 Onawa to Lake View:
69.0 miles
Today was the first official day of RAGBRAI, beautiful weather
with light winds. The 2004 Pedaling for Parkinson’s team
had 16 cyclists on Day 1 of RAGBRAI XXXII (a jump from just 6 on Day 1 last year).
We departed the McLaughlin’s a few minutes after our
scheduled 7AM departure and the plan was to meet Darrin in Schleswig to
re-fuel, re-group and agree on a final destination in Lake
View as we were spending the night
in Auburn
at Maxine Stewart’s
house. For 15 of
the 16 riders it was a great day. Unfortunately, Jim’s trike had a major mechanical problem; he lost a wheel on the way to Schelswig so his delays continued. Fortunately,
Darrin and Jim happen to find each other in Schelswig.
They loaded up Jim’s trike
and headed to Lake
View where the group
waited. After a
great dinner at Maxine’s house, Ralph and others went to
work on Jim’s trike.
Steve’s World
7-25-04
This was Day 1 of the RAGBRAI event from Onawa,
Iowa to Lake View, Iowa.
The town of Onawa, Iowa was descended upon by 15,000 people from all over
the world, all ages, all walks of life, all united in bicycling across the
state of Iowa. In addition to the riders, many bring along support
crews. Combined, the size of the town probably quintupled.
Each year, ride organizers receive bids from small towns
across the state in an attempt to steer the route through their town.
To say that the townspeople roll out the red carpet is an
understatement. In Lake
View, an enormous
bridge of bikes was welded together to form an arch across the four-lane
road through the center of town. The entire ride consists of 7 days
averaging 70 miles. The route is lined with vendors who sell great
food, crafts, and RAGBRAI souvenirs. Some booths are elaborate
set-ups with bands, tents, hometowns celebrities, etc. There are just
as many lemonade stands staffed by a couple of
kids. One kid was hawking “sweet, fresh corn” literally
pulling the ear off the stalk from the field behind her, and grilling it before your eyes.
Cool.
Our group departed together. Immediately upon entering
the ride route, you’re tossed into the masses, and it was a little
intimidating. On the course were bicycles of every type, tandem
bicycles (two rider bikes), recumbent tricycles (where the rider operates
the three-wheeled vehicle in a seated position), unicycles, and then there
was a collection of really odd contraptions that are un-nameable and
basically indescribable. A picture is worth a thousand words and the
author makes a note to himself to take his camera out on the course.
I polled the group as to the weirdest things they saw rolling down the road.
Here are the official results:
1. A guy who emasculated his bicycle
by creating a frame that housed no seat. He was riding the entire way
in the standing position, like the way you go up a steep hill. I
pulled beside the guy and asked him, “Are you going to ride the entire 500 miles
standing up?”
He stared at me and said, “Of course I am”, looking at me like I was an
idiot. How did he know?
2. A guy who dragged a barrel barbeque
on wheels behind his bike and used it at the end of the day.
3. The teammate of #2 who rode with a
fully stocked bar dragging behind his bicycle.
4. A guy who flew a kite behind his
bike.
5. A gal who decorated her helmet like
a loon. Jay tried to tell us that the loon was the state bird of Iowa. His
claim that he grew up in Iowa
was cast in doubt.
Many people rode as part of a team. Our team, for
example, was Pedaling For Parkinson’s,
which despite the worthiness of the cause, won no awards in the competition for best team names,
which are:
1. Team Dairy-aire
2. Team Stop-a-lot
3. Team Crank Addicts
4. The Teacher, The Leecher and The Preacher
5. Team Fork for Pork
After what Jay, Ralph and Pat did to me yesterday on the
warm-up 50 miler, I wanted to take it easy riding
the 73 miles to Lake
View. I really
enjoyed watching the spectacle unfolding in front of me. The road was
usually jammed from side to side, making car travel in either direction
impossible.
Upon arriving in Lake
View, I realized that
the ambiguity around the meet-n-greet location had the potential to be a
disaster. Lake
View was
mobbed. I had an idea that Jay had suggested meeting up in the town
before the ending town. Like most of my ideas, it was a bad
one. Acting on my hunch, I turned my bike around and started biking
back towards the previous town. This meant going against the traffic
described above, a fair percentage of which were loaded by this time.
I ignored every other rider who thought they were being funny by telling me
that I was going the wrong way. Finally, I caught up with Ralph and
Cathy ten miles down the road.
Ralph and Cathy knew where the hook-up point was and
sheepishly told me that Jay whispered it to them. I couldn’t help
but think this was a value call on Jay’s part. “Let’s see, this is the first day of RAGBRAI and I’ll tell
everyone else where we’re
meeting, but not Steve and he can be on his own the rest of the week”, I imagined him
scheming.
Cathy, Ralph, Pat and I made it back to the meeting
point. We then had a 16-mile trek to Auburn, IA
to our host’s house.
Surprise! Another gracious host! My face muscles
are starting to hurt from smiling so much. Maxine Stewart (pictured
in the lower left) had a great dinner spread prepared for us, hot showers
and plenty of room to crash. It was a very successful start to
RAGBRAI.
|