RAGBRAI 2009

For those who have never heard of RAGBRAI it stands for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. It is an annual event held by the Des Moines Register, the local paper there. For those who imagine Iowa as flat corn fields and soy bean fields, you are dead wrong. Iowa is hilly, way hillier than I ever thought. Below is a picture of just one of the hills, and they kept coming, one after another, up one, down another. In all we climbed over 20,000 feet when we finished in Burlington, Iowa on the 26th of July.

The ride itself varied from day to day in distance traveled. The first day was 52 miles from Council Bluffs, IA to Red Oak, IA. Every little town, and I mean little, mean population in some of these places is around 200-300 people rolls out the red carpet and they welcome all of the riders with open arms. This shot is in a town on the first day. You had to get off of your bike and walk through town or risk hitting someone with your tire. This was pretty typical of the crowds each day. Estimate that there were around 8,500 registered riders and just as many unregistered riders on the routes each day. Insane!

The Air Force Cycling Team (AFCT) comprised about 130 riders and 15 support people. Here wer are day one lining up getting ready to leave Council Bluffs. We started the day this way, and then after the first mile or two, we were on our own to make it to Red Oak. I am smiling because, hey, Iowa is flat right!

Along the route they have vendors set up and they sell various types of food. I had heard that Mr. Pork Chop was the bomb and had to try it. Mr. Pork Chop barbque's his chops with corn cob ears and seasoning, nothing else. They had just finished a batch and were setting out new ones. Each chop was about an inch to inch and half thick. It was pretty good, however, I was hating life about an hour after that. Just a little too heavy for me. Either that or I had failed to hydrate properly on day one. My guess, hydration because my left quad siezed up climbing a hill and the pain was intense.

You can see above the smoker they used. They transported this thing to every location along the way. I think it was $5 a pork chop, they made out like bandits, but they only do this once a year for RAGBRAI.

Here I am standing next to the Mr. Pork Chop bus. Can't miss the pink bus. Like I said they were parked along every route every day.

Anybody seen my tent? Actually, we had a dust devil rip through camp after we had finished for day one. It sent four or five tents and dining fly's from the Air Force camp flying. By the time I had gotten my camera out this was the one that was left flying. It wound up on top of the Steeple of the church we were camped at. I believe it made it on YouTube, just do a search for the flying tent. While on our ride, we had the chance to meet a celebrity of sorts. Miss Iowa was there in one of the over night towns. Of course you've gotta get a picture with Miss Iowa. She was riding with her Dad on a Tandem bike.
You meet and see a lot of interesting people along the way. While riding we met the guy whose business is to build these sail bikes. The weather had been goregous all week, highs in the low 80's only rained once or twice and hardly any wind. This guy was bragging about being able to use his sail for a mile and a half, thank goodness, he gave his legs a rest, I mean only 440 1/2 miles to go to finish. Not sure it was worth the effort. By the way, this guy was one of the slowest to finish each day.


Well, what can you say, hard day on the bike, gotta clear off for relief, what do I do with my dog? Put him on a leash and shut the door!
This is a standard for RAGBRAI. They charge along the route for water, however, some towns offer free water and this is how you get it. Much like cattle getting feed or watered.

Here I am at the end of the road, literally. You start RAGBRAI by dipping your rear tire in the Missouri and then dipping your front in the Mississippi River. RAGBRAI 2009 was 442 miles in length, we climbed 20, 643 feet in 7 days. There is no possible way to loose weight on RAGBRAI you eat to good. In fact, the jersey this year was of a piece of cherry pie, and in the blue section of the RAGBRAI jersey you can see all types of pies listed. Yeah, you eat well!