RAGBRAI XXXIV - The Best Yet!

With the end of July comes one of my favorite traditions: RAGBRAI!


With no Ironman looming in the distance, I was ready to enjoy a nice ride across Iowa. As an added bonus, this was to be the fourth flattest ride in RAGBRAI history.

Saturday (Ames to Rock Rapids):
Since our team was looking a little different than in past years, Sunshine hitched a ride with her friend Jay and his friends to the start town. Sparkle, Sid, and I loaded up the trailer in our best Beverly-Hillbilly-style and headed north to Buckeye to pick up Sid's brother, Shawn, who was just along for the ride west. We traveled with relative ease most of the route. Once we hit Sioux Center, the bus traffic had picked up significantly, and we all got more excited with each mile.

We easily found our host home. I think it is always a good sign when the owners are sitting out on the porch drinking when we show up... They were very helpful and hospitable. We unloaded and set up camp, then headed to town. The nightlife was hopping, but there were not many choices of where to go.




We, of course, found Team Emerson in the first bar we went into. The humidity level was so high, you couldn't actually see across the room due to the fog! We also found S'Todd (a friend who agreed to host the team when we got to Independence later in the week. But, by far the best part was the claw machine. Of all of Sid's many talents, his claw prowess is not to be doubted.

Sunday (Rock Rapids to Spencer - 62.5 miles ridden):
We awoke to a beautiful day. However, as the day wore on, we could tell it would be a windy day. There was a nice sharp wind out of the south, and, if you know Team Satisfied, you know that we don't do well with the wind... We forged on for the first half of the day before meeting up with Sid in the halfway town of Melvin. This fine little town was one of our favorite stops from a couple years ago when RAGBRAI came through previously.

After some lunch and a little R&R, we decided to load up into the trailer and bypass the southernly (is that a real word?? - my spell check says no...) section of the route. With navigator-extraordinaire Sid's expertise, we rejoined the route when it turned back east for the final 16 miles into Spencer.

We stayed at Sparkle's soon-to-be in-law's best friends' home. We posed for pictures when we arrived. They had quite a spread of munchies set out for us and we all enjoyed some water, food, and a refreshing round of showers.

We hiked up to the Clay County Fairgrounds for the evening's festivities. Making its RAGBRAI debut was the backpack cooler. This lovely invention was located at a local Target store for $20. We figure it saved the team a minimum of $150 over the week - a fine investment, if I do say so myself! With no overly-expensive (and nasty tasting) Miller products to purchase, we could enjoy whatever beverages we put in the backpack! Genius!

As we walked into the concert, the first person I saw was Steve from Team Emerson. He had just arrived on the ride after being stuck in a sports bar in Fort Dodge all day (long story...). He was glad to see us as the rest of the Emersons had already turned in for the night at about 9pm.

Spencer had some of the best entertainment of any night on RAGBRAI that I've been a part of. The Johnny Holms Band was rocking the house, and I do believe everyone there stayed to the end of the show. There were also fireworks. Really a perfect night!

The walk home ended with a Super 8 sign for Sunshine's tent... Shoot, I forgot to take a picture of that.

Monday (Spencer to Humboldt - 80 miles ridden):

Another team picture was required before we could leave again in the morning. We had two bad things going for us this day:

1. Sid had to go help his brother with a farming project all day, so we were without a sag driver. That meant we HAD to ride every mile of the day.

2. It was the longest day (mileage-wise) of the whole week.

We thought it best to each do our own thing for the day. Jay and Sunny rode together and Sparkle and I stuck together. It just made for an all-around happier day for all.

Sparkle and I wanted to front-load the day getting as many miles out of the way as early as possible. Sunny and Jay were planning to stop a little more often. We stopped in Marathon for some sweet corn and a great turkey breast sandwich. We bypassed the Century Loop. Again. Made another quick stop in Havelock. I needed a band-aid, so we stopped by the ambulance on our way through town. Literally the instant she gave me the band-aid, they got a call for a rider down one mile east of town. They went screaming out of town and we followed at a more leisurely pace.

The State Patrol stopped the bike traffic right as we got to the scene (so they could load the cyclist up in the meat wagon). It appeared to not be as bad as some of the accidents of the past few years.

Sparkle and I were hoping to find a short-cut into the last town and found a trail that looked like it would cut off a couple of miles. Turns out it was a limestone trail, but we went ahead and did six miles on it with our road bikes. No traffic and flat. Almost perfect!

