RAGBRAI 2023 Day 3 – The morning after

I feel whole again. Leah downed her Gatorade this morning and kept it down (which was very important). Todd finally released her to ride with me today. It was awesome having her back in the saddle.

Today’s official route was 85.5 miles with 1554 feet of elevation. John completed the entire day’s route. Alex almost completed the entire route … so we are definitely calling it a win. Leah calls the way you feel after so many days of hard work exponential exhaustion. I think we are all feeling it today!

Jessica picked up Marc at Perry, the meet-up town. Todd picked up Leah and me there as well. Marc, Leah, and I completed 48 miles with 880 feet of elevation.

We are all now in Ames. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to arrange for a host for tonight. Marc and his group are opting to stay in a hotel. I’m sure they will enjoy real beds, flushing toilets, hot showers, and best of all air conditioning.

The rest of us are camping in one of the designated lots for RVs and buses. These lots are in the parking lots around the big football stadium at Iowa State. I feel like we are at a massive tailgating party without the football fans. Unfortunately, there are MANY loud generators around us, but it is relatively windy which helps to push the carbon monoxide away from us. John found a place to set up his tent a little away from us but still nearby … in the shade.

Tomorrow, we have hosts in Des Moines. We enjoy having hosts and really miss that we don’t have one tonight!

Leah was heartbroken when she couldn’t find her lucky strawberry this morning. Todd persevered and found it in the truck bed when he arrived in Ames. He reunited Leah with the strawberry and they lived happily ever after.

Leah and I noticed that the crowds feel much larger this year than last. This is to be expected since it is a big anniversary (the 50th). We decided to buy snacks for tomorrow’s ride because the lines were just too long today for food. Now any RAGBRAI alum will tell you that long lines are to be expected. But if we spend a lot of time waiting for food, then we will be in the heat longer… and we are trying to minimize the time that we spend in the heat.

The larger number of riders that we see may also be because most people are starting their rides early in the morning like we do to take in morning’s relative coolness. It is incredibly hot (have I said this enough already?!) Todd should have told us it was going to be this hot! (NOTE: Todd warned us both multiple times a day about hot it was going to be before we left. But what were we supposed to do other than just prepare for it?!)

Todd took a couple of pictures of Perry before we arrived. It will give you some sense of the crowds (and the chaos) in these towns.

Tim took the following picture that kinda goes with the Iowa Beer Bus picture.

The interesting things we saw along the way…

We had to wait on a train to pass before we could get out of one of the towns. I love the huge farm equipment on the right of the road. It looks like it is waiting with us.

We came up on an after-crash. Not sure exactly what happened but at least one cyclist was taken away by ambulance. The rider’s bike was left on the shoulder to be picked up later.

We also saw a crop duster and an ultralight aircraft. From far away, I couldn’t tell if the ultralight was a balloon, a kite, or an ultralight. When it finally flew over us, we could see the pilot.

We also saw our 8th person without a helmet. It is kind of strange that Iowa doesn’t have a helmet law for motorcycles and rarely (if ever) have I seen a motorcyclist with a helmet. But most of the thousands of cyclists in RAGBRAI where helmets.

Marc wins the award for the most fun pictures of the day.

Marc had a couple more pictures but for some reason I’m not able to add them right now. Maybe they will make a future post.

Tomorrow is the day that the RAGBRAI organizers were originally hoping to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest parade of bicycles. However, Guinness Book of World Records told the organizers that the record for the largest parade of bicycles has already been retired. But the RAGBRAI organizers are expected around 100,000 riders, regardless. The previous RAGBRAI record was around 40,000 riders set during the 2019 tour. Tomorrow will be pure madness.