RAGBRAI 2024

If it’s the last week of July, it’s time for a bike ride in Iowa.

Only one stage this year but worth it!

I had originally planned to ride just two days this year with friends. The last two: day 6 and 7. But no matter how much you plan, life still happens. This year, it was injuries, scheduling, and death of a loved one. So I was going to be solo for one day this year. I wasn’t sure I wanted to ride such a distance by myself but after waffling back and forth, I decided to do the Friday ride. While I wouldn’t have the friends I planned for with me, I would still have 20,000 other new friends along for the ride.

Just a little back story to RAGBRAI. The ride was officially started in 1973 by two columnist who wrote for the Des Moines Register, Donald Kaul and John Karras. They both were cyclists and convinced their boss to support a bike ride across Iowa, writing about the event along the way. Some 300 people participated in the first event. Two-thousand rode the next year. For a long time there was a lottery to register that limited riders but eventually that was done away with. Last year, the fifty-year anniversary, there were over 30,000 weekly riders and reportedly upwards of 60,000 who completed the ‘short’ 40-mile 4th stage between Ames and Des Moines. Generally, the complete ride of seven days covers between 425 and 500 miles and never follows the same route from year to year.

This year, the 6th stage was from Ottumwa to Mt. Pleasant. Our plan was to stay overnight close to Ottumwa and Mary would drop me off at the start. I would then keep her posted on my progress and she would pick me up in Mt. Pleasant. We had located a nice AirBnB in Washington IA that would accommodate our larger group. When plans changed, we kept the reservation. Washington would be only an hour drive from Ottumwa and less that 30 minutes from Mt Pleasant. Plus it was only 25 minutes from Iowa City, our destination for Saturday.

We left home around 4:00 PM Thursday for the three hour drive. Long about Burlington IA, we stopped for supper at Gator’s Grill and Spirits. We were not sure about the local restaurant but applying PPC metrics of full parking lot on a Thursday, we sat down to a nice meal with excellent service. Mary had fried cod and I had a 6oz ribeye that was done to perfection.

*No, this was the restaurant mascot! Her name was Alli.*

Our AirBnB in Washington wasn’t just a house, it was actually a venue. The Victorian View. Apparently there is even a bridal shop in a couple of the rooms that were off limits. That’s a first-I’ve never slept in a bridal shop before. It was a grand old house. Did we need a house that also sleeps 15? No, but it was a great place and we may visit again, but next time we may invite others.

We headed to bed, but first – Mary set up the coffee maker so we could have fresh coffee when we woke up before the crack of dawn.

We were up and on our way to Ottumwa by 5:30 Friday morning. We found the park campground, unloaded the bike, did my final checklist and at 6:40 AM, off I went.

As I headed for the first town, Mary was busy finding a coffee shop in Ottumwa. She found the Sassy Java House. This coffee shop is co-branded with Sassy Sunflower boutique. Mary found a quiet table to enjoy the coffee and cinnamon roll while updating the diary for the trip. Then a quick visit to the boutique before heading back to Washington.

Meanwhile I was rolling up on Agency IA, just 10 miles into the ride.

*7:30 and it is packed at the first town*

*And I mean packed. All the lines for breakfast for very long so I decided to head to the next town, Eldon.*

Eldon IA was just a 45 minute ride from Agency so the lines were a little shorter. I chose this breakfast walking burrito.

*The burrito (without the wrap) had scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, cheese, onions, jalapenos, and sour cream.*

I finished most of the bowl. I wasn’t sure how this heavy of food early in the morning would set. I did fine.

Eldon had a number of special interests where I could have spent time.

*A train museum with a working train horn and bell. Every time it went off, I looked to make sure I wasn’t on the tracks*

There was also a model train museum adjacent to the big trains. I would have loved to visit these places but I had someplace I needed to be. The American Gothic House.

I wasn’t sure how to get to the house but as soon as started heading out of downtown, there were signs directing you. Two minutes later I was looking at history.

There were hundreds of people coming and going so there were no tours of the house. There was a separate visitors center that was open but it was very busy. There were even characters, dressed as the two in the picture that would pose for pictures. Even that line was long so I think I’ll come back when it’s not so busy.

Interesting tidbits about the painting: The title inspiration came from the upstairs window. Grant Wood felt that the ‘gothic’ look of the window was a little pretentious for a farm house.

The models for the painting were Wood’s sister Nan and Dr. Byron McKeeby, the family dentist. His sister insisted that the painting was to be of a father and daughter. This was later confirmed by Wood.

Wood painted American Gothic in 1930 while he resided in Cedar Rapids IA. He moved to Iowa City in 1934 where my Grandfather got to know him while cleaning Woods’ and other university offices (according to family lore). Talk about shortening the six degrees of separation.

Ten minutes later, I was on my way to Selma.

