Free Ride

Free Ride rollout: Beer; check. Sound system; check. 'Tude; check. Bikes; check. Thirsty bikers; check. Zito; where’s Zito?!

A good time was had by all. Among our small group, we managed to hit all of the venues in one form or another. And all apparently made it home safe and sound.

Medusae

So Sunday, finally made it to the Krukowski Quarry, 20 miles from the old homestead. Went with sister Judith and brother-in-law Chuck. Who says field trips are for school kids?

Any of you fossil hunters already know of this site. The oldest evidence of terrestrial life on earth – the first footprints. Also, 500,000,000 year old jellyfish prints are all over the site. The largest jellyfish fossils anywhere. Awesome climactinites. We found a large field overrun with these 5-inch-wide tracks. In this era, it’s amazing that we still don’t know what creature left these tracks.

Great teamwork to ID the opportunity, locate the business, track down the quarry and find the fossils. Stellar field ops and a higher tolerance for risk than I’m used to from a bunch of modern-day fossils (yours trulies)!

Bonus: We also saw the largest circular saw ever, maybe 10’ across. Cutting off sheets of granite countertop. And some great sheets of marble in their yards.

Buggin' Out

Reservations made. Campers checked in. Tents up. Saturday a.m. we check the weather radio and it confirms the forecast. Big, all-day rain coming.

We leave the camp cat to fend for itself and are packed up dry by 0800. Raining hard by the time we leave. 10” over the weekend, some areas of SE MN and SW WI get 20”. Nice.

Five Souls

It's the first anniversary of my Mother's passing. It's good all us children could be there to wish Jean a good journey.

Five souls converge

Ten hands join

A tear, a breath, a step

Four stronger souls emerge

RAGBRAI Survivor's Guide

Bob and I bicycled safely across Iowa last week, along with 15,000 friends. No small feat. Here’s what I learned about the world’s biggest rolling party.

1) Go with the flow. As smart and loud as I am, I still couldn’t teach all 14,999 others the proper way to do things. Relax and enjoy the scene.

2) Get used to lines. We had good success minimizing our time in lines. Unless you can take all your bathroom breaks between 2300 and 0500, you’re going to be waiting from time-to-time. Plan accordingly.

3) Chat up your fellow riders. You see everyone on this trip. From entrepeneurs riding sail/bikes to someone who hasn’t been in the saddle since 1970. I talked with one guy on disability who rode two days to the start: mountain bike, tires underinflated, chain rusty, carrying all his stuff. He’s riding back home now. An older guy named Ole, completely dressed business casual: khakis, long sleeves and all. I ask, “Don’t you have any shorts?” “I guess I’ll buy them if I need them.” There’s a story there.

4) If you seen one cornfield, you’ve pretty much seen them all. You don’t do this ride for the scenery.

5) Instead, stop in the towns and enjoy the locals. We make for the biggest thing to hit Dundee (or Moneta or Eagle Grove) since the 1992 hailstorm. These are down-home Norman Rockwell places come alive. Grab some shade, put your feet up and enjoy some hospitality. Nothing better.

6) Save room. No matter how great that church basement breakfast burrito tastes, there’s a plate of cookies with your name on it 10 miles later. Or hand-cranked ice cream. Or a grilled pork chop. Or cookies. Or pie. My best singular item was Bluebarb (blueberry / rhubarb) pie baked by an 8-times IA state fair champion. Best crust I’ve ever seen. “Oh, yes. You need to use home-rendered lard. We used to render our own until we got rid of the hogs. Now I can get it from a little place down the road, the only place that still does it in the county. Makes all the difference.”

7) Leave your alarm at home. You’ll be startled by fireworks at 2200. Enlightened by lunatic ravings around bar time. And surely by your neighbors chatting away and breaking camp at 0430. When we’d finally emerge around 0530, fully one-third of the tents around us would be gone.

Typical day

Up around 0530.

Leave camp by 0630. Straight into the main crush of people on the road. Riders filling both lanes of the road. Slower on the right. Maybe a passing lane on the left.

8) This brings us to Stay Alert. The Tour de France has nothing on RAGBRAI for likelihood of crashes. Watch out for #1. We were glad to have seen only four very minor tipovers. You can’t deny the risk is there.