In Bradgate we watched the water slides put on by the local fire department. That was fun until the 300 pound, 60-year old stripped down to a cheetah print g-string and took a turn or two. That was my cue to leave. We hooked up with Team Emerson for a hammer-fest into Rutland for the last beer garden of the day. Everybody was beat at this point. For some reason, it had been a hard day on everyone.

The last little bit into town was uneventful. We found our host home, ate some dinner, and showered up for the night. Our magnificent backpack cooler got us in a "little" bit of trouble, but not so much that we had to have a long conversation with the nice law enforcement officer.

The main bar in town asked the State Patrol to shut it down because they weren't prepared for all that RAGBRAI is. So we headed next door to an awesome new establishment with gorgeous woodwork, clean bathrooms, the Tour on the TV, and spaghetti dinner!

Tuesday (Humboldt to Hampton - 5.41 miles ridden):

As per Team Satisfied bylaws, one day per week must be a slack off day. Today was our day. Sparkle didn't want to ride at all. And the rest of us wanted to sleep in and maybe sag for part of the day. So we loaded up and headed to the half-way town of Clarion. There we found a Hardee's and grocery store. After gathering supplies (ice and multiple kinds of Doritos), we laid out a nice lunch and enjoyed the scenery (of the Hardee's parking lot...).

Sparkle and Sid would take the truck and trailer to Hampton and the rest of us would ride in. Sunny, Jay and I still wanted to ride some that day, so we changed into our cycling clothes and headed out. However, we figured since we were in Clarion, and there was a beer garden in Clarion, we owed to ourselves to check it out before we rode on.

It was a good thing we stopped because they needed us there! It was pretty empty when we got there, but filled up nicely after a bit. Some strange math by the ticket-sellers and the beer distributors lef tus with no other choice but to have more than one round. Even Lance Armstrong stopped in for a beverage! Not too many people have a picture of Lance blowing his nose...

Later, I checked in with Sid to have him answer a purely hypothetical question for me. Like, for instance, hypothetically speaking, if we were still in the beer garden three hours after he'd left us there, would he come get us? Not that this was the case, but just thought it'd be a good thing to have cleared up, just in case... Well, it's a good thing he said yes!


It was a very hot day and we were only 7 miles from Lake Cornelia. The thought of a nice, refreshing swim sounded great! We touched base with Sid to make arrangements for him to come get us there when we called. Long story short, we never made it there...


Exactly 5.41 miles out of Clarion, we took a right-hand turn onto County Road C-25. Low and behold, "Bob" was having was having a party on his farm! There was a band, beverages, food, and a agricultural-sprayer-turned-waterslide all set up! "Bob" clearly wanted us to join him, and the next thing we knew another few hours had passed us by.


We never made it to Lake Cornelia, but we did go out to the intersection of C-25 and R-38 to wait for Sid to come pick us up. Sunny was sure to give Sid a method to spot us when he arrived. Thanks, Sid!




We finally made it to Hampton with only 5.41 miles in our legs. We quickly cleaned up and headed downtown for some food and entertainment. Our first stop was a smoky old bar. Smoke is bad, so we headed for the only other bar in town (on the square). This was a jackpot! The Emersons and the Bad Monkeys were there and much fun was had by all. Thankfully, it was an early night since the day had been a long one. The evening ended with an excellent slice of pizza and a long walk home.




Wednesday (Hampton to Cedar Falls - 41 miles):

Since I had enjoyed Tuesday so much, I opted to take a different approach to Wednesday. I knew that Wednesday evening we would be staying at Sid's brother's house outside of Cedar Falls, and going out in big town like that isn't much fun on RAGBRAI. I drank water at each stop (when I could find it - no towns were really that well prepared with enough water).

We found a couple fun places to people-watch and hang out. Met some fun people, and enjoyed finding out just how interconnected Iowans are. It's like the six degrees of seperation of Kevin Bacon...

We exited the route early in Aplington in order to get to Shawn's house in time for dinner! And, a great dinner it was. It's always fun to hang out with the Koltermans and their three girls - Lexi, Livi, and Tori. Plus, they had just bought a puppy who entertained us most of the evening. Best of all was the great night's sleep inside in the air conditioning!

Wednesday turned out to be a very peaceful, relaxing, perfect RAGBRAI day.

Thursday (Cedar Falls to Independence - I forget how many miles... 60??)

I woke up well-rested and feeling very good on Thursday morning. I even threw down a little caffeine (very odd for me...), so I was ready to roll! We got a ride to the north side of Cedar Falls (since we had stayed SW of CF the night before).

