RAGBRAI 2009 Day 7

Our last day of riding started extra early, and went by exceedingly fast. When the horse can smell the oats in the barn, and all that. Here's a picture Barney took as we were already well on our way with the sun still low in the sky:

I decided that before we ended the trip I wanted to contribute to the country's ethanol production by peeing in a cornfield, so I jumped off the bike at some point and started just walking into the rows of 10-foot-high corn. It's a pretty surreal experience, and I tried snapping a picture - people with claustrophobia would probably want to avoid Iowa cornfields:

From there we just blasted on into the final destination town of Burlington Iowa, with one really fun downhill on the way which let me set my new personal speed record on a non-motorized two-wheel vehicle:

Note that the 80 number is my heartrate, not the max speed. When we got into Burlington they threw one final twist at us of having an optional pedal up a really windy steep road called Snake Alley that required my lowest gear and some serious grunting. Once again I wasn't really planning to take the option, but then Barney charged up it and left me little choice. We then rode down to the riverfront and did the ceremonial tire dip into the Mississippi:

We then sat down and had a couple beers (which made me realize it's been quite a while since I've had beer before 11:00am) and a bite to eat, but it was the same vendors we had seen all week serving food and the area was quickly becoming a mob scene as more and more bikers rode in, so we decided to go ahead and clear out. Plus they weren't serving any ice cream (inexcuseable), which left my week-long tally at 18:

Barney and I rode our bikes west for the first time all week to get to the hotel parking lot where we had stashed our car and then spent an hour or so getting everything all packed up and our bikes broken down. Bill and Debbie and Dave and Tina came by and we got to thank them for all the fun riding of the week and the tremendous support from Tina and Debbie and then they hit the road for St. Louis. Barney and I packed his little Accord to its bursting point and then hit the road ourselves:

We drove for a couple hours then decided that skipping our post-ride nap was leading to unsafe driving sleepiness, so we pulled over at a rest stop and stretched out on the grass for a two-hour nap before continuing to our campground for the night. Getting to sleep beyond 6am and then not having to mount a bike seat this morning was a treat we both enjoyed as we rolled east through Indiana and then to the airport in Cincinatti, where we parted ways and I flew back here to San Fran as Barney drove on to Roanoke.

The final day's stats:

Total mileage - 48.6

Average rolling speed - 17.4mph

Max speed - 46.0mph

Butt soreness, scale of 1 (sitting in a comfy office chair for a week) to 10 (riding across Iowa on a hatchet-head-sized bike seat for a week) - 4

Final thoughts - it was a tremendous experience and a great way to get introduced to the basics of bike touring. Overall the physical demands weren't as bad as I was expecting - the miles seem to slip by pretty quickly when there isn't traffic to worry about and there are entertaining stops every dozen miles or so. I have new-found respect for people like my friend Deana who have made entire trips across the country by bicycle, or my friend Gracie who did it on a unicycle and is now riding one wheel from Canada to Mexico through the Rockies (http://divideby1.blogspot.com/) I think I'd like to try a self-supported trip sometime for a slightly more non-scripted experience, but feel like I'd really geek out on lightweight gear before I did it to make hill-climbing still tolerable.

So tonight I get to sign off from a comfortable chair in front of my desk and then climb into my comfortable bed and get up and drive my (sort of) comfortable truck to work (yay fossil fuels!). The novelty will no doubt wear off quickly, but for now I'm going to enjoy it.

Good night from San Francisco,

Chuck

Teaser

Connectivity is rather dodgy here at the campground we're in, so I'll save the real update of our last day of riding for tomorrow when I'm sitting in the airport. But we made it, and my bike is now boxed up and in the capable hands of the people at Fedex. I asked if they had an option that was even slower than ground, that would keep my bike in transit for a solid 3 to 4 weeks, but the lady said no and looked at me funny.

One picture to keep things interesting - me trying to alter the tan lines on my legs by hiking up my spandex shorts:

Ladies, take a deep breath and try to compose yourselves...

RAGBRAI 2009 Day 6

Another day in the books - we've safely arrived in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, only 40-some-odd miles from the final destination. Today was the first day we've really dealt with intense sun and heat - the first picture is of two little boys having a drink and a snack under a shade tree:

While rolling along i took a couple pictures of some of the stranger bikes - here's a recumbent dressed up as the Chiquita banana:

And here's the guy I mentioned a couple days ago who has his recumbent outfitted with a sail. Note the flag on the back of his bike - he's basically pedaling his sailing vessel straight into a headwind:

At one of the many ice cream stops (I made some serious strides today) Barney and I had the idea of re-creating the Lance Armstrong pose where he holds the bike behind his head:

Now Barney just needs to start a foundation (I'm going to suggest MarketStrong), shack up with a female rock star then one of the Olsen twins, and then get back into road-biking at a competitive enough level to make a run at the Tour de France. No problem.

