450 miles in 7 days

Hello! I hope this blog finds you well at the high water mark of summer. This is The Lovely Miss Beverly guest-posting as Roger's RAGBRAI 2015 support team from the Sharritt Subaru. Loaded down with bikes, camping gear, a generous supply of sunscreen, and high calorie snacks, we are experiencing the Registrars Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

We are making our way, with Ben and Chris joining in the insanity, from Sioux City and the Missouri River to Davenport and the Mississippi in 7 days. On route, we pass through 45 Iowa cities and towns including  Washta, Eldora, and Cedar Falls. The guys will cycle an average of 70 miles/day, and I'll be able to set up a tent in under 10 minutes before the week is done. 

I thought I might have time to post a daily travelogue, but between loading/unloading, supply shopping, and finding the best shower option along with 20,000 others, I've not had a lot of idle time. Last night and tonight we are sleeping in real beds at my sister, The Magical Miss Patty's house in central Iowa: your wait for a shower is now 0 minutes. Instead of rinsing out bike shorts in a park restroom, I'm leisurely sitting on her porch overlooking Grand Avenue while her Maytag hums quietly in the basement. 

Does an address get any better than Grand Avenue in Story City, Iowa? Spending the last 20 years on Reformatory Road, I don't think so. Patty has shaped a lovely existence in this idyllic small town with her husband and 5 kids. The town is known for its historic antique carousel in their town park. She can walk to her church, fitness center, and town pool for her daily summer lap swim. At this same pool, she and her kids serve the crucial small town role of running the pool's Snack Shack. They are basically royalty to the 10 and under set, in possession of ice cream novelties.  In a storage room next to that humming washing machine, are stacked boxes of Air Heads and yet-to-be frozen Flavor Ices. I opened her freezer to store some of our camping food, and it was full of Drumstick ice cream treats. If that doesn't scream, "civilization!" I don't know what does.

RAGBRAI hosts around 20,000 riders each year in this traveling beer garden/two-wheeled subculture. There are many facets we have yet to fathom, but after only two days, the guys seem to be sold on the shared difficult experience of the ride broken up by the hospitality offered up as they are funneled through Main Street after Main Street of the next small prairie town. 

I went to the lunch town on the first day, and first grasped the scale of the ride when traffic backed up a mile  out of Washta. I decided at this point, that the guys would do lunch on their own for the rest of the week, but I  parked to experience the parade of bikes and riders, sampling the local fire department fundraiser food, including pie. Look for a future guest blog: Pie-owa! where I review the pies sampled this week.

For now, I'll share some memorable details from the first 3 days:
Passing painted school buses on the trip west customized with rooftop bike racks, with colorful names like: Shagbrai, Wasted Potential, Fork More Pork, B Team, and Liver Strong
Lap swim with Patty, Queen of the Snack Shack before heading to Sioux City
Homemade ice cream root beer floats 
Talking ourselves out of the first-time rider and first -time support driver meetings in lieu of other more necessary first-time meetings like Dad's Butt Butter talk with the boys
Jumping in Storm Lake with the guys at the end of a sweaty day
Attempting to make Ben birthday pancakes in the rain at our Monday campsite
Ben liked the part where he was pedaling and there was corn next to him 
Chris saw a sign "Jesus Loves Pie" . . . Then further down the road. . ."probably". I'd venture definitely. 

Looking forward to sharing more moments from the ride as we head East!