RAGBRAI Day 0 Prep for the start of Bikes Occupy Iowa

It was great seeing Rod and Brenda Turner after lots of years!

Theresa returned from her tip to Dallas on Thursday to find clean bikes all loaded and ready to go for the next phase of our adventure, RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). The remaining prep would be completed on Friday morning. We took a break from the prep and met Theresa's cousin Greg and his wife Treasure for a nice lunch as they live in Moline. It heated up during lunch so when we returned to the campsite we took a short dip in the pool which cooled us off for a bit while we waited the arrival of out TNR riding buddy Joe Pittman from NC. While we were waiting, Kevin's phone rings and shows the name Carl Berry, he answered it “Are you at RAGBRAI?”. His reply was he was on his way. We know Carl from Steve Cope's epic trip across the country in 2008, when we surprised Steve at the Louisiana border. Carl had already hooked up with Steve so we continued on their journey and had the best time ever. This was the inspiration for our adventure!. Kevin made arrangements to call Carl once we got to the start so we would be sure to hook up. Once he arrived we got all his stuff loaded and we were heading onto Iowa at about 6:30pm. Our plans had us driving about 3 hours to just north of Des Moines and stay at a Walmart for the night. We had been contacted by old College friends, Rod and Brenda Turner who thought they had seen us on our Drive a few days earlier in IL heading out of Peoria. Indeed we were in that area so we concluded it was us they had seen... what are the odds we thought! Anyway they live near the Walmart so once we arrived they joined us for a nice visit. It was great reminiscing about the ISU Johnson House adventures so many years ago and catching up on what has transpired over the years.

TNR is ready for RAGBRAI!

Forest from Bike World

Today we got going around 8am for our 4 hour drive to Sioux Center, IA in north western part of the state. The ride was smooth and uneventful. The terrain became quite rolling once we got north of Council Bluffs (a bit of a prelude to the next days ride). We stopped for gas at the first place in Sioux Center at a Full Service station (did not even know those existed any more) Mr. Tire. A young man pumped the gas while we all took turns using the restroom. How nice was that! On into the town we were directed to the fairgrounds to park in the designated RV parking area. We were early so we were luck enough to get a spot in the shade. We set up and let the Smitanic expand to her full glory. We sat outside with a nice breeze and ate a sandwich and drank our inaugural beer. Joe got on his bike and rode 15 miles to the river to dip his tire while Kevin and Theresa began some prep for the next days ride. Theresa wanted to ride her classic 1979 Jeffery Bock as it was much lighter than the Green Machine. Kevin started to dig out her gear and discovered he had forgot to pack her shoes and her Cateye, oopps! Guess it is time for a new pair of shoes! We marched off to the Expo (which was wall to wall bodys and bikes) to find Bike World. This was a familiar bike shop when we lived in Iowa years ago and we causully knew the owner Forest Ridgeway. They were very helpful and were impressed with Theresa's classic. We were surprised to see that Forest was there and Kevin introduced himself and dropped some of our friends names that we knew he would recognize. We again took a tour down memory lane while Theresa's bike got all hooked up with new peddles to fit her new sandal style shoes! 

By know we were dripping but continued on the mission to find a Cateye that would work to replace the one left behind. There was a CatEye tent where we asked the guy if he had something that would work. He replied “you may just be lucky … I have one!”. He slipped it on the bike and spun the tire to validate it worked. Kevin thanked him and asked how much we owed him. He said you know what I'd really like is a Dt Coke! Consider it done! Theresa was now equipped to roll.

We caught up with Carl Berry at the expo.

We did a bit more prep and examining maps for the next day. Kevin has to take a different route with the RV to the next town so he wanted to assure he knew the route as he will note have any help navigating. We then grabbed some dinner. We set out for the Spaghetti dinner hosted byt a local church but saw the line and opted for Sloppy Joes in a building near by. It was antiquate. Once back at the RV, Carl and 3 of his group showed up supplied with cold beer! We all gathered in the RV and once again recalled events from the Steve Cope ride as well as other biking adventures.

Carl & Company left as it was getting late and we all had an early morning. Theresa still needed to write this blog! Just as Theresa got the first paragraph drafted explosions began! The Fireworks were right over our heads and loud! Zin jumped and curled up in a corner. We watched from our window as the sky continued to lite up for about 15 min. RAGBRAI XL has officially started!

The ride tomorrow is a planned 54 miles to Cherrokee with 2-3 'towns' along the way. The route is mostly south with some east and of course the forecast is for SSW winds at 10-20 mph and a hot 97. Joe has estimated 24 x 40 = 168 hours of sweating!