The day's ride was mostly uneventful - we were taking it pretty easy after yesterday's long ride. Here Barney took the camera from me and took a couple shots of what his view looks like when I lead the draft for a while:

Look, mom - no hands:

We rolled into Mount Pleasant around 3:30 and the day started becoming more eventful. Just after we rolled into the square a guy came up and asked me if I wanted to be on the radio. I said sure and then got to answer some questions about my RAGBRAI experience for the listeners of The New Mix 107.3, being interviewed by radio personality Crazy Cosmo:

Then we made our way to the camping area and found a spot near these giant metal warehouse buildings. I lay down to take a nap and when I woke up I found that Barney had spent naptime drinking beers with a team of old guys who were from Southern Iowa. He informed me that we were leaving immediately to go to dinner with them, which required a ride in a their converted schoolbus:

I was laughing on the ride about how strange it feels to make the transition from being dead asleep to drinking beer on a bus full of drunk old men you don't know in about 45 seconds - sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Once we got back from dinner we started to get our tent all set up and then there was a severe storm warning so we had to take shelter in the big metal buildings, which it turns out were completely filled with restored antique farm machinery. Here's a shot of an entire row of steam-powered tractors - the amazing thing is that apparently all of these are in running order:

I don't know what this machine is, but it looks frightening:

And here's an entire row of tractors that seemed to be mostly from 1950 or before:

But the most important discovery of the evening was a lone blue tractor - who loves you, Charlie?

That's it for today - the storm has apparently passed so we've been kicked out of the farm implement museum. Tomorrow is the last day of the ride, and a short day at that. It will feel pretty nice to put the bike back in its box and not have to see it for a week or more.

Today's stats:

Total miles: 78.71

Average speed: 15.0mph

Max speed: 33.2

Ice creams consumed: 5 (I have to admit, the last one was a bit of a struggle - I feel slightly ill)

Butt soreness, scale of 1(Charmin Ultra-Plus 8-ply Lotion-Impregnated toilet paper) to 10 (dry corn cobs) - 6

I should note that the only reason my butt soreness is not off the charts today (the Dartmouth shorts have very little padding) is because Barney agreed to trade seats with me around mile 30. He's been using a huge gel seat and it was a welcome change, although the downside is that now I can't make fun of him and his granny saddle any more.

Signing off,

Chuck

RAGBRAI 2009 - Day 5

This is going to have to be a short one - it's late and I'm exceedingly tired. Barney and I went to sleep under clear skies last night and didn't bother putting the fly on the tent, so at 3:30 when the thunderstorms moved in we had a mad scramble to get things in the dry. We made it just in time before the storms *really* moved in.

This morning started around 7:30 once Bill and Dave met us at the school - here's a shot of Barney donning his wrestler outfit for the day - I just love the clothes you get to wear as a cyclist:

Barney and I started the day strong, getting into a pack of riders that was moving right along and did our best to stick with them. We bumped out of the draft at about the 30-mile mark, having averaged slightly better than 19mph up to that point. From there we had to make a decision on the day's distance - there was an optional backtrack loop around a lake that made the day just over a hundred miles. Most of the morning I had been telling myself I wasn't into the idea, but once we got there and Barney started making disparaging remarks about my qualifications as a man I really didn't have much choice. This is a photo from the dam of the lake we were riding around to complete the extra loop:

The next shot was the result of me just being bored and taking random pictures - note the awesome mirrored-blue safety glasses that Dave got for all of us.
We completed the loop and then rolled on through several more little towns before stopping around mile 70, where we immediately tried to eat everything we could get our hands on. This little girl and her Amish clan helped me up my ice cream count by 2.

After two ice creams, some blueberry pie, a cinammon roll, a pork loin sandwich, and an ingenious thing called a walking taco (cut off one side of a bag of Doritos and pour in taco meat, lettuce, cheese, onions, and salsa and serve with a fork - these people are brilliant) we were back on the road. The next shot is only significant because it had one of the longest views of the trip. If you look really closely to the right of the sign you can see way off in the distance a hill we had to climb about a mile and a half later.

After climbing that hill we rolled into Blakesburg and decided it was time for more ice cream. Here we are sitting on the stage in the middle of their town square. A guy walked by wearing a placard indicating he was the mayor of Blakesburg, so we had him snap the photo for us. Their ice cream was the best I've had so far on the trip, so I had two servings here as well.

