RAGBRAI 2023 Day 7 – The End of RAGBRAI 2023

I’m starting today’s post from the end of the day rather than the beginning. Alex, Marc, John, and I have completed today’s ride and 2023 RAGBRAI. Yea!! Before I give the details of the day’s events, here are our victory pictures:

As we approached Davenport, we were directed to the Mississippi River to dip our tires, a RAGBRAI tradition. However, we were confronted with the mass of humanity. The line to reach the river was about 10 people wide and WAY too long. Dipping our tires would have taken over an hour and a half of waiting in the hot sun … not something any of us was willing to do.

While John and I stood in the middle of the mass of people waiting to dip their tires, a woman gave each of us something in a little velvety bag. John asked what it was. In a completely deadpan voice, the women remarked, “You’ve won RAGBRAI. This is your trophy.” Too funny! I’m sure she had repeated those lines hundreds of times already that day. The “trophy” was a little metal cutout of Iowa with this year’s route designated.

That’s how the ride ended for us. And now, I’ll go back to the beginning of the day.

The morning started out beautifully. The temperature was comfortable. The skies were overcast. The ride was relatively easy. It was an awesome ride. Even when the temperature started rising, it was still much better than the previous days. At the first pass-through town, I told John that I was actually cold. I hadn’t said THAT all week! We live for riding days like this!

One of the traditions at RAGBRAI is Chris Cakes. This food tent is typically in the first pass-through town each day. For $10, you get all-you-can-eat pancakes and sausages. I was fascinated watching the pancake-making process.

In case you were looking, John and I found Waldo.

One of the pass-through towns, Muscatine (pronounced mus-ca-teen), gave us our first glimpse of the Mississippi River. There was a spot where we could dip our tires to get a double-dip (both in Muscatine and again in Davenport), but we didn’t bother. If we had known about the long lines in Davenport, we may have gone ahead and dipped in Muscatine. But then, I guess we wouldn’t have received our “trophies.”

Some people wear the strangest outfits while riding. I’m not sure what this guy is supposed to be. To me, it looks just too hot to wear!

At one of the stops, I saw this sign.

When I was a little girl, we would travel to Iowa to see my grandparents. At some point during every trip, my mom had to stop for a Maid-Rite sandwich. Although they were yummy, I never understood her fascination with these sandwiches. They are essentially just loose hamburger meat … like a Sloppy Joe but without the sauce. Anyway, I had a “MadeWrong” in memory of my mom.

I also need to mention something about the weather on last night. As I was writing the blog post for Day 6 (Friday) in the truck camper with the (very loud) air conditioner running and music playing in the background, Tim was outside doing his normal get-ready-for-the-morning stuff. At some point he came in and asked if I felt “that.” I didn’t understand what he meant. He said that the wind was blowing wildly. I hadn’t noticed … mostly because the camper sways most of the time. I just assumed it was swaying because of something Tim was doing. Once he was inside, I realized Tim was not the reason for the swaying. And then the rain started … and then the thunder … roared? It actually didn’t roar like I’m used to hearing in Alabama (the deep, rolling thunder). It sounded more like kids were shooting off firecrackers in the street. Pop, pop, pop … Very strange.

The storm caused all kinds of damage to the tents in the RAGBRAI campground. The campers were evacuated to safe areas to wait out the storm. We were thankful that John slept in the house and that Marc and his crew stayed in a hotel. It was not a night to be out in the elements!

That’s all the pictures and updates I have for the last day’s ride. Afterwards, we all packed up and went our separate ways. Tim and I arrived home on Sunday completely zonked. It is now Tuesday and I still have not caught up on my sleep.

I had a lot of fun at this year’s RAGBRAI although it was completely different from last year’s experience. Last year, the conditions were perfect. This year, not at all (have I mentioned it was HOT?!!). Last year, we were proving to ourselves that we could complete the entire challenge. This year, we had nothing to prove and just did what we could … all while trying our best to survive.

I still have more pictures and some updates. I will post those in a bit. But I wanted to let you all know that we completed the ride and are now safely at home. (I didn’t mean to leave everyone hanging!)