*Selma was more of a stop-over location than a town. They had a few vendors and food trucks but no downtown.*

Since I had just eaten 30 minutes earlier, I kept rolling towards Libertyville, an hour away.

*I couldn’t get that insurance company jingle out of my head for the next hour*

I was hitting my groove pedaling-wise when I saw the sign. The sign I saw on last year’s ride. The sign I was on the lookout for.

But there was a problem. The same problem I encountered on last year’s ride on Saturday.

It wasn’t lunch time yet but there they were. Last year, when I rolled into West Liberty IA at 7:30 AM, I thought it was too soon to eat the sandwich. But later, upon reflection, I realized I could have put the sandwich in my backpack and eaten it later. Even a warm ribeye sandwich tastes great. Heck, I’ve even had cold ribeyes.

I bought one and had it wrapped in additional foil. In case you were wondering from last year’s post, the sandwich was still priced this year at $11.00. Worth it!

I rode on to Fairfield, the meet-up town, half way done. It was 11:40 and now I was hungry. I pulled the well-wrapped treasure from my backpack. It was still warm. It tasted wonderful.

*I took a well deserved break on the cool grass and closed my eyes for 10 minutes and I was ready to go. Brighton was the next town on the route.*

This next stretch got kind of rough for a couple of reasons. It was a the longest stretch of the ride without a town-16 miles. It also had a dreaded 2 1/2 miles of gravel. On top of that, we’d had mostly a gentle 7 mph headwind all morning. While headwinds can slow you a little, they do provide a cool breeze. We were now heading northeast, mostly with the wind. As the temps slowly rose towards 80 degrees, we lost the cooling breeze and it started to get really warm.

*There’s a Lake Darling? Maybe we’ll take a look one day*

*The Washington County Freedom Rock, a tribute to the men and women of the military.*

With less than 30 miles to go, just a few miles outside of Wayland, I pulled into a large farm named Blueberry Bottom with a dozen tents and vendors. Watermelon, ice cream, frozen blueberries on a stick, and what sounded really good to me, Amish-made blueberry fried pie.

*There was a light glaze on the crust, the kind you get on a cinnamon roll.*

Now maybe it was the 8 hours on the road talking but this may have been the best pie, fried or otherwise, I ever had. For a moment, I tried to figure out a way to carry some with me in my backpack but I knew that would end badly so I enjoyed the moment and headed on towards Wayland.

The towns were becoming less populated with riders. Time and distance was stretching out the crowds. In Wayland I came across this version of a dunk tank.

This is a terrible photo but as you can see, it’s a cage with a toilet on top. You can’t see it but there is an arm with a target that when hit, flushes the toilet onto the ‘victim’ sitting in the protective cage.

*This a better photo of the ‘flush’. It is from Southeast Iowa Union newspaper which also covered Wayland’s RAGBRAI events.*

A few more miles and a few more hills and I rolled into Mt. Pleasant.

Mary met me at McMillan Park. I loaded up the bike and we headed back to Washington.

*Eleven hours, 85 miles, 3000′ of hill climbs. I actually felt like I accomplished something.*

After I cleaned up we went out to eat. I was hungry. We chose Cafe Dodici, just a 5 minute walk from our airbnb.

Dodici is Italian for ‘twelve’. Their stated reasons for twelve (according to their website) is the significant role that number plays in life. 12 vibrations of music tones, 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, 12 months in a year, Christianity’s 12 disciples, the 12 deeds of the Buddha, and 12 astrological signs.
**Let’s not forgot the number of eggs in a carton.**

We were early enough that the restaurant was not too busy and we got a table right away. In keeping with the ’12’ theme, the prices for all menu items ended in 12 cents! Steak seemed like a good choice for me. Mary ordered the spaghetti and meatballs.

Mary also ordered a glass of wine and soup.

Earlier in the day, Mary had discovered the Dodici Coffee Shop just next door to the restaurant. She tried the spaetzle with lemon and basil soup. It was so good, we ordered it to share before our meal.

*The steak was done exactly as I liked – included vegetables and gnocchi tossed with olive oil and parmesan cheese. That’s two perfect restaurant steaks and one ribeye sandwich. I like Iowa. 🙂*

Spaghetti and meatballs were very tasty.

The next morning we returned to Dodici’s Coffee shop, next door to their cafe.

Mary and I both had the breakfast biscuit along with their excellent coffee. We sat and enjoyed the relaxed, Saturday morning view of the downtown square and we were on our way.

We drove to Iowa City and attended the memorial service for the family matriarch and subscriber to our blog. It was a very nice service.

We said goodbye to family and headed toward home.

One more stop in Iowa City was The Java House on 1st avenue. We ordered two pour overs: Mary had the American Gothic and I had the Rwandan coffee. We were both very happy with our choices.