Sparkle and Sid had to do a little vehicle-shuffling to Indy since Sid had to get back for work on Thursday night. Sunny, Jay, and I made our way to Denver, Iowa, for the first stop of the day. I was a little fearful that Thursday was going to be a re-play of Tuesday when we started off with a shot at the first bar. I honestly think that Sunny and Jay were just trying to calm me down from the caffeine from the morning... We also found some tasty vodka lemonades and vodka cranberrys. Soon it was time to move on...

We went through Klinger and Dunkerton (where we met up with Sparkle again). In both towns we were spreading the word of an off-route party in a little town called Littleton (aptly named, eh?). The Emersons were a big nervous to follow our lead, but we prevailed! We had quite the posse heading to Littleton!

Not too much action when we arrived, but the drinks were strong, it was hot out, and there were plenty of tents for shade out back. Soon the buses started rolling in and things started to get crazy. I think everyone drank way more than they had anticipated.

However, our day of off-route partying turned out better than the Bad Monkeys...

Back on the bikes, we headed for Indy. Once in town Sparkle found a place giving away free beer. We soon discovered why it was free... Yuck!

Next we located the Emersons at a little bar on the edge of town. Everyone was hungry, and one of the girls at the next table offered to take us to some food. As it turns out, her mother works at one of the retirement centers in Indy. That same retirement center was serving a big dinner to the riders for a fee. I've always said, it's not what you know, but who you know. Anyway, she got us all in for free! Corn, beans, cole slaw, salad, rolls, meat, and all-you-can-eat pie! Awesome.

Some of the seniors were providing entertainment on the portable keyboard in the dining area. We soon came to learn that our own Herndog (of the Emersons) could play the piano as well. He kicked the old lady out of her lawn chair (or politely offered to play and she gave him her seat), and played a little something much to the delight of the residents and his entire rugby team. Funniest moment of my RAGBRAI, that's for sure!

As we left the senior center, it was getting dark. Sparkle and I high-tailed it to the west side of town and out to the boonies to S'Todd's house. Not long after arriving, the storm clouds rolled through and our thoughts of going out turned to going to bed. It rained all night, so much so that Sparkle and I slept on S'Todd's living room floor and Sunny and Jay tent-camped in the garage!

All-in-all, it was a great ride. Never once did we all hate each other. The drama was kept to a minimum, and we're all looking forward to next year!

Mexico Mission Trip 2007 - A Pictorial Overview

Sixteen of us piled into 3 minivans in San Diego and headed south of the border to Tijuana, Mexico, to build a home through Amor Ministries. We had four working days to build a house. Here our fearless leader (Brian Jones) surveys the plot of ground upon which we will be building the home. Across the fence (to the right) there is another Amor Ministries home being built.

Above is the "old house." It is common to see homes built with whatever building materials are around. You'll notice the various panels of the house and its rooms. All of the building materials that we would use had already been delivered to the site before we arrived. As our Amor-appointed assistant pointed out to us, the materials aren't exactly what you would run down to Home Depot and purchase. Many, many 2x4s were warped (almost) beyond use. To call these "seconds" would be generous! Combine unskilled workers and lesser quality products, and you can only imagine what a challenge it is to build square walls, etc.

Meet part of the family below. We were building for a single mother and her three children. Also living there was the most docile little kitten I've even seen. Docile and cute, yes; clean, not by a long shot! The mother was very gracious, helpful, and patient. Her only request: a roof that doesn't leak. In her current home, she'd been stuffing old sweatshirts into the gaps were the ceiling meets the walls. Brian promised her that one request.

All of the cement for the foundation was mixed by hand. We worked out a system to keep the process moving. Even with a great team and good system, there is a LOT of concrete that goes into the foundation. The entirety of Day One was spent pouring and finishing the foundation. After it looked like things were progressing well on the foundation, some of us worked in the street on building a wall or two. That would mean one or two fewer walls to build tomorrow!

On Day Two we finished building the walls. There were seven total walls to build. The four for the two "long" sections were easy. In order to give the roof line a pitch, the three other walls were (purposefully, this time) not build with all right angles. A little more tricky, but again, we now worked with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. When all the walls were built (and the roof), we carried them from the street into the yard and raised the building!