Warm up for a while and then start pacing. Often we’d find someone to work with. Sometimes they’d come up from behind. More often we’d catch up to someone that didn’t want to get passed and they’d spring into action at the front. Like I said, nice people. Absolutely burying themselves into a headwind just so you can have an easier ride and a happier tomorrow. They’re precious.

At 10 and 20 miles marvel at the length of breakfast lines in the first towns.

Finally around 30 miles, we’ve passed thousands and worked our way into sparser conditions. Perhaps riders only fill the right hand lane. Time for breakfast. Or, just as likely, a pork sandwich and piece of pie at 0830. And, hopefully, some coffee.

Breakfast done and we’ve worked our way ahead of the crush of riders. Now time to poke from town to town, snacking as needed and getting in some good riding in between. It is great to be among the first into these towns, everyone’s well stocked, prepared and excited.

In by noon, or one or so. Find your bags, find a good tent site, get a quick shower. Have a few recovery drinks, if you know what I mean. The rest of the day is your own.

9) Draft safely. There are much better riders than me out there. Some riders though, are to be avoided. The trick is to figure out which is which. It’s really not that hard, and it’s an even easier decision. If you’re not sure about this rider/group/train, just skip it. Another will present itself shortly. The pool of talent at RAGBRAI is literally bottomless. Take your time. Watch for a while and then decide. Its great fun to work in a tight train, don’t miss out.

Good candidates

Group of 2-5 riders that are together. They’ve ridden together before. They came to RAGBRAI as a group. Our best group that we rode with on a few days trained with the Iowa Air National Guard: Sue Ellen, Tammy and Don.

Likewise, team kit is a great sign. Not jerseys from a catalog or corner store. Racer team jerseys say that “I ride a lot and I ride with others.”

Smooth-running tandems. Hang on through the downhills!

Bad candidates

Any group with hangers-on. A good train moving at moderate speeds draws hangers-on like bees to honey. There may be a tight group of four at the front with 10 jokers pinballing on the back. Skip it.

Any big group. They don’t want your help anyway.

Any bike that makes noise. No wheel wobble, no dried up old fat tires, bike racks are highly suspect. As are downtube shifters.

Aerobars. Nothing says “I don’t ride in a group” like aerobars.

Squirrelly riders, of course. Many of these guys are full of enthusiasm. You just have to love them. Wish I could bottle their excitement. They’re grinning from ear to ear. “I’m in a paceline, take my picture”. Their heads bobbing around like it’s barely attached. They speed up, they slow down. They play Tour de France racer. Avoid them like the plague.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

2007/08/01 1900

Kurt believes we’re both OK. The bridge collapse was just north of downtown, you’d take it to go north from downtown. They’ve been doing some resurfacing work in both directions in the last month that brought it from 3 lanes to 2 both directions. So it can be congested and is best avoided during rush hour.

Barb was working downtown today but left a message here at home that she was leaving work around 1710. She was running errands tonight but nothing that should take her north of town. We’ve got everything we need in SW Mpls.

Kurt had a hot slot, blowing glass at Foci in NE Minneapolis from 1400-1700. I took the bridge north to get to Foci, the traffic wasn’t bad at 1330. I’ve been taking alternate routes to avoid the congestion, but in the off-hours I figured why not try it. After my scheduled time with partner Julie, I stayed another hour or so to watch Todd Cameron finish a piece and assist just a little. Then I figured why not try 35W again, if nothing else to find our how bad it got during rush hour (or just after). It wasn’t too bad going south. You get on 35W southbound within a mile of the bridge and it wasn’t too stacked up all the way through (here’s the route, if the link works). 15 mph across the bridge southbound. Northbound was definitely slower/stopped. The rush of northbound cars from downtown funnels into it. My lane had to stop and wait while the pickup in front of me pulled over and backed up into the construction lane on the bridge. They were still working on the resurfacing when I went through. I’m not sure when exactly I was on the bridge, but I think it was after six. I know, based on traffic, that I was confident of making it home before 1830 because things were moving reasonably well. I’ve been lucky before, this one is right up there.

There is another bridge standing that parallels 35W, you’ll see it in the TV shots. A few hundred yards to the east. It’s the 10^th avenue bridge that connects the east and west banks of the University.