Dyersville (home of the "Field of Dreams" to Bellevue)- 57.4 miles with 3172 ft of climb.
Pass through towns are Worthington, Cascade, Garry Owen, Bernard, and La Motte
Conditions- Hot again, VERY HILLY, with a few memorable hills. Winds were not an issue, and the weather was beautiful. It was perhaps one of the best weather days of a final Ragbrai trip.
Where did it go. I ask myself that question every year. I also say every year that this just might be my last Ragbrai. But the silly statement goes away in a few minutes. I've mentioned this before.... the last day of Ragbrai is a complete reversal of every other day. The other days are an adventure. There's always the next town to look forward to. But the last day is always different. Packing up the tent is different because we're thinking about packing for the trip home. We let the air out of the air matress in the morning rather than just throwing it on top of the bus seats since it's going either in the truck for us or on a plane for some of us.
The ride's different too. The towns are not an avenue to explore, but rather an avenue to get through to the ending point. We're not stopping to hear the old ladies sing sweet Adelines, we're just like the truckers on the interstate. We've gotta get there. We have loved ones waiting for us and we're going to meet them before 1 PM. That's when Larry says the Hawg bus is going to leave Belleview. Of course it doesn't, but that's what Larry says. So we start earlier that usual, or at least we try, but that extra care when packing takes it's toll. Dyersville might have been our best overnight town, except for Cedar Falls, when Hawg John let us sleep in his home. There's nothing better than that! But when we arrived at Dyersville, we were told that the inside of the gorgeous host home was for females only. The males were doomed to the Hawg bus. Except for me, however, who used the internet connection for last night's report. The host family and friends was wonderful and chatted with us for ours. I wonder if that edict was really made by the residents of the home, or was the made by the first arrivers? Maybe we males don't smell all that bad after a full day's ride.
But the week went by so fast! It was just Sunday and we just started out! How did we ride across an entire state, and we're not talking about Northern Idaho, either! We were just like lemmings this morning and did our ritual packing and Kristen was on Lee's tandem with him and we set out at pretty much the usual time. We bade goodbye to Dyersville at the break of day. We threw all of our stuff on the bus for the last time. It was all about putting away miles since this was the toughest, longest, and hilliest last day that I can remember.
The route was tough and the hills were not only steep, but long. Lee and Kristen broke three spokes on one very memorable hill. This cost a lengthy repair stop, but the repair folks are not usually very far away.
And the State Troopers in Iowa were in rare form yet again, joking with us and having a great time, while all the time making sure it was safe for us at every turn and every intersection. I noted this before, but I must say it again... we could not do this ride with out the Iowa State Troopers!!!
Looking at the people ride today, you could hear and see the difference. There wasn't the "where are you from?" and the random talking to whomever was being passed. It was more of a concentration of cadence, a concentration of gears and spinning, and even breathing. That tends to become a bit unsafe. There was not so much announcement of position. Lee and Kristen were passed at high speed by one of those unannouced phantoms while they were careening down a hill hugging the white line on the left side of the road at 40 plus MPH while the person passed them on the final two inches of pavement on the left. These death wishes are scary! I wen't down a hill on my recumbent, which tends to do better on the downs and had to hang on tight as I hit the asphault filled road cracks ... Ka Bump, ka bump, ka bump, da bump, faster and faster. "ON YOUR LEFT......" It was faster than I have ever travelled on a bicycle, a whopping 47.6 MPH, according to the GPS. I didn't try for the 50.
During the push to the Mississippi River, we didn't always stay together and in those large crowds had worked out an agreement to call to the rest of our party whenever we passed them. Sometimes I had to wait for Lee and Kristen and it was fun to be watch the others. There were our fellow Hawgs, Aaron and Mel, and members of team Dairy Airs from Wisconsin, of course, and then a really cute family, and finally, Kristen with that smile that says, "I made it!".
But Bellevue was the worst town I have ever experienced in Ragbrai, bar none! We've always been used to having traffic worked out as we came through a town, there have always been people cheering us in... especially at the final town. This was not the case in Bellevue. Instead, we became part of a very dangerous traffic jam with the local police yelling at each other to close down roads. The locals were not out and we were trapped in chaos. We didn't even know where the tire dipping was and missed it in the mess of cars and trucks. It made what should have been the best part of the trip simply an ordeal. We should steer away from Bellevue in the future. They don't want us and we don't want them... That's fair.
The trip ended as quickly as it began. Unfortunately, Kristen dehydrated again after finishing the ride and had to be transported to a hospital in Maquoketa. We did not set out for Houston until about 6 PM and it made the driving a bit tough. But Kristen is fine now. Leaving Iowa always chokes me up. Iowa talks to me. I can hear it when everyone else is asleep in the truck as I drive South of DesMoines toward the big city life. It just whispers to me..."Dave, I missed the last two years..." What was that? "It's all of us, thanks for coming and telling the folks about us... See you next Summer". What is this, Children of the corn?
One quick aside. The Woodlands Villager in Texas featured Kristen and I on the ride this week. Click here to see the article, which was the headline in the education section. We are compiling a few more thoughts which will appear here soon and we will have Kristen's photostory multimedia presentation, so come back!
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