Above is the roof on her old home. Again it is just whatever plywood sheets you might happen to come across. They were held in place with concrete blocks or large stones. It's no wonder they were getting wet in there! I was part of the roofing team. Again, the whole issue of squareness comes into play here. The building plan is such that there are no extra materials provided; we just had to make what we had available work! Day Two ended with the walls in place, the plywood on the roof, and, in the next shot, you can see part of the team wrapping the house in wire, then tar paper.

Day Three was another glorious day to work. We knew it was going to be hot again later in the day, so the roofing crew wanted to get done with that project early! It involved a layer of tar paper, then four rows of "shingles," each tarred and nailed in place. We spent a little extra time doing a very good job, so there would be no chance of leaks!

While we worked, the kids in the neighborhood flocked in to hang out with us. Eventually, there were so many of them, we just put 'em to work! They liked to laugh at our Spanish, play soccer in the street, pet the kitten, and fetch stucco for us! Bonus!

After the roof was done and the house was wrapped, then next order of business was stretching chicken wire over the all the exterior walls. It went quickly, but was some of the hardest work of the whole building project. The pay-off was that the tighter the wire was stretched, the easier the stucco would go on.

Next the stucco goes on. I take back what I said about the chicken wire being the hardest part of the job. Stucco wins! Even more exciting is that two coats are required!! I caught on pretty quickly - thankfully! Also, being tall, I got to do many of the hard to reach areas.

Day Four was the final day of work. That meant the second coat of stucco. Los ninos helped fetch the stucco which really made the job go so much faster. They were so eager to help. The language barrier was high but not insurmountable. "Mas, por favor" (more, please), "Muy bien" (very good), and "Un momento, por favor" (one moment, please) were about all I could use to communicate. Oh, and "Gracias" (thank you)...

My arms just got absolutely fried (not from the sun) from the stucco process. In my left hand, I held a hawk with (I'm guessing) about 10-12 pounds of stucco. The right hand worked the trowel: scrape the stucco off the hawk, press the trowel into the wall, and smear the stucco into the chicken wire. Repeat about a million times. The first few hours, we put way more stucco on the ground than into the wall - it's just the way it works. Eventually you realize that you've covered all the areas at eye level, so your choices are to go low or go high. Being tall(er), I got to go high. So that means holding all the tools of the trade up at shoulder height or higher! It's a good thing I work out, because I was so sore for at least 3 days after the trip! I can't imagine what it would have been like it I didn't workout for a living...

The second coat went on a little easier, but there were some parts of the building that were tough to reach. Two of the four walls created some challenges for us. The narrow section at the back of the house had about two feet of space in which to work - we had built the wall very close to a neighboring building. It was a tight squeeze between the workers, the trowels and hawks, and all the kids "helping." An adjacent wall was near the ditch seperating two properties (an elevation change of about 8-10 feet). That left a narrow ledge of about 18 inches on which to stand. Plus the slope of the ditch did not allow for a ladder. I worked quite some time balanced on an over-turned bucket (leveled with bits of concrete and stone) while someone else stood in the ditch literally pushing me into position. It was scary for me, but I really felt bad for the folks that got roped into pushing on my butt the whole time!

While we smoothed the stucco with a sponge to finish the look, Brian, Danielle, and some others went to the store. They came back with foam sealant to further protect the house from leaking, some basic food items, and a couple pieces of drywall. The two rooms of the house would now at least be a little more private. The original plans just call for leaving the studs exposed... Two windows were installed and we were nearly done!

We all decided to eat in the house. It became very apparent as to why we used stucco to finish the house. It was nice and cool inside!!

We had just enough stucco (we thought...) left over to add another little finishing touch for the family: a front step. We filled our frame only to discover that we underestimated the amount of cement we had left. Well, we couldn't NOT build the step now, so out came the tools, sand, cement, etc. and we whipped up a little more to finish the job. With all the kids running around, we were a little scared that someone would accidentally step in the wet stucco, but it never happened. What did happen, though, is that Brian managed to drop his digital camera in the wet cement!

Here's the finished product! It's a two-room house measuring about 11x22. Not very big, but it's about all you can do in four days!

After a very nice dedication ceremony (we ALL cried!!), we turned the keys over to the new owner and posed for some final pictures.

This was one of the top ten experiences I've had in my life. So many great people worked together as a team for a week, camped in some less than ideal conditions, showered in even less ideal conditions, labored joyfully in the heat and dust, and never once complained. Even better, we laughed a lot, and (hopefully) made a big difference in someone's life. Danielle summed it up very well when she told the owner that we gained a lot more from the experience than she gained in getting a home.