RAGBRAI Update Part 1

No time for a lot of details. Suffice to say that I'm having a boatload of fun! Probably more fun that this 48 year old body can handle, but we'll work that out later. For now I feel great.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures to tide you over . . .


My Team Varnum crew.


This one is for Hansen. He's got some like minded folk out there.


RAGBRAI has everything, incuding a Vega Elvis.



I ran into Titties, and his little brother "A-Cup".


I was about 6:30 AM when Hansen came looking for a cold one.


I did the Hundy on Monday because of the Farrell brothers. They dragged my sorry ass up and down each one of those hundred hills.



I ran into Scott Sumpter, seriously messed up, with a seriously messed up koozie.


I kept teeling thses guys that it flattened out after Coon Rapids, due to glacial scouring. Did they believe me. Nope.



Jeff and Brian did a great job of keeping the Team Varnum bkes in shape.




On Tuesday, we started drinking beer in the first town (Grand Junction).



We stuck around for way longer than we should have.


Hooter girls were sevring beers as Fergy's. That prolly had somthing to do with it.


Later on I met up with Hansen, Kristen, and Rob on the Boone Hill. It was a blast.


It got a little rough on the hill.


It was about as close to L'Alpe d'Huez as you can get in Iowa.



Kristin is pretty cool.



I also met up with Bruce and Kristin on the hill.


Later we went to HyVee for food and drink


Write this one down. Hansen says "no" to a beer.

Thats all for now. Will write more later when I feel like it.

Packing for RAGBRAI

Its time. Let the debauchery begin. The cast of characters=, from left to right: Cousin Natalie, her husband Gary, brother in law Bill and my sister Kirsten. I also stopped by Rob's tonight and he said he is riding Monday and Tuesday. Cool. It should be fun.

Wonder what Beav is doing? I turned in an app to be on his Ragby Drinking Team today. I hope it gets accepted.

Feel free to continue with the blog comments during the Ragby, but don't be offended if I don't reply. I will be a little connection challenged for the next week.

Seven Oaks Work Day

After all of the trouble I've had in the past few days, you would have thought I would have stayed home on a work day at Seven Oaks.

Oops. I showed up.




Cutting a thousand planks.


It is starting to look like a bridge



Putting the planking on:


Two bridges loaded on a trailer:



Sliding the bridges down from the top of the ski hill. This is harder that is looks.









We got them here, now what do we do?




Looks like we put them in their place



Bridges done. Cool.

I've Had Better Days

It all started on Friday night when I was riding home from work. Somehow the waist strap on me messenger bag came unclipped, and said strap then got tangled in the front wheel. Over the bars I went. Ouch! %$#@*$. I sat on the side of the bike path and swore for a while, then picked myself up and limped home.


The crash had put my front wheel out of true, so I had to unhook the front brake. To make matter worse, my other brake hood was also knocked around.


Not a good way to start the weekend. I went home and iced up everything that hurt. Meanwhile I got a call from OP. We decided that I was OK enough to go do 4-5 hours of gravel the next day (Saturday).



That went great! No issues from the previous night's fall, and the weather was great for a bike ride. Just a little bit of rain, almost no wind, and temps in the 65-75 range.

OP likes his new kit.


OP also likes to take phone calls on long gravel rides. He is a devoted husband and father.

We went through parts of Story, Boone, Hamilton, and Hardin counties. All told I did about 58 miles.

About 8 miles from home, I was leaning back in the saddle stretching, and snap! My seat post rail clamp bolt snapped off, and I was in the dirt again for the second time in 24 hours. Ouch! It didn't hurt quite as bad at first because it was on gravel.

I rode the last six mikes standing. Now that hurt a little.


Notice the lack of a seat at the top of the post, and also notice the seat in my jersey pocket. Also notice the elbow.


When we got close to home we took a singletrack short cut to save about a mile.

Try taking a picture when you've been standing up for the last 5 miles, are chasing OP, and are at the end of long day.




And, after all of that, I'm still smiling.

Iowa Games Postponed

I just found out the Iowa Games mountain bike race has been postponed to September 13th. WhooHoo! That means several things:

1) There is much more time to get the Peterson's Park trail system back in shape.

2) There are seven, (count them) seven mountain bike races in August and September. If you planned a training peak for June this year, I'm sorry. If you are looking at the mountain bike season as training for 'cross season, you are in luck!

3) I get to race at the Iowa Games!

The Iowa games has always been one of my strongest races. It plays to my strengths (flat, fast, and in my backyard). Because of a RAGBRAI/Iowa Games conflict this year I was going to miss it. Now I will be there! And it should come at about a training peak for me (I'll work that out later).

In other news, I rode my road bike again. That makes twice this year (have I mentioned that I hate cars). Two times on a road bike means I'm ready for the RAG. With all of the gravel miles I've put in, 450 miles of paved goodness should be a cake walk.

Camera Dump

Here is the promised camera dump. I've been doing quite a bit of riding - almost all of it on gravel.


I've also continued to ride to work whenever I can. It is about 50 minutes one way.


Some of my gravel rides have included "B" roads. Sometimes they have been in really good condition.



Other times, not so much.


One day I stumbled on a spot where three counties come together. It is a little hard to see, but there are three sets of street signs at this intersection. Try explaining that to a 911 dispatcher.



Here we are on the way to Council Bluffs for a race. We were driving over on Friday afternoon.



Oops, the race got cancelled while we were still about 50 miles outside of Council Bluffs. We turned around.


She's smiling, but she's thinking, "Why don't you put the camera down and drive?".



I've also been doing some riding in lake country (central Iowa) with new teammate OP.


This guy is always smiling. The hours pass a lot faster when you can do it with someone else.


On to the devastation. This is a bridge on 160th (just north of me). The water ran over the road here for a long time.



There are lots and lots of lakes like this one. Even today.


This shot is from the trail system in west Peterson's. The lake is overflowing into the river, and has create a waterfall across the trail. I rode on a little bit of the trail, and it is trashed in many, many places.



Things have been so bad around here that I even had to resort to riding on the road once.




Well, there you go. I hope it doesn't take another 6 weeks before the next post. I doubt it. I'm doing RAGBRAI, so that should generate a few decadent posts.

Later.

Can you feel that?

Can you feel it? A rumbling? A tremor? There is is again.

What you feel is my camera rumbling because it is about to puke its guts out on my poor neglected blog. If been riding, and taking a few pics along the way. I just haven't had too much to say.

There is only so much you can write about rain of biblical proportions, cancelled races, devastated trail systems, and swampy gravel roads.

There was another one. Another tremor. Its coming. I can feel it.