We might also say miserable without being too melodramatic. It was the third hilliest, with 3,123 feet of climb, and third longest, 76.2 miles. With sore legs and other body parts after four days of riding, it would have been tough anyway. But we were also treated to spitting rain for the first third of the ride and again at lunch. Plus we had a head wind, of course. And it probably didn't get above 70 degrees, so it was just plain cold.
Poor Linda had it worse by far. She had no rain jacket until she was able to buy one at the next-to-LAST stop of the day, so she really froze.
We tried to push through ahead of the rain so didn't stop for lunch until 50 miles in, but then there were no food vendors to be found. So we stopped at the next one, which ran out of sandwiches, extending the wait, in the cold and rain, to half an hour for a very mediocre barbecue sandwich. A few miles down the road later, you guessed it, there were lots of vendors.
Oh well. Best thing about this day's ride is that it's done. And the motel has a pool and hot tub, good for aching muscles. We're not near a library, though, so it's time for the whining and pecking to end!
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Hello readers!
We're two good friends who enjoy a challenge.
We've explored in Africa together, ridden zip lines through the trees in Costa Rica and now we are going to ride across Iowa on our bikes!
Hope you enjoy reading about our trip.
Linda & Carol
What is a RAGBRAI?
The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is a seven-day event sponsored by the Des Moines Register that's part Tour de France, part Woodstock and part county fair.
This year's ride is the 36th edition of the tour.
It's the longest, largest and oldest touring bike ride in the world. This year's event covers 471 miles, following the route of the nation's first coast-to-coast highway, U.S. Highway 30, and will have more than 10,000 registered participants plus some folks tagging along!
Add in another 10,000 people in support crews, merchandising and other assorted groups and you've got quite an army moving across the landscape.
Each town tries to out-do the others in welcoming the riders and all along the route spectators turn out to cheer on the riders.
Come along for the ride!
2 comments:
Excuse me, but isn't this supposed to be fun? Nothing worse than squishy sneakers!
Congrats you made it! we were getting worried about you when there wasn't a new posting up until so much later than usual; hopefully today is not nearly as yucky as yesterday! hang in there. you only have a couple more days and a couple hundred more miles left to ride!/ md
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