Sunday, July 27, 2008

RAGBRAI Pictures

Wow, an experience! I've been immersed for a full week into a culture I've never experienced before - RAGBRAI!

Too tired and too much to do to give much of a detailed report but here are some pictures and a few of my impressions:

Glad I had the experience - it's so unique and hard to explain until you have been there. And what is better than riding bike all week long!

RAGBRAI may have a circus like atmosphere but it is a bike ride to be taken seriously - the official route was 471 miles and I think we had a few more than adding the miles getting to and from our camp each day. And IOWA IS NOT FLAT! Lots of climbing, especially on day 2 which was also a long day (around 80 miles).

All sorts of riders; from CAT racers to those who dusted off their Huffy 10 speed to join the ride for a few miles.

A million different bikes!

Solar showers work well!

The route was gorgeous; winding roads along some very picturesque farm land and river valleys. Going through the Amana colonies has a totally differet feel from visitng them by car.

Did not see any naked-beer-slip-and-slides. Not saying they weren't out there but there are all sorts of RAGBRAI experiences and my RAGBRAI experience was early to bed, early to rise!

2 comments:

Ham(m)er said...

I looked at your pictures, fun! Did you guys take a more leisurely approach so as to enjoy some of the sights along the way more? I'm thinking that I will have to get so that I can ride faster so I can smell the roses and make it to camp in a decent time frame.

Oh, and why didn't you snag the racoon from coon rapids? That would've been an awesome Roadkill mascot.

Unknown said...

We thought we were really taking our time, made lots of stops, but when we pulled into camp the first day we were the first ones there! But really, we did take our time, no high average speeds, enjoyed the stops and towns. There were people in our camp who rode at a VERY leisurely pace, they would get into camp around 7 pm or later.