And so we come to the end of RAGBRAI! As I sit in the LaCrosse airport with my $5 coffee cake and reminisce on the terrible hotel that I stayed in last night, it seems appropriate to summarize my Iowa cycling adventure. But first, the details of yesterday.
Oftentimes, my anxiety doesn’t serve me, but once in a while, it’s very useful, and yesterday was one of those days. I was really worried about getting there on time and catching the Pork Belly Ventures shuttle from Lansing to La Crosse, and I woke up very early and got on the road by 6:04 AM and hammered the 65 miles to Lansing. I had done the math and was counting on the logistics in Lansing to be a nightmare; I had to get in, pick up my stuff from the trailer, load it all onto the bike, ride to the shuttle pickup point, find a box, box the bike, then get on the bus. And despite hammering hard, I just barely made it. But I made it! I rode next to a nice guy named John from Jersey who was doing the same thing. We were both ready to go home. The terrain in Iowa finally shifted for the last 30 miles or so, becoming hilly and more like the areas of the East that I’m used to riding through - which was fun, but also slowed us down.
Amazing fried pie at mile 51, though.
So, to summarize my RAGBRAI experience: fun, hot, people, corn, pie. A few observations, in no particular order:
Cycling doesn’t make you skinny. There were a lot of slightly to very overweight middle aged men riding, so much so that there were teams making fun of it, like Guys Who Get Fat In Winter, etc. It’s a reminder that just doing some cardio won’t improve my physique.
People are oddly blase about the physical accomplishment. In other events, a big part of the focus is the self pride in accomplishment, with folks cheering by the sidelines, lots of messaging about “you can do it”, etc. But not RAGBRAI. It’s just kind of assumed that you’ll ride 470 miles; it’s just your ticket to the party.
Not all pies are made equal. I probably had 10-12 pieces in 7 days; some sublime, some merely ok, a couple actually pretty bad. And you can’t really tell by looking.
The “Windows Desktop” experience is real. I may never have seen bluer skies, greener fields, and whiter clouds. It looked like a postcard. Pretty cool.
You have to travel with folks that you are compatible travelling with. When you’re counting on people to carry your stuff and handle your logistics, you have to make sure that you’re compatible with their preferences and desires. There’s lots of ways of doing an event like this, and they’re all “correct”, but some will annoy the crap out of you.
I don’t love camping in a tent. I knew this already, but BTUSFMS only makes you camp for a day or 2 at a time before you get a roof over your head. This was 7 straight nights of camping, and it was too much for me.
If you get up and get rolling at 6, and are at mile 40 at 8:30, RAGBRAI feels very different. It really opens up and the lack of people means there are no lines. In some ways I preferred it, in other ways it was kind of dull.
Not all church dinners are made equal. CF: pie, above.
Always use the small vendors. Ignore the big shiny ones that you see everyday and buy your sirloin sandwich from the local fire department. You’ll be glad you did.
It’s not as wacky as I thought it would be. I’d heard it was sort of a Burning Man on wheels, but it’s not. There were a few wacky moments and a couple of costumes; a slip and slide, a guy in a Bugs Bunny costume in Lawler; but by and large, it was just folks biking and eating and listening to music.
I love my bike. I just love it. It’s reliable, predictable, comfortable, works in every setting, even got me through the full 48 mile gravel day. I love it.
I have more fun when I feel safe. When I have to worry about logistics and arrangements, it really detracts from my personal ability to relax and have fun. All week I was a bit on edge. I think next time I would get professionals to help out, like the Pork Belly folks. That seems like a huge win for people with anxiety like me.
It’s too bad that people of working age in this country have to work so hard. There certainly were people my age, but a lot of folks were retired or young. We work too hard in this country.
There were so, so few mechanical problems. It really makes me wonder if there’s anything we can learn for BTUSFMS. I saw almost no people on the side of the road with flats or other issues. I put most of that down to the road quality, and the fact that we could ride in the road instead of on the shoulder.
And so, another adventure completes! I’ll remember the sunrises, and the flat open roads, and the slip and slide, and hanging out with Teri, and riding the gravel with Reid and Cheng. Good times, and I’m glad I came.
