I've been pretty good this trip about updating every day, but yesterday got too fun too fast and I was in no state to write a blog update when I finally returned to my tent in the late hours of the night. RAGBRAI magic is afoot!
The ride yesterday was pretty relaxed, an easy 25 miles to my first rest stop at Canton, a town on the Iowa border, and then a more difficult headwindy hilly 20 miles into Rock Valley. 46 miles, 3:15 on the bike, and I arrived at 1:20pm. It was basically only half-day as far as normal riding is concerned, but I was feeling the wear and tear of 29 days straight of riding and almost 2,000 miles without a break.
Rock Valley and the surrounding area were hit badly by a flood about a month ago, and they almost had to cancel their town hosting RAGBRAI. They've had hundreds of volunteers working countless hours to get the town ready, sometimes while their own homes are still in disrepair. There were signs of the flood damage starting miles away. This is an area that has never flooded like that before, so no-one was carrying flood insurance.
And yet the town is in full RAGBRAI spirits. It's fully decorated already and RAGBRAI folks are running around everywhere. I was going to stay in a hotel to get some "me" time on my rest days, but that seemed contrary to the purpose of the tour so I asked the town RAGBRAI committee if anyone was offering up yards. Now I'm staying at Phil and Diane's place waiting for Team RoadShow to join us on Saturday. I just did laundry not in a sink for the first time this trip! Yay! I also have my tent in a all--day shady spot which means I can sleep in! And I can also leave it up for three nights straight! Joy!
Last night after Phil and Diane cooked me a great dinner of burgers, I headed back in to town to meet people. I'd already become somewhat of a celebrity this year because I was one of the first to show up and because I rode all the way from Oregon. In fact I was already interviewed for the local paper that afternoon. When I went back into town is was a little slow, so I headed the one bar.
There was only one other person there at first, someone who'd lost a lot of property to the flood and we talked about that for awhile. Soon other people started coming in, and it turned out word had spread really fast in the small town "Hey, are you the guy who rode from Oregon!" I didn't buy any of my own drinks after my first one, and the night flowed to fun from there.
Highlights include meeting Don, the Rock Valley Hospitiality Director, who has as Gold Bond University setup in his backyard for RAGBRAI, and a great night riding around with Bernie: "Lance Armstrong can suck the fart out of my ass, this guy rode from Oregon!"
Yes you can Lance, yes you can...
Thing are going to get more crazy from here, so I won't be doing regular updates from RAGBRAI. I'll try and do picture updates, but we'll see. There is too much crazy stuff happening on RAGBRAI to document, even if I had the time. I also have other responsiblities now, like helping get the team here and working on our juggling show.
Rock Valley, you are the awesomest.
No comments:
Post a Comment