As we were nearing the end of the day there were some ominous looking clouds ahead:

I tried to snap a picture of my trip odometer right as it rolled over 100.00 miles for the day. The name 'century ride' has never been that appealing to me - I think I'm going to call what I did a 'hundy pedal'.
Back to the ominous looking clouds - about a mile from the end of our ride the skies opened and we got dumped on. Luckily Debbie and Tina were waiting for us, so we hurriedly threw everything into the cars and then jumped in.

Barney and I decided to wimp out for the evening and rode along to the hotel here in Burligton, Iowa instead of spending a soggy night in the tent. I'm now kicking back on a soft bed, self-medicating with ibuprofen and Bud Lite.

One other noteworthy pic - we drove into downtown Burlington for dinner and I got a shot of the very scenic bridge across the river where our ride will end in two days.

After dinner Barney and I did a vehicle shuffle to get his car closer to the end point, which was a treat for me because Barney had a banjo stashed in the car. I got to pick for a few minutes in the hotel parking lot before it got dark and he made me put it away.

Today's stats:

Total miles - 104.4

Average rolling speed - 17.2mph

Max speed - 39.8mph

American Legion halls visible from our route - 0

Ice creams consumed - 4 (1 chocolate, 2 vanilla, 1 strawberry)

Butt soreness, scale of 1 (aahhhhhh...) to 10 (AAHHHHHH!!!) - 7

Hope all is well out there in the real world,

Chuck

RAGBRAI 2009 - Day 4

I feel like I'm running out of material - if you're pressed for time the synopsis for today is pretty similar to yesterday's; we wore spandex, pedalled a lot, ate a lot of junk food, and saw lots of corn and soybeans.

For those with time to burn, read on. The day started out riding into thick fog. Ignoring my sense of self-preservation I decided to attempt an action shot while speeding down a hill in a crowd in the fog:

It ended without mishap. After an hour or so the fog burned off and it turned into a beatiful sunny day. We rolled into a couple little towns early but didn't feel the need to stop until we got to Milo, where I obviously had to have my picture made.

In Milo we ate some breakfast burritos and some cinammon rolls and met Josephine, who lived right on the main drag. She didn't seem too phased by the tens of thousands of bikers rolling past her front door, but I guess when you're 11 months old you just kind of take a lot of new things in stride.
From there it was a lot of pretty flat and straight riding, so Barney and I got back into our peloton mode and cranked for a while. We had to bump out of the draft though when we got to the Beekman's ice cream trailer, where I have stopped every day so far. We did a little mental math and realized that this little family operation will probably clear $100K in this week - I know I'm helping them get there.
Now for a new segment I hope to continue for the rest of the week: pictures of American Legion halls. Below are the ones in Milo and Chariton, where we ended our ride for the day:

Today was the second shortest day of the trip, and we rolled into Chariton shortly after noon and Debbie and Tina were there again with cold beers and snack food for us - I hope they fully understand the joy that they bring to our day. I then ate two ice cream cones (padding my stats) and we wandered around the town for a little bit. Here's a picture of a bike that we see a fair amount of on this trip, apparently called a tadpole recumbent. I need help from my (extensive, I'm sure) readership to brainstorm why pedalling one of these would be an inherent disadvantage compared to a normal bicycle. It could be a selection bias, as maybe people who are less athletic gravitate towards them, but I know that they are always going slower on the road.

This is an antique tractor that we found parked behind a building. Not sure exactly what era they would have used something like this, but one look at this thing and all its exposed gears and flywheels makes me think there must have been a lot of mangled limbs around that time.

This photo is going out to John Logsdon - it's the old train depot in Chariton, which at least for tonight was the most popular dining destination in town. Barney and I tried to go have the all-you-can-eat lasagna there, but when we saw the line wrapped around the building we thought better of it.
Here's a shot of our bikes holding each other up - Barney's is the white (good) one, and mine is the black (evil) one - I like to think that this picture is some kind of yin and yang biking thing.
And finally, the latest picture of my ice cream accounting. I wish there was some way to normalize, because the ice creams I get from Beekman's are at least a pint each, but I only get to count 1 mark for each one. At this point it's looking like my goal of eating my weight's worth is ambitious. My friend Laura in San Francisco pointed out that it could be a sloping asymptote kind of situation too, as that level of consumption would certainly increase my weight. I'm not giving up yet though.
One other note of interest - Barney and Bill and Debbie got their pictures in the Des Moines Register at the end of yesterday's ride. I was relaxing and drinking beer too, so feel like I was equally qualified to be in the picture, but apparently I'm just not as photogenic:

http://ragbrai.com/wp-content/gallery/ragbrai-tuesday/m0722ragbraigapsjjg28.jpg

That's about it for today - we're camping on the lawn of an elementary school and there's a bar next door doing some atrocious outdoor karaoke. We'll see how long they can keep this up.

