RAGBRAI

Too bad the administrator of this community has long ago left Live Journal.  In the interest of keeping it going, I'll ask is anybody else going on RAGBRAI this year (2010)? 

This will be year 16 for me.  

Says the Register:

"RAGBRAI XXXVIII will treat riders to one of the shortest and flattest routes ever as it winds through northern Iowa from Sioux City to Dubuque."

"The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa runs July 25-31 with overnight stops in Sioux City, Storm Lake, Algona, Clear Lake, Charles City, Waterloo, Manchester and Dubuque."

Sounds good to me!  But RAGBRAI always sounds good.

So who's going on the ride this year?  Anybody?  I am!!!

I had a RAGBRAI dream last night.  There's not really a point to this, unless maybe you're into interpreting dreams or something. 

This dream day of RAGBRAI was starting in Ames and we were staying at the house of a friend who used to live there (he doesn't live in Ames anymore but in the dream he did).  When we arrived at the first passthough town I had no recollection of the ride and realized that I had none of my biking essentials with me.  No helmet, no biking shorts (just loose exercise shorts) or shoes, no fanny pack or wallet.  I had no idea what was going on so I decided I was going to have to bike back to the starting point all by myself to get my stuff and then try to catch up to my group.  It was 10 miles out on a 76 mile day so even in my dream state I was able to calculate that it would be a 96 mile day when I was done.  I've only rode that many miles in a day once before but still felt committed to try to do it.

I didn't get as far as getting to my bike when I woke up- my son was asking for waffles.  What's the significance?  I don't know!

Anybody else have RAGBRAI dreams?

I hope you come back and tell me all about it! My fiance, Shane, is with Team Bat this year, and it sounds like it's going well so far! The reason I'm not doing RAGBRAI this year is because I'm getting married in less than 3 weeks, so I have stuff to get together, and I don't want really weird tanlines with my strapless dress! I know... LAME! I want to go next year, though. If Shane has a good time with Team Bat (out of Des Moines) this year, I will probably ride with them next year. I hope you all are rockin' the roads of Iowa! Have a few beers for me!

I will preface this by saying I have a terrible track record of meeting any livejournalers on RAGBRAI, I am 0 - 2, so I hesitate to make the suggestion.  It's just hard for me to keep a schedule when I'm on vacation and riding with a large group, so the chances that I will be at a certain place at a certain time are just small.  But I'm willing to try again.

"Sitdownshutup" (who started this group) has met a couple of people in past years but I know that she is not going on the ride this year.  I was able to talk to her on the cell phone once briefly but it was cut off.  Cell phones on RAGBRAI are very unreliable.

So if anybody would like to make a meeting suggestion I'll marker it on hand and try not to wash it off.  One suggestion:  www dot teambrewhaha dot com has a Bar Guide listing many of the fine drinking establishments along the way.  I  will be in many or maybe even most of them if anybody sees one they'd like to make a meeting place.  

Also if you see Team NAD ask if Otis is around (that's me).  Bus and Jersey representations below the cut. 

( Identify Team NAD...Collapse )

Our team has worked out some of our places to stay in the overnight towns but there are some towns that we still don't have housing.  I might as well ask out here if anybody has any leads.

The situation is we have a bus, about 25 mostly well behaved people and about 20 tents.   We've applied for housing through the official channels but they came back with nothing.  While we can camp in the official  RAGBRAI campgrounds it's not our first preference.  Ideally someone with a house near the downtown area would let us set up tents in the yard and park the bus on the street.  That's all we really need.  Use of a garden hose and bathroom would be nice too.

The towns we need places to camp are the following:  Rock Rapids on Sat 7/21, Humboldt on Mon 7/23, Independence on Thurs 7/26 and Dyersville on Fri 7/27.  Let me know if you've got anything.  Thanks much!

Holy crap, guys! It's less than 2 weeks away! Who's excited? What food are you really "geared" up for? Have you been to any of these counties in Iowa before? I've been to some in central Iowa, but the beginning and end of the route will be totally new to me!

I got this e-mail forward from my uncle, who rides annually. Not sure how many people have received this, and the formatting sucks, but I'm finding it helpful to prepare:

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About how many miles are y'all riding per weekend these days? What about during the weeks?