Credo ↔ Oratio

I wasn’t able to make it to the internet truck yesterday and last night I was too busy working on this morning’s sermon to write much about Ragbrai, but I thought I’d write up a quick post.

I wrote last about Friday morning (which was beautiful and wonderful). Friday afternoon took a major twist for the worse – headwinds and heat… ugh. The last 30 miles just about killed me. Finally, when we got into town they put us out in the middle of nowhere. Yep, it’s my biggest pet peeve of Ragbrai. They couldn’t care less about those of us “traditionals” — the people who use the baggage truck. If you’re a charter or in an RV, the towns often give great spots, but if you’re in the baggage truck… out of luck. Mt. Pleasant put us 1 1/2 – 2 miles away from downtown in some fairgrounds with only a single food booth (unless you count popcorn). We had to pay for shuttles (which we did) and ate downtown. They tied with Chariton for the Wost overnight towns of the week.

Best towns of the week: Ottumwa and Red Oak. I liked Indianola too.

The last day was a fairly short day (about 44 miles). I was pretty sore but made it through reasonably quickly. By 2:00, Brenda (my wonderful Sister in Law) dropped off the van and by 3:30 we were on our way back home.

Home by about 11.

Ragbrai is over.

It’s hard to believe it’s all over. In the end, it’s was a great week. Over all, I was severely under-prepared (especially for the hills this year). If I ever end up doing it again, I’ll have to definitely make sure I put in more training miles.

The people this year seemed more friendly than last year. Last year everyone seemed a bit surly. I think maybe it was the heat. This year people were a lot more friendly, more talkative, more cooperative, more patient, etc.

A few things about good through-towns:

A few things about good overnight towns:

I’m totally sorry it’s over, but am sure glad to be sleeping in my own bed and was incredibly happy to NOT put my seat on a bike saddle this morning!

Thanks for following. If you’re interested in pics, I put a few up on facebook here and a few (some overlapping) on flicker here.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Although JJ’s probably more than ready for me to come home, I’ll admit I wish there were a few more days like today. It’s a fairly long one (76-ish miles) and there’s a pretty good head wind going on for most of the day so far (and I expect, looking at the map, that it will continue), but it’s pretty flat and the riding is great.

Overnight in Ottumwa was good – a thousand times better than Chariton (which, so far, get’s my “worst town of the tour” award). Best town of the week is still up for grabs, all-in-all, they’ve been pretty good. Mercifully, the promised thunderstorms didn’t materialize last night (a real blessing since my stuff was already pretty wet from the Thunderstorm the night before and the fact that I had to pack it up wet.) The weather people are forcasting “scattered thundershowers” today. So far, not even the slightest cloud in sight. It’s hot, but it’s beautiful.

We picked up coffee this morning at a real coffee shop in Ottumwa – best I’ve had so far. I can’t remember the name of the shop, something about a rooster. I’ll check later if anyone cares (probably not). I ended up buying one of their T-shirts… it’s great and deals with one of my biggest coffee pet-peeves; it says: There’s no X in Espresso.

About half way to Mount Pleasant (where we’re spending the night). Shaping up to be a good day (hoping, of course, that there aren’t any more falls!)

Crazy sight of the day? I saw a guy pulling a trailer with a Sousaphone (sp?) on it. Yea… a tuba! He could play too. When I stopped in Pekin, he pulled up and started playing with their little pep band. It was quite the show.

Grae and Peace,
`tim

First, let me set up the story for you. Iowa has two kinds of paved roads: blacktop and cement. (I know, nothing particularly surprising there.) The strange thing is that Iowa’s cement roads have a big crack down the center – I suppose it’s a necessary expansion crack. These cracks range from 1/4 inch wide to 2 inches or more. On a car, cracks are annoying. On a bike… well… I’ve seen a lot of ambulances this year.

I know about cracks. This is my third Ragbrai — I’ve gone over them hundres, perhaps thousands, of times over the past three years. Today one bit me.

