{"id":2714,"date":"2013-11-20T07:52:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/?p=2714"},"modified":"2013-11-20T07:52:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T13:52:54","slug":"life-bike-eleven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/life-bike-eleven\/","title":{"rendered":"LIFE BIKE Eleven"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAGBRAI XXII<\/strong>
\nJuly 24-30, 1994<\/em>
\nThe 1994 ride began in Council Bluffs for the third time on July 24 and ended in Clinton for the third time on July 30. Overnight stops were Harlan, which had hosted riders in 1976 and 1983; Carroll and Perry, which each put out the welcome mat for the riders for the third time; Marshalltown, which had not seen the riders since RAGBRAI in 1974; Marion, which hosted the riders for the first time; and Maquoketa, the beautiful eastern Iowa town which hosted the riders for the first time since 1978. Nearly everyone agrees that this RAGBRAI enjoyed some of the best weather ever \u201ctemperatures of 75-80 degrees each day with low humidity and a tailwind on most days. Riders got to ride through fifty five wonderful Iowa towns on this ride.<\/p>\n

BLOG<\/a> that gives the overall flavor of that which is RAGBRAI.<\/p>\n

In preparation for RAGBRAI, I rode 1400 training miles. Did you read that? \u00a0One thousand four hundred miles.I rode everywhere, trails and roads. \u00a0Busy highway, flat trails, hills \u00a0and lonely blacktop highways in Kansas and Missouri were my home. \u00a0I rode a couple of hours on weekdays and after work; \u00a0Twenty plus miles conditioning rides on the weekends. \u00a0I rode by myself and in group rides. \u00a0I remember once or twice I had to call my husband to come and rescue me because I became totally exhausted. \u00a0I have every \u00a0bike gadget possible. \u00a0My speedometer shows everything, including altitude. \u00a0I like to know when I’m climbing hills. \u00a0The speedometer keeps track of my miles, average speed, top speed everything possible that gadgetry could do in the early 90’s. \u00a0I have enough bike clothing to wear for at least 6 months\u202624\/7.<\/p>\n

During this time, I graduated to click on shoes. \u00a0Finally, I was attached to my pedals. \u00a0I had force when my foot went down and when it came up. \u00a0Oh laugh, Shawnee Mission rangers!<\/p>\n

I was ready. \u00a0I hooked up with two other women, one of whom worked for SSA and the wife of a SSA employee from Lebanon, Missouri. \u00a0We met at the first town and our friendship blossomed and turned deep through the hard fought miles and fun of RAGBRAI.<\/p>\n

My mother and father delivered me to Council Bluffs. \u00a0We went to the Missouri river and dipped my tires. \u00a0RAGBRAI was about to happen! \u00a0I had my tent, my sleeping bag, battery fan, clothes, necessary stuff and my bike. They delivered me to the camp ground at Council Bluffs. \u00a0When I left work on my \u00a0last day, someone said, “Have Fun!”<\/p>\n

“Have fun?”, \u00a0I thought. \u00a0I was going to be biking nearly 70 miles every day, one day would be a hundred miles so why would anyone think I was going to have fun? \u00a0All I was trying to do was live through the experience. \u00a0However, RAGBRAI is as much fun as one human being can stand. RAGBRAI food is the best food on the planet. \u00a0Between the pork man, church lady food and small town vendor food, it was a culinary adventure. \u00a0Most people lost weight. \u00a0I gained weight and it made me happy. \u00a0The towns (most of the fifty five towns) all had stuff going on. \u00a0They had games, entertainment, and wondrous food\u2026and porta potties! \u00a0I had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

The miles between towns had acres and acres of corn fields which served the riders as natural porta poties. \u00a0It’s just like the movie\u2026you walk into the July Iowa corn fields and disappear in about three rows. \u00a0it’s a whole separate universe out there in the middle of a field thick with 12′ high green and gold corn stalks. \u00a0One of the days, I made it to a town and a porta potty. \u00a0When I peeled off my sweaty wet shorts, I discovered a long green corn stalk had attached to my rump during the last stop in the corn field. I was so sweaty, the stalk had melted into a soft wet think and matched perfectly to my skin\u2026which was soft and wet. \u00a0ha!. \u00a0I never felt anything until I peeled it off my rump. \u00a0I should have kept it as a souvenir!<\/p>\n

The Des Moines Register newspaper is the sponsor for the ride. \u00a0You sign up with them and hope you make the lottery for them to carry your tent, bag and sleeping gear. \u00a0I had made it. \u00a0Every time I came into the overnight host town, I searched among the big piles for my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, “blankie”, blowup mattress and my essentials bag.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of fit young riders who burn the RAGBRAI candle at both ends. \u00a0They like to have a few drinks during the day at the town bars and a few more after they arrive in the overnight host town. \u00a0I was sleeping soundly and happily in my tent one night when an inebriated person was a little too tipsy and fell on my tent. \u00a0Good GAD! \u00a0I was pinned to my mattress until the person could get up. \u00a0My tent was half collapsed. \u00a0By the time I struggled out of tent, the tipsy guy was out of sight. \u00a0Good thing for him as I was spoiling for a good yell at a drunk. \u00a0tsk tsk.<\/p>\n

I made the 100 mile day which is a feat of total amazement for someone like me. \u00a0Going down hills, I was faster than most because both me and my bike were “heavy”. \u00a0The bike had the thinnest slickest tires that it could handle for the long roads. \u00a0It was a mountain converted to road bike.<\/p>\n

Finally, the last day appeared. \u00a0It was probably the shortest milage day. \u00a0My parents were waiting for me in Clinton. \u00a0We went to the river and dipped my tires into the Mississippi River. \u00a0We loaded everything into the van and I slept most of the way back home. \u00a0Total Awesome Success\u2026a Life Event of Success!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAGBRAI XXII July 24-30, 1994 The 1994 ride began in Council Bluffs for the third time on July 24 and ended in Clinton for the third time on July 30. Overnight stops were Harlan, which had hosted riders in 1976 and 1983; Carroll and Perry, which each put out the welcome mat for the riders for the third time; Marshalltown, which had not seen the riders since RAGBRAI in 1974; Marion, which hosted the riders for the first time; and Maquoketa, the beautiful eastern Iowa town which hosted the riders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-biking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2821,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}