RAGBRAI Highlights...

Why does it seem that the bad get forgotten over time and the good times seem to be what sticks?  I keep on thinking about my RAGBRAI time (the whole four days) and I can’t help but smile at some of the things that happened. 

Like the night before when the team had a dinner and we loaded up the truck.  During the dinner, we went around and introduced ourselves.  As we started introducing ourselves we discovered that the newbie’s got a little something extra written in black marker on their calf.  Here’s all of us newbie’s lined up on the loading truck ramp.

Photo- All the newbie's with VIRGIN written in black marker on their calves. 
I'm near the middle in light green shirt.

The real funny thing was that this is a common thing done to people who are doing their first time at RAGBRAI.  I ran into quite a few “VIRGIN’s” as I rode along.  Some even had it on both calves!

Another time, it was an afternoon after I had finished the ride for the day.  I had stopped in the downtown in the overnight town to have some lunch before looking for the host house where I would stay for the night.  I ended up eating with this married couple who were from South Carolina.  The gentleman was originally from Waterloo, Iowa.  As I was talking the wife said that her husband was concerned about having her come along because she’s an organizer and usually has everything planned down to the last detail.  As she was learning, RAGBRAI is not one of those rides that you can plan; it’s a more go with the flow type.  But she said she was having fun opening her mind and boundaries.  Meanwhile, her husband had decided to get a little treat while we gals were talking.  He came back with a plain little white paper bag.   “What’s in the bag, dear?” She asked.  It was a Maid-Rite sandwich.  She rolled her eyes,” It MUST be an Iowa thing!”  I told her it was and Iowa was the only place you could get a true Maid-Rite.

Another morning, I riding in a pace line with these guys from Chicago area.  It’s nice cool and the sun is coming up as we are cycling along a picture perfect rolling hills of corn fields.  There’s a slight haze of fog off in the distance giving a golden pink hue to everything.  One of the guys in the group, says” Is this heaven?”  Another guy in the group says,” Don’t say! Don’t you dare say it!  I DON’T want to hear THAT line again.”  I was just cracking up and was half tempted to say the famous movie line from Field of Dreams… “No, this is Iowa!”

Photo- First night of RAGBRAI and a Beautiful sunset over the golf course near where my tent was set up.

Another night, the cycling team was out shooting the breeze with all of our lawn chairs forming a big circle.  We were all talking and one of the guys had been interviewed on TV and also been interviewed for the newspaper.  I asked him why he was so news worthy.  One of the other guys piped up that he had been seen streaking naked through the main street area of town.  I quickly came back with a retort,” And THAT was considered news worthy?!”  Everyone cracked up at that and there were even retorts about hitting a man when he was down.  Awww… it was all in good fun!

There were several more highlights such as discovering one of the gals in the group graduated the same year from the same high school as I.  Another one of the guys grew up down the street from me but was 7 years older so we never really knew each other.  All kinds of weird little coincidences and quirks.  It really was a good time except for the heat.

RAGBRAI-- Ups & Downs...

Tonight, I'm writing this as I sit in my hotel room in Cheyenne, WY. I'm on my way back to Utah and have had a week of ups and downs. I first left for my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; last Thursday evening with an optimistic plan of doing a bit of visiting with family and then doing RAGBRAI.

Well, even the best laid plans seem to change. I did some visiting and started RAGBRAI. I managed the first three days of RAGBRAI. The worst three days as far as heat and humidity that RAGBRAI has ever seen in its 40 years (go figure!). All three days were 99 or above with one day climbing up to 104 degrees with 80% humidity. Oh and did I mention there were winds that were up to 20 mph too? These were some tough days and I really found that the humidity was getting to me.

But I will say that those three days of RAGBRAI were amazing! It was a sea of bicycles as far as the eye could see along the wonderful hilly landscape of Iowa's corn and soybean fields. There were people all along the Iowa roads that were cheering you on; some were selling water, cookies, or almost everything. Some were not selling but giving water out for free, or offering to douse you with their hose, or even others were handing out frozen pops. Main streets in small Iowa towns were closed down just to bicycle traffic and filled up with vendors offer to sell food or wares to the cyclists that came through the town. It was just AMAZING! I don't know how else to describe it.

There were tons of references to corn, soybeans, and pigs.  In fact, some of the signage for the ride had me cracking up.  One advertisement had a sign of showing corn with a picture and then soybeans.  Then underneath it said-- RAGBRAI- Need we say anymore? 

There were plenty of things that would only EVER be seen on RAGBRAI.  There were pink buses that were serving up pork chop sandwiches and plenty of riders were enjoying them at what some may consider the un-Godly hour of 10AM.  As one co-team member put it,"Where else could you have 20 cyclists at 10am sitting on the side of the road eating pork chops and thinking that this was the BEST meal ever?!?!"  

FOOD, food, and more food!  There were hard boil eggs on a stick and bacon on a stick being sold right along with bottled water and gatorade.  There was bicycle jewelry being sold next to temporary tattoos.  Breakfast sandwiches, pancakes with sausage, and tacos with eggs were commonly seen too.  Later on you would see smoothies, pizza, brats, tacos, pies, pastries and almost any kind of food you could EVER think of.  One fellow rider said that this ride was ALL ABOUT THE FOOD!  And from what I saw that was VERY true!

I was rather even surprised by the beer and bloody marys that were being sold at 8AM as you're going along.  There were a few cyclists doing that but it wasn't really a majority as I had almost been lead to believe from the rumors that I heard prior.  Most riders were partaking of those beverages after they were done for the day and then limiting what they consumed because they were riding the next day.  Dehydration was a concern and most cyclist that I met were mindful of that.

