RAGBRAI 2023 Day 5 – It all went to HILL in a handbasket… ugh!

Before detailing our travels for the day, I urge you to read through to the end. We had a significant event happen today but I’d rather tell the story in order rather than jump to what happened so you can understand how quickly a perfectly nice day can change to something different.

We left Des Moines in the steaming early morning to start our day of climbing. We rode from the Iowa State Capitol building and through the Iowa State Fairgrounds … and then the hills began. They were steep and constant, but frankly Leah and I didn’t struggle too much … we took them slowly but felt comfortable knowing we could make the climbs.

We did laugh at ourselves at one point. A rider with no legs passed us like we were standing still. Ok, he did have prosthetic legs, but we were going uphill! Triking is definitely not a speedy endeavor when you are going uphill (at least for us).

As soon as we reached the edge of town, there was a sudden noticeable drop in the temperature. I definitely liked the temperature better in the out-of-town portion of the ride. It made the hills much more do-able.

Our first pass-through town was Altoona. Leah and I stopped there to tighten the mirror connector on her trike. Of course, we had to see the sights. Someone had painted these rocks and put them on top of the hand washing station. Of course, Leah noticed them first. She looks for painted rocks all over Huntsville and gets such joy when she finds them.

There was a row of corn cobs painted by local artists as we rode into the vendor area. We picked out the cobs that we liked the best and their pictures are below. Note that today was military appreciation day. We each wore a shirt honoring our husband’s service in the military. Todd served in the Army and Tim served in the Air Force.

Our next pass-through town was Mitchellville. As we road into town, we passed the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW).

On the hill behind this sign, there were a couple of sculptures that were strangely interesting. I took a picture of one of them (the other was a little too far for a good picture).

The festivities in Mitchellville were in a park. We found plenty to do there.

Our next pass-through town was Colfax. But on the way, we had an “incident”. I was in front of Leah so unfortunately(?), I did not see what actually happened. My take is that it was the perfect storm:

• Going a little faster than normal. We were going downhill at about 18 mph.
• Making a 90 degree left turn.
• Having one side brake tighter than the other. The brakes on a trike are for each side (right and left) vs how they are for a bike (front and rear). That is, there is no brake for the trike’s back wheel.

I heard a noise that I never wanted to hear (and hope that I never hear again) … LEAH HAD TUMBLED OUT OF HER TRIKE!!! Fortunately, she is ok, but not without several scrapes and bruises. Her trike is ok as well. The worse part for the trike is that her mirror is “all whompy-jawed”, as Leah would say. It will need to get fixed before it is useful again.

Unfortunately, the nail on her left big toe took the brunt of the damage. She will definitely be losing that nail! Even worse, she ruined a very nice pedicure. How sad!

To make matters worse, the police officer at that intersection didn’t have any medical supplies not even a Band-Aid! Leah had to continue riding with the “fresh meat” of her toe exposed.

And then, the situation worsened. A bridge on the originally planned route was out. The route was redirected to a 2- to 3-mile gravel/dirt road! We had never ridden more than a few feet on gravel or dirt. I’m not sure I’ve ever been shaken to that degree. It was brutal. And dusty. And exactly what an open wound did NOT need! I took a picture on the way as proof that we ridden on the dirt. I definitely want to make sure that I mark that off of my RAGBRAI Bingo card … I don’t want to have to do that again in the future!! (Full disclosure, there is no RAGBRAI Bingo card, but maybe I need to create one!)

By the time we arrived in Colfax, Leah’s toe looked even worse. She decided I needed to take a new pick of the progression … along with the lucky purple strawberry. Notice how much dirtier her foot is after riding through the dirt!

Once we arrived in Colfax, we sought out the medical team for help and found the Colfax ambulance crew. They cleaned her wounds and bandaged her so she could continue the ride. They also provided ibuprofen to help with the pain. Other than the scrapes you can see, her ribs are also bruised making it difficult to breathe deeply and her left shoulder doesn’t feel quite right. I’m afraid she’s going to need painkillers for a few days.

You know the saying, “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”? Well other than small Band-Aids, the medical people only had wide gauze stretchy tape. No matter what the issue was, they used the wide gauze stretchy tape to solve it. I laughed out loud seeing how they wrapped Leah’s toe. What made it worse was that it was open at the end (like a tube). Yeah, that didn’t last the 15 steps it took to get us back to our trikes.

The route out of Colfax included a very steep hill. There were two signs that made me laugh on the way up the hill. One is in the picture below. The other said something like, “Hills are my friends. Sometimes I don’t like my friends.” So true! (At least about hills…)

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful for us. We stopped again at the meeting town where Todd picked us up.

John took a few nice pictures of the things along the route during the second half of the day. That part of the day started with blistering heat, but then cloud cover helped to lower the temperature making that part of the day bearable as well.

In Grinnell, John saw this incredibly ornate bank, Merchants National Bank. It was designed in 1909-1910 by Louis Sullivan, a mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright. The pictures are stunning!

A few funny things happened along the way this week that I forgot to mention. We saw a guy who urinated through the fence … he didn’t hide behind the corn or even any tall weeds. He just let it all hang out as he “returned water to the earth.” Also, as we were riding through Ankeny yesterday, we saw a guy crossing the street right in front of us in only his underwear.

As we were riding through one of the towns a couple of days ago, a guy was trying to get across the street in the path of the bikers. I heard him say that it was like playing Frogger (one of my favorite video games in the 1970s). I laughed out loud! It is SO true!

Our hosts in Toledo, Deb and Duane Bossman, have been incredible. We are parked in their beautiful yard with access to electricity and water. We have all taken showers indoors and have cooled down inside their house. I also washed a load of clothes(!). And, they served us a spaghetti dinner complete with garlic bread. Several of us had more than one plate full (and I literally mean “plate full”!) It was delicious!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the Bossmans … We were too busy showering, cooling off, washing clothes, conversing, and eating. I just forgot. But we are incredibly grateful for all they have provided to us! They are riding tomorrow’s route early as well. Maybe I can get a picture of them before we leave.