| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
15.00 miles
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Time: 01:00:00
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Avg Speed:
15.00 mph
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Max Speed:
15.00 mph
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Weight:
160
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Effort:
4 - Normal 14-16 mph
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Route:
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Terrain: In: Stat
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Bike: other Stat
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Club: 'BentRider Recumbent Club |
| Weather Conditions: |
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(Continued from Jan 25 & 26)
It's the spring of 1998 and into the bike club gathering walks a club member (Dick F.) wearing a XXV RAGBRAI bike jersey. I says: "Yo Dick, did you do RAGBRAI?" "No" says he "I just spend all my spare money buying bike jerseys!!".
How one bike ride/tour changed my life. Life Cycle #3.
Turns our that his daughter moved to Ankeny, IA the year RAGBRAI About RAGBRAI was celebrating it's 25th anniversary and heading through Des Moines, IA, right next to Ankeny. Oh, for those who don't know RAGBRAI is the oldest organized bike tour in the United States and maybe the world. Open for debate. Long history here ,but the newspaper (Des Moines Register) is headquarted in Des Moines. Thus RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) So Dick visited his daughter, heard about the ride and hopped on for two days. RAGBRAI History
Says he: "Joe, this is your type of ride. You'd love it. This summer if you want to go, I can arrange for a place with my daughter and we can ride with her club."
Getting more and more into cycling, discovering long rides, having done my first double century, I was looking for "more" and told Dick that I wanted to try RAGBRAI. Dick said he could drive my bike out, pick me up at the airport, put me up at his daughter's, etc. What a life.
I was told to bring only two things to RAGBRAI: (1) A sense of humor and (2) Patience. There are lines everywhere and for everything. Why? The ride attracts anywheres from 9,000 to 12,000 riders.
About my RAGBRAI adventures I could write a book. Suffice it to say I ended up riding in 1998, 1999 and 2000. It was on the ride in 2000 that cycling nudged my life in a different direction. A slight nudge but a nudge nonetheless.
By the third year, one of my buds and I figured out how to get a place to stay in someone's home each night which meant a bed (or a spot on the comfy floor) and hot shower. Otherwise showers were more often cold than not.
A quick shower story.
My first year I was told that in the stay over towns, showers are what you find and often they use car washes. What they do is to run pvc pipes across the ceiling, throw a big tarp over the entrance, and you now have a shower "room". Yes a dribble of water falling from a pvc pipe is classified as a shower on RAGBRAI.
My first night on RAGBRAI and the bus takes us to the showers. You guessed it. The local car wash. As I'm taking a shower, I hear a female voice from the area of the tarp say: "All you guys in there. If you're bashful face the wall. I'm about to take my annual RAGBRAI car wash photo." And with that she opened the tarp and took 2 or 3 photos. To this day my wife doesn't believe how that naked photo of me got on the internet.
At one house near the end of the ride, we stayed with Linda's family. There were three of us "New Joisey Boyz" as we called ourselves. Linda asked if she could ride out with us the next morning. As we're riding along, the talk turned to RAGBRAI 2001 and my friend Cal says: "You know Joe. There are other states." Linda said: "If you guys go somewhere else next year, please invite me. You are having way too much fun."
I research other rides and find "Lighthouse Tour Nova Scotia". I'd kept in email contact with Linda, wrote to her, and told her our plans. She wrote back with: "Can I invite my friend Anne?" "Hey, it's an open ride. Sure"
Ferry ride to Nova Scotia and we meet up with Linda and Anne on the kickoff ride morning. They say: "At dinner last night we met these guys at our table. They're going to start the ride with us if that's okay." "Sure" say we. Oh the two guys had met a new rider who knew no one and this was her first ever bike ride. They invited her.
So here we are: Cal, Bill, Me, Linda, Anne, Gary, Rich, and Donna. Eight people brought together by a bike ride resulting from RAGBRAI.
LIFE CHANGE!!
Why? Because at the end of the first day we were instant friends and decided to keep together for the whole week. As the ride ended we vowed to try and do another ride together. That was in 2001. Our group was called "Nova Scotia Plus" because each year we added new riders. We decided we met on the lighthouse tour so let's change our name to "Team Lighthouse". Okay, we actually changed it because all of us got tired of explaining what "Nova Scotia Plus" meant!!! Team Lighthouse groups.yahoo.com/group/TeamLighthouse here.
Over 10 years later and here's to hopefully 10 more and 10 more after that.
So as a result of RAGBRAI
- Discovered why folks love RAGBRAI (or hate it)
- Vowed to do bike tours
- Made new "FFL's" (friends for life)
- Opened the door to bike tours and new places
- Expanded our group of 8 to now about 25 to 30 related "friends"
- Introduced me to a host of state "culshuhs"
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