Photo: Boys-N-Cars watercolor I did of my nephews for a Father's Day present.
The youngest one here is the one with dark hair.

My second day was the worst. I had received a phone call from my little brother the night before that my youngest nephew had passed away due to complications after a surgery. He was only 13 years old. I was rather a bit of a basket case that day and only managed to ride 47 miles of the 85 miles that I should have rode. My head and heart just were not in it. I found I could not keep food down and when you are riding that is NEVER a good sign to have. I ended up getting SAG'd in that day. I did manage the next day's ride but then had to call for help when I was brain dead trying to find the host house. The combo of riding 84 miles with 104 degree humid heat just left me STUPID.

Wednesday night I managed to get a ride back to my mom's. I had opted not to ride on Thursday to give my body a bit of a break but I also needed to be back for a viewing(Friday) and funeral(Saturday). That basically meant that RAGBRAI was over for me. I was disappointed BUT I needed to be else where.  Jerryd my upbeat little nephew who always had a smile will be missed.  Only the good die young and in this case that statement is very true.  He always had a smile and seemed to be easy to please.  Rest in peace little man!

Catching My Breathe!

It was a busy week!  I feel like I’m just starting to recover from this last weekend.  I’m finally almost back to normal; if ever I would consider myself as such.  Last Friday,  I forgot to do my weekly check in and I also didn’t do my month end report as I was driving on my way to Lewiston, UT to set up my art booth.

 Last weekend (Friday night and Saturday day) I had a booth full of my artwork and various other items featuring my art up in Lewiston Fairgrounds in the Little Red Riding Hood Expo while the wonderful all female Little Red ride took place on Saturday.  When it came time for me to head out on the bike, I started feeling a bit under the weather.  I never did venture with my bike on to the scenic route.  That was a bit disappointing.  I think it was all of the stress of setting up and manning my booth.  It was the first time I had ever done anything like that and I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off.  I will admit that it was FUN and I did manage to sale some of my art which was also fun too!

Friday night ended up being pretty busy in my booth after the costume contest which I entered.  They had all the costumed individuals get up on stage and dance.  How do hippies dance?  I didn’t know so I went up there and just wiggled around.  I imagine I looked quite foolish but isn’t that the name of the game with any costume contest.  It was fun but there were costumes a great deal better than mine that came up on stage.  I was the second one out of almost 20 on the stage.  But here’s me doing my wiggling thing…

Photo of myself "Wiggling" on Stage.

I do however have the stats for last month….

428 Miles Cycling

16.75 Miles Running

1 hour 25 minutes on Elliptical Machine

3 Pilates Classes

And

I’m up to 24 books read for the year.

May Day's, Running Bulls, & Month End...

Happy May Day!  Awww… the first of May and hopefully, those April rain showers will simmer down.  May flowers bring them on! 

This last Saturday I opted to go for a run outside than a bike ride.  While I was running along over to my favorite park, I turned a corner and I was in the midst of 100 other runners.  I felt really bad because all of them were passing me like I was standing still.  I was going an easy pace because I was planning on going at least 5 to 6 miles.  They were ladies pushing strollers that were going faster.  I almost felt like I was in the middle of the running of the bulls and I was waiting to get pulverized into mincemeat. 

I ended up going up on to the sidewalk just to feel a little more at ease.  A local running store was holding a free training run.  About a block away from my favorite park there was a water stop with a van advertising the shop.  Shortly, after the water stop they had the run turning around in the street and I was glad I was on the sidewalk.  I continued on and did a lap around the park where a bunch of Army ROTC kids were stretching out before they started running laps around the park.  I did the one lap and it was like I had the whole wide sidewalk to myself; plenty room to breathe.  As I headed back home from the park, the running shop was clearing away the water station and I was going along nicely at my own pace on a quiet street.  Awwwww… that was nice.  I managed 5.5 miles for the day.  It felt good.

Later Saturday, I was having a late lunch/early dinner and had thought I had broken my tooth.  I freaked a bit and couldn’t remember my dentist name, couldn’t find the number and was just freaking out.  That’s strange for me.  Then I calmed down and got to looking and thought it might have been a crown I had swallowed.  Waited and went to the dentist on Monday afternoon to discover that it was a broken filling and I would now need a crown.  Darn; another expensive crown that doesn’t go on top of my head!

Month in review…

1.)    Saving Money?  I’m at my goal pace plus an extra 4% more.  I haven’t sold any more paintings and I’ve been trying to build up a stock of paintings, cards, and etc. for the booth I’ll have in the Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride. 

2.)    Uncluttering my life?  Well, almost a quarter of my bedroom is stacked with donations that I need to take to the Good Will.  I need to see about taking a trip on some Saturday afternoon to drop it off.  But I still want to go through some more of my summer clothes before I do.

3.)    Reaching my goal weight?  As of last Friday morning, I was within 8 lbs. of my goal weight.  I’m feeling pretty happy with that.

4.)    Cutting down on eating out?  Nope! Sorry!  I’m SOL here!  I’m really failing at this one of late.  I’m beginning to wonder if I should throw this goal out and start from scratch!  Of course, it would help if I got my act together and cooked at home.  But I just haven't been in the mood to do that of late.

5.)    Do 1 Century Bike Ride?  Yep, got this off the list!  I found out this morning I did win the lottery for RAGBRAI.  So I’ll need to start upping my average mileage to prepare for 472 miles in one week.  In other words, I may have to plan to ride my bike every where by the beginning of July.  

Stats for the Month of April…

368 miles Cycling

19 miles Running

30 minutes on the elliptical

And

I’m now up to 21 books read for the year!