RAGBRAI Update Part 2

Here are some more of my favorite pictures from RAGBRAI.


Brother-in-law Bill and sister Kirsten posing with Abe. How cool is that?


Bill and Kirsten on the road. Note how they are working up a sweat keeping up with me.


This is what a typical pass though town looks like. Its more like a walk through town. As the week wore on I realized that side streets were the way to go if I didn't want to stop.


Not sure what this was about, but a local won a belly flop contest at a beer garden in the last pass through town. Apparently he is into a little S&M.


Someone thought it was funny that my gear bag exploded on the front yard of our host each night. They used my camera to show me how funny it was.



Good thing I brought rain glasses. I used them on Thursday.



This is what I felt like after riding into a headwind all day on Thursday.



The local entertainment in North Liberty. It was much cooler than it looks.


I caught Cousin Natalie cleaning her bike after the rain on Thursday. We had to have a talk about how bikes are happier when they are dirty.




Typical morning RAGBRAI traffic. It was maddening, and unending.



She had some nice really nice melons. The fruit was good also.



If you rode fast enough, this was the reward.




And then you run into guys like this. Too bad I couldn't hang on longer. I tried.




When was the last time you had coffee served to you by a trooper in uniform, without the requisite handcuffs? I did on Friday. He's a cousin of a cousin.

I'll do a day by day writeup sometime soon.

RAGBRAI Update Part 1

No time for a lot of details. Suffice to say that I'm having a boatload of fun! Probably more fun that this 48 year old body can handle, but we'll work that out later. For now I feel great.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures to tide you over . . .


My Team Varnum crew.


This one is for Hansen. He's got some like minded folk out there.


RAGBRAI has everything, incuding a Vega Elvis.



I ran into Titties, and his little brother "A-Cup".


I was about 6:30 AM when Hansen came looking for a cold one.


I did the Hundy on Monday because of the Farrell brothers. They dragged my sorry ass up and down each one of those hundred hills.



I ran into Scott Sumpter, seriously messed up, with a seriously messed up koozie.


I kept teeling thses guys that it flattened out after Coon Rapids, due to glacial scouring. Did they believe me. Nope.



Jeff and Brian did a great job of keeping the Team Varnum bkes in shape.




On Tuesday, we started drinking beer in the first town (Grand Junction).



We stuck around for way longer than we should have.


Hooter girls were sevring beers as Fergy's. That prolly had somthing to do with it.


Later on I met up with Hansen, Kristen, and Rob on the Boone Hill. It was a blast.


It got a little rough on the hill.


It was about as close to L'Alpe d'Huez as you can get in Iowa.



Kristin is pretty cool.



I also met up with Bruce and Kristin on the hill.


Later we went to HyVee for food and drink


Write this one down. Hansen says "no" to a beer.

Thats all for now. Will write more later when I feel like it.

Packing for RAGBRAI

Its time. Let the debauchery begin. The cast of characters=, from left to right: Cousin Natalie, her husband Gary, brother in law Bill and my sister Kirsten. I also stopped by Rob's tonight and he said he is riding Monday and Tuesday. Cool. It should be fun.

Wonder what Beav is doing? I turned in an app to be on his Ragby Drinking Team today. I hope it gets accepted.

Feel free to continue with the blog comments during the Ragby, but don't be offended if I don't reply. I will be a little connection challenged for the next week.

Seven Oaks Work Day

After all of the trouble I've had in the past few days, you would have thought I would have stayed home on a work day at Seven Oaks.

Oops. I showed up.




Cutting a thousand planks.


It is starting to look like a bridge



Putting the planking on:


Two bridges loaded on a trailer:



Sliding the bridges down from the top of the ski hill. This is harder that is looks.









We got them here, now what do we do?




Looks like we put them in their place



Bridges done. Cool.

I've Had Better Days

It all started on Friday night when I was riding home from work. Somehow the waist strap on me messenger bag came unclipped, and said strap then got tangled in the front wheel. Over the bars I went. Ouch! %$#@*$. I sat on the side of the bike path and swore for a while, then picked myself up and limped home.


The crash had put my front wheel out of true, so I had to unhook the front brake. To make matter worse, my other brake hood was also knocked around.


Not a good way to start the weekend. I went home and iced up everything that hurt. Meanwhile I got a call from OP. We decided that I was OK enough to go do 4-5 hours of gravel the next day (Saturday).



That went great! No issues from the previous night's fall, and the weather was great for a bike ride. Just a little bit of rain, almost no wind, and temps in the 65-75 range.

OP likes his new kit.


OP also likes to take phone calls on long gravel rides. He is a devoted husband and father.

We went through parts of Story, Boone, Hamilton, and Hardin counties. All told I did about 58 miles.

About 8 miles from home, I was leaning back in the saddle stretching, and snap! My seat post rail clamp bolt snapped off, and I was in the dirt again for the second time in 24 hours. Ouch! It didn't hurt quite as bad at first because it was on gravel.

I rode the last six mikes standing. Now that hurt a little.


Notice the lack of a seat at the top of the post, and also notice the seat in my jersey pocket. Also notice the elbow.


When we got close to home we took a singletrack short cut to save about a mile.

Try taking a picture when you've been standing up for the last 5 miles, are chasing OP, and are at the end of long day.




And, after all of that, I'm still smiling.