Dispatches from Iowa: A RAGBRAI update

St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst poses with his bike after completing the 2007 RAGBRAI.

If it's late July, you can wager St. Petersburg Times editor Jim Verhulst won't be in the office. Once again he's back in Iowa on just another 7-day, 500-mile bike ride known as the (Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Heading into its 36th year, the ride is fully supported and immensely popular. The total number of cyclists must be capped at 8,500 each year.

Jim is going to keep us updated on his progress throughout the week. Here's his first installment:

Today we rode from Missouri Valley to Harlan, 58.9 miles and 3,800 feet of climbing. It was a surprisingly easy day, no wind and nice weather, particularly with a 6 a.m. start. I'm getting ahead of myself, but when we got to the end town, Harlan, we saw a cafe/bar (a biker's bar?) and you know you're in a cyclists' place when it says "shirts optional, no uncovered cleats." The hospitality of Iowans continued apace today. I'm writing this on a borrowed laptop as a friend gets his legs massaged. The masseuse just asked me to say she was a very nice person with a Red Sox Santa hat. When I mentioned that I came from Tampa Bay Rays' territory, she took off the stocking cap and said just say it was a nice person wearing a bandanna (which she had on underneath the other cap). She also wanted everyone to know the therapeutic value of a good professional massage!

After we started rolling this morning, we went about 25 miles before we stopped to eat breakfast at the fire station in Underwood and had smoky links, all-you-can-eat pancakes and ... Tang. I hadn't had the drink of astronauts since the 1970s or maybe 1960s, but, you know, it wasn't bad.

Another town on the route today, Shelby, did it right and had a sense of fun in welcoming riders to town. They had old Burma Shave-style signs on the approach to town - my favorite was "Looking for Shelby; you're getting warmer; look for the clarinet-playing peacock farmer."

The views today were breathtaking: field after field of beautiful terraced corn and soybeans flowing off into the distance. 

And the people of Iowa were great as always, sitting out in lawn chairs to cheer us as we went past.

A note about last night: It was a neat tableau of fireflies, then a chorus of frogs, then lightning (which didn't end up in either a storm or even rain, oddly). A cool breeze made for a good night's sleep for those of us who could ignore the trains and their whistles, which came through town at least every 15 minutes. It's a major route for freight trains.

 

After a camp shower in a portable cabana and a bit of laundry in a sink at the fairgrounds, we headed for town to load up on carbs for tomorrow. An all-you-can-eat buffet did the trick. It's funny how after a cyclist has ridden so many miles, they often won't walk a few blocks to the bike expo each day but will wait for a shuttle. Maybe they're saving their legs for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a tough day of hills - a solid mile of elevation gain on the day. Part of the route and the gaps (and therefore the water breaks) between towns is very similar to Day 2 in 2006. Tomorrow is also longer, but with any luck we won't have the headwinds we had then. In a Q&A in today's Des Moines Register, one of the questions referred to that infamous day from two years ago as the Death March. They promise more water stops this time, but they can make no promises about the hills or the headwinds.

A final thought from Harlan, Iowa. As we waited in line for an hour at the senior center for a pasta dinner (carbo loading), we moved slowly past glass cases including donated collections of Crayola crayon boxes from over the years, toy tractors and salt shakers from across the nation. Then we saw an engraving on the wall (apparently the senior center was the high school in a former life) that said "If every youth could have the good fortune of growing up in Harlan, Iowa, the world would forever enjoy friendship, responsibility, peace and prosperity," signed CG. "Turk" Therkildensen, Class of 1955.

With that closing thought, have a good night.

Best,
Jim

Comments

[Ghost Rider]

Where is Jim's Bianchi this year?