Today's stats:

Miles today - 44.8

Average rolling speed - 16.2mph

Butt soreness, scale of 1 (sitting in one of those big satellite dish chairs that's filled with baby powder) to 10 (doing a cannonball off the high dive into a swimming pool filled with Texas Pete hot sauce) - 3

And to appease Mark - we left this morning at 7:34 and arrived here in Chariton at 12:08.

I hope the rest of you aren't having to listen to some drunk lady belt out Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks,

-Charles Milo Horrell

RAGBRAI 2009 - Day 3

Today started out looking like it was going to be a real character-building day. After raining on-and-off all night, the 'on' finally won out around 7am and we started pedalling under a steady drizzle. Once we got our blood pumping the chill wore off and the rain gear began to function more as a sweat-containment than a rain-repellant system. Here we are at our first town stop of the morning:

Another 10 miles or so brought us to the next town (the names mostly run together at this point), where some enterprising town group had invented a game called 'skillet toss'. For a buck you could throw two cast iron frying pans at some dummies and try to knock their basketball heads off. No idea where the idea for the game came from, but it must have netted them a fair amount of dough, because the line to throw the skillets was huge.

This guy really wound up and put his heart into it. Every once in a while someone would make a truly errant throw and a skillet would fly out of the enclosure, but in the 10 minutes we were there I didn't see anyone get injured.

Here's another photo to try and make the entire experience relevant for my nephew - dad and grandad with a big green tractor. I know blue is your favorite Charlie, but so far all the tractors have been either red or green - we'll keep looking, buddy.

Around this time the rain let up but the wind started blowing a little bit. Barney and I were feeling pretty strong so we put our heads down and started clicking off the miles. Every once in a while we would have a couple people join us or would catch a few riders moving at the same pace and I got to experience peleton riding for the first time. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to get a long line of riders staying close and drafting each other. Here's a shot of what most of my afternoon looked like:

One more eventful stop - we rolled into St. Mary's, which is allegedly the halfway point of the ride across the state. They had the largest selection of pie I've ever seen there, and Bill got his long-awaited slice of banana cream pie.

Another cool sight in St. Mary's was the combination American Legion and Knights of Columbus hall. If you look really closely you can see that each sign has its own light above it, so that they can turn on whichever one corresponds to the meeting happening at the time. Seeing as how the town only has 150 residents according to the nice old lady I talked to while taking this picture, I imagine there must be a lot of overlap in the memberships. I love the mental image of thirty old men sitting in here drinking beer and then periodically flipping the light switches and changing hats to convene the different meetings.

From there it was an uneventful grind to the finish line in Indianola - here's Barney rolling into town:

I had Bill snap a shot of me under the same banner:

Debbie and Tina met us in Indianola with some great snacks and beer - it was enough to bring a tear to a tired biker's eye. There was a solid half hour of following Bill's lead before we got up and moved on with our day:

We spent another 30 minutes walking around the town square looking at the sights. I got my picture made with my bike right on top of the 'no bikes' sign on the sidewalk to show The Man what I think of him and his rules, then it was naptime for this rebel.

Bill, Dave, Tina, and Debbie left for the hotel and Barney and I set up our tent in a little corner of the side yard of Simpson College's Delta Delta Delta sorority. It seemed like a nice quiet spot until we discovered (after the tent was up) that once every 30 minutes or so the air-handling machinery behind us fires up with a series of explosions and then a noise like a jet engine spooling up. This did little to deter my napping though and after 2 hours of dreaming about air raids I woke up to a sight you don't often see; hot air balloons visible through the roof of your tent.

I went outside and the things were everywhere - it was a little surreal.

Barney had to do some work while I was napping, but once I was up we ate a quick dinner and then showered at the college's gym. Barney fell asleep an hour ago and this party animal is about to follow suit.

Today's numbers:

Total miles - 78

Average moving speed - 15.9

Servings of ice cream consumed today - 1 (hey, I was wet and cold for most of the day)

Butt soreness, scale of 1(using a bidet that squirts buttermilk instead of water) to 10 (squatting in a field of stinging nettle) - 5

Good night from America's heartland.