Well, I made it. I traveled from Florida to the western part of Iowa, biked (more than) 405 miles (though that was the official total RAGBRAI mileage), ate a lot of weird food, saw a lot of cows and cornfields, drank a lot of beer, and got home safely – somehow. Here’s how it all went:

Last Thursday (as in, not this past but before): Got picked up by our friend and loaded our bags and bikes onto his truck. Got on the road with the intention of making it to Nashville. Not a bad drive but Alabama South to North is a long semi-boring ride – no offense Alabamians! I don’t recall about what time we got in; I know we stopped at a Cracker Barrel along the way. So we are driving into Nashville to find our airbnb and the firs thing we see is a dead body (on a gurney, black body bag) being hauled out of an apartment complex. This was not a good omen! We laughed about it but it was unnerving. Anyway, got to the airbnb, which was on the third floor, so unpacking bags and bikes was a hassle. Oh well. Ubered to Barrique, which, for my money, is the best brewery in Nashville. After, we went to Smith and Lentz, which also came highly recommended and while they had some very good beer, it was the pizza that made it. SO good.

We had to call it a bit early, since we had more driving ahead of us. Friday was Nashville to Kansas city. After leaving Nashville, we stopped at a place called Miss Lucille’s for breakfast, which was very cute and tasty. We got into Kansas City and the airbnb was pretty nice, though we had to drive through some sketchy areas before we got to it! Our friend’s brother-in-law lives there and suggested some places to eat and we chose one of his BBQ suggs: Jack Stack’s. I have to say, it wasn’t the best bbq I have eaten. We should have chosen a hole in the wall. We should have asked for different recommendations!

I was annoyed at this point but we pressed on to another couple breweries that just…sucked. One, whose name now escapes me, was not for us. First, the beer sucked. Two, it was hot and crowded. Three, the bartenders were, well, WEIRD. I won’t go any further because I’m not trying to be mean but let’s just say I am not their intended demographic. Anywho, we finally just ubered to KC Beir Co, which we’d been to before. Once I had a liter of actual good German beer, I was pleased.

Saturday it was time to press on to Orange City, Iowa. It was only about four or so hours, which was a welcomes drive day over the last two. We got into the town and found where our charter was set up. You can tent camp it on your own, RV, stay in hotels (which is almost entirely not feasible but some manage it) or you can pay money to a service who sets things up for you. We chose one months ago and it did not disappoint. Once there, we realized that the king sheet I brought did not actually fit over the two twin mattresses so we had to go to the Dollar General. That worked out. We went, then took our friend’s truck to the shipping service he used. We were going from one side of the state to the other so logistically, this was the best option. It would be waiting for us at the end so we could leave.

Once all that minutiae was taken care of, we headed down to the expo. Below: our tent city and some photos in Day 0 town. We went to sleep that night a little nervous, a little green about the whole camping for days on end thing, and relatively comfortable, since it wasn’t too hot.

Sunday, Day one. 71.8 miles; 1520 feet of elevation. Time to ride! Not gonna lie: I was nervous. In the training, the farthest we rode was 65 miles. And here we were attempting 7 more. We took our time, of course. There’s a bunch of stops along the way; towns, people selling things at their homes, the Iowa Craft Beer tent. They do a thing where if you hit 10/13 stops, you get a t-shirt. Well, I am always up for a challenge, even if it means stopping at 7:15 am for a breakfast brat and a beer!

It was tough but we made it! Got to the end town, Milford, and got a shower. Shower trailers are…interesting. But it was nice to get clean. I had to wait a while because we took so long that day but it was worth it. Each town had a shuttle of some sort to get you to the expo and in the first two towns, it was literally a glorified hay ride, as seen in the photo. I don’t think we ever even drank a beer that night!

Monday, Day two: 41.2 miles, 1103 feet of elevation. An easier day. We blasted through it, though checked a couple boxes: first time the route has ever gone into Minnesota and we ate at Mr. Porkchop, a RAGBRAI staple. In that end town of Estherville, home to the fighting midgets, apparently (the high school team), we wanted non-fair food from the expo so we walked to a Mexican place that was way in over their heads with customers. Ended up sitting at a table with another guy riding and chatted with him during our meal. One thing about this ride is that it is very communal.

Tuesday, Day 3: 73.9 miles, 1338 feet of elevation. I was pretty nervous about this long day. In the beginning, my legs were already feeling gassed. In fact, the first 26 miles kind of sucked and I was in a BAD mood. We’d had some signal in the last town (did I mention the lack of cell signal everywhere??) and I was stressed about not being able to get into emails and stuff. So my brain was bogged down in negativity. Until we got to the first bigger pass through town, I was very in my head and unhappy. We got there and I had a mini-cheesecake that was delicious. I finally managed to turn it around a little bit. In fact, from there to Titonka, where they had an actual brewery, I was getting better and better and I finished this day strong!

