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.
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!
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