The past few Fridays have been dedicated to art. Today, I shift a little and write about my upcoming Great Bike Ride - RAGBRAI. Two weeks from Sunday I begin the 477 mile journey across my home state. Here's the route - again.
Day 1 - Rock Rapids to Spencer - 77.6 miles
Day 2 - Spencer to Humboldt - 76.9 miles
Day 3 - Humboldt to Hampton - 72 miles
Day 4 - Hampton to Cedar Falls - 68.8 miles
Day 5 - Cedar Falls to Independence - 62.1 miles
Day 6 - Independence to Dyersvillle - 63.2 miles
Day 7 - Dyersville to Bellevue - 57.4 miles
With many towns in between. I'm looking forward to Iowa pork tenderloins, sweet corn, cinnamon rolls and beer! Not to mention the hundreds of non-profits who are raising funds across the state. My sister once baked 20 or 30 dozen cookies to benefit her classrooms. True community!
I'm experiencing separation anxiety today. My bike is in transit via FedEx after being carefully packed by the best bike guys - WheelSport East. Today, my 17 year old Schwinn transported me to work. I need a bike with a rack to lug my panniers so a friend is loaning me his commuter bike.
I am jazzed to say the least (jazz is an art form, ain't it? :). I'm riding about 40 miles a day with weekends dedicated to longer rides. Last weekend I logged just over 100 miles. Much of it was pleasant as I had company.
Tammy, from my support team Pork Belly Ventures (isn't that a cute little pig on a bicycle) called this morning to say a room has opened up at the unofficial PBV hotel for my one night at the end of the ride. Read this about charter expectations and tell me this ride won't be a scream:What Does PBV Expect of You? LIVE LIKE A PIG. That means handle. Deal. Roll with it. Lower your standards and you can't be disappointed. Pigs can turn a bad day into a good story. They give respect, appreciation, and good-natured guff to PBV crew members, the hardest working people on this entire ride. Pigs help each other out. They love to yuk it up, but out of courtesy they are quiet before 5:00 a.m. and after 10:00 p.m. Pigs pick up every speck of trash before leaving a host town. They never climb onto a Pork truck-just hand the bags up to our truck loaders each morning. Pigs manage to find comfort in uncomfortable places. We hope you have it in you to live like pigs.
That, my friends, is a worthy way to approach the adventure.
Here are a few cycling links -
Windy City Biker - Steve from Winnetka logs his commute in Chicago
Bike Snob - if you ride this will crack you up! If you don't - look at the fun you're missing. Some good ol' NYC satire and humor.
MasiGuy - MasiGuy is moving me closer and closer to more writing on cycling.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Fifteen days to RAGBRAI
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
we'll see you on the road bob! i'm riding with 3 others as team "Bloganostra". we're starting in cedar falls but will at least attempt to say hi in independence if not along the way. i can probably say for sure i'll be wearing a blues brother's jersey day one. i ride a red trek madone. hope all is well. doug from moments of clarity blog.
Bob,
Iowa is looking forward to having you back home!
It's about 95 degrees today, so the weather should be nice and balmy for the road trip!
Drew
aaahhh, yes Drew - the beautiful balmy weather of Iowa in July - lol! what kind of foolhardy knucklehead would want to ride across Iowa on a bike in July?!?!
hey Doug - I'm riding a Blue specialized expedition and traveling with Pork Belly Ventures....they carry the beer :) - I'll look for you and hope to touch base - so long as I don't need to know the Bloganostra secret handshake :)
Hey Bob ... enjoy the ride ... and be CAREFUL!
Thanks Gav...I always think of your pops in law when I'm riding - stuff can happen so quickly so I try to remain extra careful!
Hi Bob,
A quick hello to let you know that Fuelmyblog has had some surgery done and lots of changes have happened.
Your current voting widget is not valid, to fix this all you need to do is login to your account with Fuel and follow the link for widgets. All the widgets displayed on that page have the code matching your blog and are ready to copy and paste.
Happy blogging!
I'm rootin' for you, Bob, but not quite like a pig. :-)
Thanks Kevin - I copied the code a while back and never added it to the blog - no wonder it doesn't work :)
Robyn - thanks for your support - it should be a great time!
Bob,
Good luck at RAGBRAI. Last year was my first one, and it was an awesome experience (not going this year). I'm not really a biker, but got 950 miles in before the ride, and generally did not have any issues (exception: hills, heat, and headwinds on 2nd day almost did me in - but I did not SAG!). I also went with PBV and they are a great bunch. You cannot go wrong with them. Enjoy the Elders on the first night.
Bob S.
Thanks Bob - It's going to be fun! So far Pork Belly has gone far beyond my expectations.
What's really funny is the most common response I get from people when they find I'm biking across Iowa. "Well, at least its flat". HA! I try to remember nothing is flat on a bicycle :)
Best of luck Bob :) I'm sure you'll have loads of fun. Enjoy the ride and be sure to let us know how it goes ;-)
You know I will Ryan :) - was going to try and blog it a couple days. I'm going unplugged so I'll need to assess the online capabilities in the pass through town libraries. Thanks for the good wishes -
Bob - I have just checked out the RAGBRAI website.WoW! this is some undertaking. Sounds like a real community has grown up round the event.
As we say here in Scotland "All the best!"
Thank you Jackie - "all the best" is a wish I can live with :) - So far the training and surrounding fun has been beyond my imagination. The people involved in the ride - especially my support team - all have a love for the event...and it shows.
Very... Nicee... Blog.. I really appreciate it... Thanks..:-)
Post a Comment