Fort Dodge (Hubbard) to Marshalltown: 56 miles

Last night we stayed at Brooks and Ester Glasnapp’s in Hubbard. Brook’s is Joel’s brother-in-law. Our hosts continue to exceed our expectations with their generosity. The group agreed that Brooks made the best hamburgers anyone had ever had. He was encouraged to go into business selling “Brooks Burgers.” We started the day riding from Hubbard and would join the official RAGBRAI route at Eldora, this change reduced our mileage by about 6 miles for the day (I heard no complaints). It was another great day with no major mechanicals or crashes. Our overnight hosts in Marshalltown were Blake and Regina Hardy. Blake and Regina are both Physical Therapists. They provided us with fantastic accommodations, laundry facilities and great food. Blake also offered to assist in finding us lodging for RAGBRAI 2005 as he has numerous professional connections in the area of physical therapy across the state.

Steve’s World

7-27-04 and 7-28-04

I’m combining two day’s worth of reports today for several reasons, not the least of which is that I’m a day behind, old and my memory is failing me. Let’s start with the facts, shall we:

Yesterday’s ride was 71 miles from Fort Dodge to Iowa Falls. We modified it slightly, by loading the bikes at the end and driving 16 miles south to Hubbard, where Joel’s brother-in-law lives. Incidentally, I have in my mind to properly introduce all 20 characters on our extended team, but I’m old and I’ll probably forget.

Today’s ride was 50 miles from Hubbard to Marshalltown. While the rest of the team rode the scheduled route, Ralph, Pat and I modified the course by adding 70 miles straight into a 25 MPH headwind.

Yesterday, I rode with Kelly, a wonderful woman, mother and wife, who resides in Des Moines. Today, I rode with Ralph and Pat, of whom I have nothing nice to say, as it relates to biking and, come to think of it, as relating to everything.

The second and main reason I’m combining the reports is that I had an epiphany while regretting riding the alternative route on today’s ride. Why not offer a side-by-side comparison of the two day’s rides?

Without further ado, I offer:

Ride Attribute	Riding with Kelly…	Riding with Ralph…
Stopping	Only under the following conditions: Eating Drinking Restrooms Shopping Tired Hot Good music is playing Bad music is playing Smelling the roses, enjoying the landscape, and other sight-seeing excursions that don’t involve bicycling If either rider feels like it If neither rider feels like it Death	Acceptable if pronounced dead
Eating and drinking	Yes, large quantities of high fat, good-tasting fare because its fun	Yes, large quantities of high energy, poor tasting fare, because it required to prevent death
A picture is worth a thousand words…	Riding with Kelly brightened my spirits so much that the far-left Democrat who sold me this headwear told me I was her favorite Republican.	Notice the ambulance in the background
Restroom breaks involving #1	Port-a-potties are absolutely unacceptable. Invest the time to search out a cooperating doctor’s office with air conditioning, where hygiene is at a premium, the tissue paper is top shelf, and the music is soft. Enjoy the ambiance.	Done while riding, but fall back to the end of the ride group so as not to hinder the pace of the ride. Enjoy the ambiance.
Restroom breaks involving #2	Preferably something better that the #1 accommodations	Not suitable to discuss in a journal with wide distribution
Ride statistics	The following details are meticulously recorded: Location of the best ice cream vendors Location of all other ice cream vendors Tastefulness of the outfits of surrounding riders, especially footwear/jersey color coordination Best locations of jewelry vendors, perfectly acceptable to purchase while on a bicycle ride. If purchases exceed bicycle storage capacity, arrange for support wagon pickup, resuming shopping until vehicle’s arrival	To the third decimal point, the following are recorded: Distance Speed Temperature, start and stop Heart rate output Wind conditions Road conditions Barometric pressure Position of the sun and moon
What to do after the ride	Discuss immediate plans in search of more food, shopping and entertainment. Transition into a debate on the merits of dropping out of RAGBRAI and joining the support crew or one of the bands we listened to today.	Rehash every detail about the ride, much to the disdain of me and everyone within earshot. Transition into a planning session for the next day’s ride.

Tomorrow is a “recovery” day, where I plan to ride with the ice cream tasters of the group. That should be a good journal.

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