Friday's report

We left Bloomington this morning and drove to Cedar Rapids seeing more rain on the trip. There is flash flooding in Manchester and Dyersville, two of the towns on the last two days of the ride. Hope it is cleared up by the time we arrive. Dyersville, by the way, is the home of the "Field of Dreams" movie baseball park where Shoeless Joe "lives" in the corn field.

We visited some friends, dropped some stuff off at Jeri and Bill's house where we are staying tonight, and went to Coe College to meet most of the other riders and to enjoy a spaghetti dinner. Riders come from throughout the country, as far west as Utah and east to Washington DC with most from Cedar Rapids, of course. Coe has changed a lot since I attended it from 1959 to 1962. The campus looks about three times larger with some really fine new campus facilities. I'm told the enrollment is nearly twice what it was back then--about1300 now.

We loaded the bikes and supplies and returned to Jeri and Bill's. We were hit by a thunderstorm tonight while watching the flood pictures on the news from Manchester and Dyersville. Lots of noise, rain and hail.

Forecast for the first part of the week is much better. We'll see.

Tomorrow we leave at 10 for the bus ride to Sioux City where we'll set up camp after unloading the truck. Then join the other 10,000 riders for a concert by SmashMouth. I brought my ear plugs!

To bed then and up on Sunday to start our ride with the climb out of the Missouri River valley. This year's ride has about half the number of feet of climb of last year's but I believe the agony of the first day will be typical for RAGBRAI. If you think Iowa is flat, you are wrong. I'm told there is a very challenging hill between Dyersville and Dubuque for the last day too just so we don't get too confident during the week.

I'll put something together for tomorrow so see you then.

Remember, help the Clemmons Food Pantry with a donation. Send to Clemmons Methodist Church, Clemmons, NC 27012 and note on the check that is is for the Food Pantry and/or Roger's ride. There are good people who need your help.

Thursday before the ride

Barb and I got up early and left the house at 4:30 in the morning after packing the two bikes and all the gear and clothes into the truck. Off we went toward Iowa finally stopping for the night in Bloomington, IL. From the time we got into West Virginia, the weather was off and on showers and thunderstorms with a real gully washer just before we got to Indianapolis. We could see that the fields had lots of water, some of the rivers were up and there was evidence that the rain had been around for a while. Reports from Iowa were that they had experienced more than their share of rain during the past month or so. The forecast for the ride that starts in Sioux City on Sunday, July 25, is pretty good with possibility of rain only in the forecast on Wednesday. We'll see!
We passed a lot of vehicles with bikes on the way. Some already had their tags on so we knew they were Iowa bound.
I'm riding this year with a group from Coe College in Cedar Rapids. I grew up in CR and attended Coe for three years after high school where I studied music. Wasn't a very good student I'm afraid...pretty unfocussed. As a music major I spent as little time studying as possible. I did enjoy performing and practicing but the books never got in front of my eyes. I also spent a lot of time at the athletic department where I was on the wrestling team. Anyone who majored in music can tell you that these two departments just don't work well together. Band trips, choir trips, wrestling meets...they don't mix. Anyway, after coming to my senses, I quit after my Junior year, went to work trying to make a living as a musician, found out I couldn't, had the great fortune to meet Barbara and either I discovered or she showed me how to focus and back to school I went after we were married a couple of years and somehow figured school and life out and that got me through the next 40 years. Anyway, it will be fun to see the campus again and to meet some of the more recent students and successful graduates who are riding across Iowa for 7 days. We are staying with parents of students and other interested folks at each of the 7 stops enroute. Should be fun.
We brought our bikes into the motel room...too easy to steal on the back of the truck...so we'll get up early and head to Cedar Rapids, about another 4 or 5 hour drive. We are staying with one of Bartb's sisters (Jeri and Bill) tomorrow night and then I join the Coe group for a ride to Sioux City and Barb goes off to visit her mother in Guttenberg, IA on the Mississippi river.
I said we had two bikes: I hope Barb will join me for a portion of the ride one day so we brought her bike. We'll see.
If you aren't familiar with RAGBRAI I'll give you a very short description. It started with two newspapermen from the Des Moines Register nearly 40 years ago who decided to ride across Iowa. They invited readers to join them and about 100 did - one of whom was Cookie, one of Barb's sisters. It was such a good trip they decided to do it again. Now it is the largest bike event in the world with 10,000 registered riders each day. Since the ride occurs on public roads a few thousand others join in unregistered. It is really remarkable to see so many riders. The route changes every year but starts at the Missouri river and goes east to the Mississippi. This year's route is across northern Iowa from Sioux City to Dubuque. If you want to learn more go to www.RAGBRAI.com. RAGRAI?, That's an acronym: Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
Enough for tonight. I'll post more tomorrow. Hope you enjoy this as much as I will enjoy the ride.
By the way, I really hope you'll join me in contributing something to the Clemmons Food Pantry. I try to raise some money for something worthwhile each time I do one of these rides and the Food Pantry is where Barbara focusses her considerable efforts. Please send them something c/o Clemmons United Methodist Church, Clemmons, NC 27012 and note on the check Roger's ride or Food Pantry. There is so much hunger and need, more than you can imagine, and those of us who are blessed have a responsiblity to share with those who aren't and are in need.