RAGBRAI 2023 Day 1 – One brutal day!

I am not going to lie. Today was brutal! And not just the ride although that was a killer. We had several not-so-great things happen to us today.

We wanted to get on the road early this morning. We knew the heat was going to be a factor this week and we wanted to do everything we could to make our rides more pleasant. The easiest thing to do was to start early when the temperatures are still cool.

As we were getting ready, we realized we had a major problem. My trike’s back wheel was flat! The guys had filled all our tires last night and were concerned when they saw my back tire’s pressure was very low and wanted to check it again this morning. Good thing they did … it was completely flat. 

Rather than starting early to avoid the heat, we were struggling to replace the back innertube which is the most difficult one to change. Unfortunately, Tim took the brunt of the whole process. It is now 22 hours later as I write this and Tim’s hands are still covered in wheel grease. Ugh!

Today’s ride was extremely difficult for me. Everything started out pleasant enough (once we actually started riding). The weather was chilly, and the route was not terribly hilly, at least at first. Around 10:30ish, everything changed. The heat bore down on us, and the route became an almost constant uphill climb.

The ride was so tough for me personally because I am still recovering from back/neck surgery I had at the end of May. My surgeon wouldn’t let me ride my trike for at least 3 weeks after the surgery. A little before the 3-week mark, I tried and realized I just couldn’t do it. My neck muscles were not strong enough to hold up my head without support. It shook me to the point that I was timid about trying again. Unforuntately, I didn’t start training for RAGBRAI until June 29th – only 3 weeks before the start of the tour.

Bottom line is my endurance is lacking and my muscle memory hasn’t kick in as quickly as I had hoped. Leah and I have decided that tomorrow we will only be riding the first half of the route. It will be cooler and there is less climb for that half.

The report from our other team members: John and Alex completed the entire route today. Sam did the first half of the route and Marc completed the second half of the route. I would call that a win!

The final brutal event of the day belongs to the support team and once again specifically Tim. We had used the awning on the camper yesterday to provide shade for our campsite. Tim swears that he walked around his vehicle several times and convinced himself that everything was in its place. He thought to ask Todd to check but didn’t actually ask him. 

Tim and Todd said their goodbyes to our hosts and were on their way. Once he got a little way down the road, Tim started hearing something. When he looked in the mirror, he saw the fabric of the awning hanging down. 

HE HAD FORGOTTEN TO RETRACT THE AWNING!!!

Tim and Todd pulled off to the side of the road and were trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Soon, Marc and Alex came up to them. Between the four of them, they managed to “fix” the issue. I can’t explain everything that happened, but you can imagine that between Tim, Todd, Marc, and Alex, there were several “McGyver moments”.  

It was clear fairly early that the awning was a goner.  Luckily, Marc had a mechanics impact wrench that Jessica’s husband had given him to use. They used the impact wrench to remove the awning hardware from the camper. They then had to cut the awning fabric and cut its electric connection.

The funny thing is this is not the first issue we had with this awning. During our first trip with the camper, Tim managed to forget about the height of the camper and hit a restaurant sign with the awning hardware as he was trying to park. Of course, that time he fixed it with duct tape. Another McGyver move.

We did have some pleasant moments for the day which were worth remembering.

Leah’s good luck strawberry was ready to go early.

We had our first taste of pie today. The pies in Iowa are plentiful and outstanding. In fact, there is a cycling team here at RAGBRAI name No Pie Refused. The name says it all.

For lunch we had a tater tot dish. I don’t remember the actual name … something like Seven Two One. But what could go wrong with tater tots, pulled pork, pico, and BBQ sauce. Yum!

We also had our first corn on the cob. It was delicious! They shucked the corn for us and then let us dip it in a crock pot of melted butter. Tim was incredibly jealous.

As far as interesting vehicles on the road, we saw an old-fashioned bike called a penny-farthing or high wheel all decked out in a patriotic theme.

We also saw a unicycle. I have no idea how comfortable it would be to ride a unicycle for such a great distance over the hills. It was incredible to watch.

This last picture is of a bus we saw at the grocery store yesterday. Several of the cycling teams have buses to carry their group’s equipment. They have fun names like this one, “Butt Ice”. Not sure what that means but I love the saying near the front of the bus: “We are the people our parents warned us about!” It made me laugh.

We are now in Storm Lake in the general campground. Todd and Tim found an incredible parking spot for our group under some great shade trees. I would have taken some pictures of the site, but frankly I was ready for a very long nap! We spent this evening relaxing and talking amongst our group. We were all ready just to chill for a while.