We actually didn’t do too awful that day, in terms of the ride. It was ok; not as hilly for me. I think it was there that we camped near a small college. I was none too happy with the showers that day; the trailer we normally had been using was parked too far away and we opted for their aquatic center, which, sadly, had only three small stalls and nowhere to put your stuff, plus no towels. I had never put my clothes on wet before but, well, there ya go! Forest City finally had SOME trees so we took a shuttle (a school bus) to a place called Shooterz, which was good. I mean, it was a sports bar but it had AC and some ok beer and we got to relax a little. No complaints.

Wednesday, Day 4. 69.8 miles, 1420 feet of elevation. Not gonna lie: this day was HARD! BUT I had a good attitude going in. Days 3 and 4 were the hardest days, by all accounts. We had insane headwinds 6/7 days but this one was by far the worst. Uphill, headwinds, SUN. Lots of it. We were faster this day, not stopping at as many places. We would get food in towns but only if we felt like we needed it. I mean, you have to eat. Even though this was a hard day, I felt better. Can’t remember how long from the end the last beer tent was, pictured below, but I think it may have been about 13. When we got to Iowa Falls, which was the prettiest town for sure, we were camped across from the river so we actually got in! In fact, we also walked across an old suspension bridge above it to get to the shower trailer that day. Cool place. We went to a brewery there as well, which was much needed after the ride.

Thursday – Day 5. 50 miles, 1270 feet of elevation. This was a gift compared to the days before! We didn’t have to try so hard to get to our location with so few miles so we enjoyed some things, such as Beekman’s ice cream that is churned by old John Deere motors, as well as some bigger food that we had in the first town, Ackley. We got to town before noon, for sure. This was Cedar Falls, the largest town we overnighted in, with maybe 46k people. It’s a college town so it makes sense. Here, we wanted to do laundry but when we got there, they’d closed at noon. Missing out on money, I tell you! So I looked like a hobo carrying a garbage bag of clothes around downtown but so be it. In town, we went to two breweries (Single Speed was good; Second State was NOT) and then a couple bars. The barcade was very cool. We walked into some place called Uncle Harry’s and everyone there was doing a thing where whenever anyone walked in, they all cheered and gave high fives. Good times!

Friday – Day 6. 38.4 miles, 1146 feet of elevation. I don’t know why but I felt really icky this day. Maybe too many beers the night before? I think that may have been the evening we sat in the charter “zone” (tents with chairs, snack and drinks, fans, where everyone on said charter can gather) and we chatted with some people. Either way, this day was just ok, cycling wise. Not too hilly. We stopped at a beer tent and found a box of cute lucky ducks, ate some food. We didn’t stop much because we wanted to get in very early. We managed to find a good tap room and instead of going straight to camp, we went there. We ordered a couple beers and pizza, which they then said they weren’t going to do because of all the riders. Then we saw someone get one and decided to confront them. So they said ok, we’ll do pizza but we don’t have cheese. Then through a series of discussions, turns out they did have cheese and in the end, we ate pizza! LOL. After that we went back to camp, grabbed our clothes, and did manage to find a laundromat. We sat behind it in the shade and drank a beer while we waited, then showered that evening and didn’t do too much else. Nice sunset that night.

Saturday, Day 7. 61.6 miles, 2340 feet of elevation. I was worried about the climb, no doubt. But it was also the last day so the irritation of morning time was not as bad. See, each day you had to get dressed and everything was always a little damp in the tent. Then you had to prepare a shower bag in case you got done before the charter was set up. Now, most days they were so you could get your bags but they did early arrival bins just in case. That day was just, pack it all up and hope you got everything! The last day was a lot of long hill climbs; not too steep until maybe the last quarter. This was also the first day we got rained on. That kind of sucked; my shoes apparently hold quite a bit of liquid. We had to acquire our award beer shirt in the downpour but we got it!

This was Amish country and we saw quite a few out there selling! But we stopped so little on this ride; we just wanted to be done. The final couple miles were STEEP downhills and I was very scared. Not only was I going way too fast for my liking but so were people around me. That was the dangerous part. In fact, a couple on a tandem crashed at the bottom of one and I am not sure one of them didn’t die. Speaking of, there were a couple deaths; we saw one. On Monday, almost to Minnesota, things started to slow and they were directing people off their bikes and to the left. An older man had a heart attack and fell off and as we passed, we saw him laid out, looking pretty dead as people did CPR. He did die in the hospital later after EMTs came. And they got there pretty quickly. I’m not sure I’d ever seen someone actually dead before. Not cool at all.

Either way, when we finally got to Guttenberg, I thought I’d cry at being done but there was still the obligatory tire dip in the Mississippi so I held it together. In fact, I was more relieved than proud but of course, a lot of those other emotions come later once everything has been processed.

I have to go get fingerprinted for my new job now but I’ll probably do a fall out post tomorrow. Thanks for reading about my week-long bike ride!