holding air the last few nights. The charter’s charging station was jampacked with cords and devices but still worked well – our charging brick made getting everything we needed done at once a breeze. Having our slides for walking around (and using the shower truck) was ideal – the campgrounds several days were soggy from rain the night before.
We had thunderstorms the first and one of the last nights, and just rain several others. Luckily our tent didn’t leak – we walked by a few in the mornings that had mini lakes in them. If it wasn’t thunder, it was snoring from nearby tents most nights that made it hard to sleep solid. One night when we came back late from seeing the bands in town, Craig started putting the cover over the tent while I got halfway into the tent before we realized it was the wrong tent! Can’t believe the poor guy didn’t wake up – we were mortified.
We met people from all over the country but mostly Colorado, Indiana, California, Oregon, Mississippi, Florida, and Iowa, of course. I got a hug from a Cougar woman at the concert one night – she was carrying her husband in a vial and had a good buzz going, but she was very sweet. We also sat across the lunch table from a Cougar (it was college jersey day). Lots of “Go, Dawgs” shout-outs as well as people who recognized our Cascade jerseys on the “I ride for…” day; Lance and Sarah’s teenage son had just finished STP (in one day!). We also met Michele and Toby in a bar one night (as well as Dee and Ben) and looked for them when we rolled through Edgewood the last day, but never saw them. I talked to Katie in the same charter several times who had played rugby in Seattle recently, and Stacy most days who rode similar miles to me on an annual basis – she had lived in Seattle for awhile. The other names escape me. A lot of middle-aged (or older) men on their own, which was a little sad – they were starved for company, but fun to chat with.
The shorter days (40ish miles) we celebrated early on with a beer or bloody mary when the lines weren’t too long and we wanted to stop for the shade. We both refilled our water bottles and reapplied sunscreen frequently, so there were no heat-related mishaps. We also quickly learned that no one was stealing bikes – they were leaned up and laying everywhere and no one bothered with locks. The only misfortune was having my taillight stolen in Cedar Falls when we were watching the band. Thank goodness they didn’t rifle through our few attached bags or the last day would have really ended on a sour note…
The very last day was longer (64 miles), it had the biggest ascents (and descents) of the week, and it gently rained all day, but we actually really enjoyed the day. When we rolled into Guttenberg before noon, the sun came out, the 150 or so air force volunteers were parading for the tire dip in the Mississippi, and we had a volunteer take our pictures off to the side to avoid the long line for official photos. Then we found a unique bar that Michelle had told us about (a cave called Rathskeller), paid for a decent shower (and disposable towel) at the local school, and then lined up for our bus to go back to Orange City.
I was asked to do roll call on bus #3 at the start and when we stopped for dinner a few hours later; not a big task other than no one could find Helen for awhile at the start. We ate at Subway then back to the bus for the remainder of the 5 hour drive. Our newly hired bus driver made us gasp a few times – almost didn’t make a turn at high speed, flew down a dirt road behind the other buses so close that we could only see dust for a long time and tottered in the soft soil, and then stopped so quickly behind one of them that we both thought we were going to hit it.
But the real excitement came when we arrived in Orange City, hauled all our gear to the truck, and then realized that none of our bags were unlocking the truck. So we strew the contents of our bag out on the cement while all the other riders were leaving and finally realized the key was in Craig’s frame bag on his bike. Whew!
Would we recommend Ragbrai to someone who’s never done it? Yes! Would we do it again ourselves? Probably not – there’s just too many states we’d like to ride through, and we’ve probably seen enough corn to last us a lifetime… 😊
Breit Bikes 