My wife, Becky, is off on RAGBRAI this week. This is 50th year they’ve had the event and the 19th year Becky has done it. Only skipping 2020 when they only had a virtual ride (lame) because of the pandemic.
RAGBRAI stands for Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. It was started by the Register newspaper in Des Moines and has grown to a huge event with international participation.
The year before she started riding RAGBRAI, Becky did the Heartland AIDSRide, which was a fundraiser. She got sponsors and then road from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Chicago across Wisconsin. That was the last year for that ride. It wasn’t raising enough money to make it worthwhile. She started looking for something similar and ended up settling on RAGBRAI. She’s gone every year they’ve had it since.
She drove to the east side of Iowa, to the ending town, last Friday and camped that night. She got up Saturday morning and got on a bus at 6:00am that took her to the starting town on the west side of Iowa. Sunday was the first day of the ride and this Saturday will be the last. There’s usually a big party the night of the last day, but Becky isn’t interested. She’ll get off the bike, load her stuff in her car, and head home… a 5-6 hour drive…
Yesterday was particular brutal for her, since it was the longest day of this year’s ride, at 86 miles, and the hottest so far, at 98 degrees. Some of you know that I’m also on Twitter, so I had to jump into this climate alarmist’s response thread with Becky’s “vacation”. If you can’t open the link, the original post said sitting outside in the shade when it is over 90 degrees is deadly. The first response was, “Arizonians say, ‘Hold my beer.’ ” My response to that is to the right.
She also sent me this picture, which I used to follow up the first one.
She does meet up with a lot of interesting characters! The event is known as the biggest party on two wheels, but the range of riders is huge. There is generally a beer garden set up in the first town each morning and for some, that sets the tone for the day. There are all ages and in some cases whole families. Some people ride a little and then take the SAG wagon. Some persevere (Like Becky) and ride the whole thing no matter how long it takes. (She’s gotten in close to dark a few times.) Then she’s talked about a few hard core bikers that get up in the morning, ride to the end town, back to the beginning town, and then back to the end town each day, riding each day’s route three times!
I am often asked why I don’t do this with her, and my two standard responses are either, “Because I’m not Crazy!” or “Pigs haven’t flown yet…”. While I could maybe, potentially, possibly, see myself getting into shape for the ride, I’ve never been a camper. After a day of that much exertion, I can’t imagine sleeping on the ground that night. Which is pretty much the standard option. On average, they expect around 30,000+ riders and since they try to stay off the main roads, that’s like 30,000 people descending on small towns like Plymouth for a night. Kind of like one night of the Blueberry Festival. Those towns mostly have to shut down, but on the bright side, all of the service groups get their fundraising covered for the year, by selling pies (RAGBRAI is known for pies) and having Church suppers with lasagna or chicken & noodles or some other high carb, easy to make in mass meal. Becky says sleeping on the ground is never a problem for her, because she’s tired enough to sleep anywhere. The biggest issue for her is setting up the tent at night when she’s tired, and breaking camp in the morning… when she’s still tired…
Four more days of this and she’ll head home. She’ll sleep most of Sunday and be up and off to work Monday morning, with a few sore muscles and some interesting tan lines.
If you’re interested in daily reports, I have an email chain I send out with pictures and updates. Just send me your address and I’ll add you there. Be sure to congratulate Becky if you see her. Or confirm that you agree she’s crazy! Ha!
