RAGBRAI... (Part 2)

DAY 1 (Sunday) - Rock Rapids to Spencer 74.5 miles
This was going to be an interesting day. Awoke at 3:45AM before the alarm went off and was ready to go. Packed everything and loaded the luggage on the transport vehicle. There were a number of other people up at this time too; however, I couldn't find any place serving breakfast at this time, so I decided to down a Cliff bar and get going. Started pedaling at 4:30AM.

I followed the signs out of town. Unfortunately for me I wasn't paying too close enough attention for signage. For the next couple of hours, I was wondering why I wasn't seeing anyone else or any towns for that matter, but I kept going on. Later on I arrived at Lake Okoboji and found an open gas station and asked to borrow their paper because the routes were posted in it. Well, if you didn't see it coming, I was way off course. The route was a round-a-bout southeast route going through several towns, but I never got near it. The station owner told me that all I had to do was head south and I would get to Spencer. At least I didn't have to back track fifty miles. The bad thing is that the winds were picking up to 20 mph out of the south. So it was a not so pleasant ride into Spencer.

After battling the vile winds I pulled in and found the campsite which was located at the fairgrounds. Unfortunately, the luggage hadn't arrived. So I just sat under the outfitters tent waiting for the luggage. I had struck up a conversation with a local and discovered there was a YMCA in town. Things were starting to look up, I now had a place I could get a decent shower. Now all I needed was some sustenance, hammer gels and cliff bars just don't fully do the job.

I had wondered around the fairgrounds and found plenty of places to eat. One place had steak-on-a-stick and I thought, yummy. So, I went in to get myself one of those mouth watering delights. It was 5 smacks, and for 5 smacks all I got was a small little piece of flank steak on a miniature punji stick, nothing else; NO coleslaw, NO potato salad, NO drink, NOTHING. If I wanted water or gatorade, they had that for sale. They were 16oz bottles for 2 dollars. They also had sweet corn for 3 dollars an ear. After picking my jaw up off the floor at the sight of these "hurricane sale" prices I thought that this one place might just be an aberration; oh how wrong I was. I even then discovered that these people follow RAGBRAI from town to town. I thought this was about giving money to the towns. After this point I thought I would just find a nice little diner in each host town and eat there. At least I know the money would be going to the local economy.

The luggage arrived, I pitched tent, gathered my stuff together and headed over to the Y for a shower. It was free for members of the Y and 5 dollars for anyone else. Though the 5 dollars would give you full day access which was probably the best deal the whole week.

Heading back through the fairgrounds feeling refreshed I saw where the general showers were. They were the cattle show barn in the middle of the fairgrounds and they were charging 5 dollars. As I learned the rest of the week, because this was the only town with a YMCA, showers were 5 humps everywhere. I also came across one vendor giving out free laminated route cards that covered every days travel. This was a must because I didn't want to get lost again.

So I sat under the outfitters tent reading Harry Potter. The outfitter had dinner catered for us which didn't cost anything extra. It was a marinated turkey meal which was delicious. There was potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, apple pie, and iced tea, lemonade, or water. I even went back for seconds.

Around 8PM I was getting a tad tired, with only 100 pages left to read. I decided it was time
to hit the rack. The tent was still a little warm but I was tired and I was out for the count. Then approximately 10PM I thought I was back in Iraq. It sounded like missiles and mortars were going off all around me. I came flying out of my tent not realizing where I was and up in the sky there were fireworks going off. Everything clicked into place and I knew where I was and what was going on. Sure wish I knew this was going to happen. Thankfully the show lasted only 15 minutes and I was back in the land of the dead.

Tomorrow, my second ever century ride, spending more money, my first taste of the crowds on the road...