RAGBRAI 2023 Day 0 — We’re doing this again?!

(Editor’s note: I have NO idea why the title is showing twice. So strange!)

It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since we last did this epic ride. Yes, Leah, John, and I decided to participate in RAGBRAI again this year, the 50th anniversary of the bike tour. How could we resist being in an event whose catch phrase is “One L of a ride”?! (the “L” is Roman numeral for 50.)

BTW: As an avid reader, I worry about properly pronouncing words that I have read but haven’t heard out loud. If you have never heard the “word”, RAGBRAI is pronounced rag-breye and rhymes with French fry. At least that’s how my friend LaDawn described it.

Last year, Leah, John, and I rode to prove that we had the physical endurance to ride across Iowa. Yes, it was completely exhausting but we completed the challenge. We know we can do it. So, we have decided to “do” RAGBRAI differently this year. Our goal is to enjoy the ride. We want to take frequent breaks and experience all that is RAGBRAI … well, maybe not the drinking part, but everything else that RAGBRAI has to offer. Hopefully, it will be enjoyable for you as well.

Our Journey

We left Huntsville on Friday to make our way to Sioux City, the starting point of this year’s ride. We stopped for the night outside Kansas City at a Hampton Inn. However, we couldn’t find the hotel anywhere. As it turned out, the hotel is being massively renovated. Notice in the picture below the building had absolutely no signage. And from the road, we couldn’t see any vehicles at the building. It looked like we would be spending the night in an abandoned building!

Reilly checked us into the hotel and helped Tim find a good place to part his truck and trailer. Reilly gave us the bad news:  there was a TV antenna issue at the hotel which meant there was no TV service. But the good news is they took $30 off the room rate! Thanks, Reilly!

For good luck, Leah’s daughter, Lauren, crocheted a little purple strawberry. Since the strawberry is with us, we decided to add some pictures of its adventure too.

We finally made it to Sioux City and met our host for the night, Rachel Barette. Her house is off the beaten path with lots of room. Perfect for us. And she offered the use of a bathroom and shower! What a treat! Rachel has been so generous with helping us get settled. We have three vehicles, two trailers, and three different arrival times for our crew. Through it all, she helped us get set up and connected to power. And since we are dog people, we especially loved her dogs.

Last year, Leah and I freaked out about the guy we dubbed the surfer biker dude. [RAGBRAI Day 6 – Preemptive Eating – Rocket City Riders] At today’s expo, Leah spotted the guy and asked him to pose for a picture. And he did so … surfing on his bike, no less! I found it incredibly ironic that he had signage on his bike about suicide awareness. I cannot imagine you could do anything more suicidal on a bike than surfing on it.

The Sioux City 4Hers had a map where riders could identify their hometown. Look at all the different places … even different countries!

And finally, our entire team arrived. We have a larger team this year. John Schulz (who was part of our team last year but camped with a different group) will be riding again and camping with us. We are also joined by our friend Marc Stettner, his son Alex, Alex’s friend Sam, and Sam’s mom Jessica. Marc, Alex, and Sam will be riding and Jessica is their support. Below we have a picture of our team riders. We’ll share a picture of our support team a little later.