Yea, I whiped out. Just a few miles east of Bethlehem (yea, seriously, Bethlehem, IA), I got caught in a crack and bit the dust. No, I’m not seriously hurt; actually, I’m barely hurt at all. No ambulance needed; my bike is pretty much ok (minus part of the handlebar getting grunged up a bit). The list of wounds could just have easily come from playing a game of volleyball:

That’s it. Didn’t scrape my helmet. Didn’t hit my head; didn’t break a wrist or a collar bone. Let me say this though… I crash with finesse! It takes incredible skill to crash on your right side and manage to scrape your left knee, wrist and chin… think about it….

Matt was right next to me. You’ll have to hit him up for a play-by-play on how it looked from the outiside.

In any case, the thunderstorm that went through at about 3:00 (am) was done by 5 so we have a sunny and hot day. Beautiful. My bag will be pretty wet when I pick it up (in a few hours), but everything is going well.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Yep… I’m in Chariton. First the kvetching…. Last year one of my pet peeves was the overnight towns who gave immense preference to riders who went with charters or RV’s. It’s easy to tell towns that do it. They put the campers who use the Register’s baggage service way out in the middle of nowhere. Chariton, unfortunately, followed suit. Our campground is way out int he middle of nowhere and it’s on a hill… um… apparently no one in Chariton has ever tried camping in a tent on a hill. (Note: Charters and groups seem to have gotten much nicer spots….) Grump. To add insult to it all, they put a shuttle service into play (which is pretty typical) but charged us to use it. OK, so it’s on $1… it’s the principle. Well… that’s the grumpiness.

It was a good ride today. About half the mileage and half the climb as yesterday (which made it about just as hilly, but for a much shorter time). I wrote about the first half of the ride earlier, but the second half went just as well.

Chariton is actually a nice little town. Instead of $5 on showers, we spent $5 on hitting the pool — much better (and, of course, got a shower with it). The water was refreshing.. if a bit brisk.

The weather has cooled off nicely now that the sun is starting to go down a bit.

Food update: We were going to hit the Catholic church for Lasagna… but they ran out. So we walked over to the Methodist church of Rost Beef… but they were out. I ended up with a bag of mini-donuts and some pasta (the donuts were piping hot and the pasta was tepid) both were good though.

Anyhow, it’s going well, hard to believe it’s over half done now!

(Side note: for those of you who care, as of yesterday – about halfway through – I had officially ridden more miles ON Ragbrai than in preparation for it… yeah.. no wonder I’m a bit sore!)

Having a good time, and it looks like it’ll be a good night for sleeping in a tent.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Talk about a beautiful day! It started out foggy and chilly… as a matter of fact, it was foggy for the first 15-20 miles. I was afraid that when the fog burned off it would just be hot and sticky, but it’s actually turned out pretty plesant!

Jason and Rochelle: I just ate again at the PBJ You’re right; pretty much all I’m doing this week is eating, biking and sleeping! That’s what makes is so great!

Since it’s a short day today (only 44 miles) there are a lot of 1-day riders so the roads are pretty clogged up. I’m going to guess we’ll hit 20,000 riders or so (estimates are that we probably hit over 30,000 out of council bluffs even though there are only 15,000 “officially registered” riders). It’s amazin to see so many people pulling their kids in burleys or with tag-a-longs. I spent a mile or so talking to an 8-year old who was having a blast… and another mile listening to some other little kid who REALLY wasn’t having fun!

Side note: I learned today exactly how miserable my ASL is…Tried to hold on a conversation with a deaf woman and it could have gone a LOT better. Oh well; at least she was nice about it. (Which reminds me, I thought it was wonderfully ironic that one of the places I’ve heard the loudest music from was the school for the deaf in Council Bluffs… love it!)

Anyhow, another couple of towns to work through yet.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Yes, I’ve absconded on one of my most fundamental commitments… I’m spending the night at Simpson College… and liking it. Something in this Central College Grad’s craw finds that a bit hard to swallow; I’ll get over it!

Today startd out cold. Stayed cold until my daily Peanut Butter Jam stop where I tried a new sandwich (if you’re weak of stomach skip to the next paragraph): Wheat, Crunchy Peanut Butter, Pickles and Potato Chips. I’ve been told that it’s good, but never been quite brave enough to give it a try. Unbelievably, it’s actually good. I know – none of you are going to believe me.

It did get hot toward the middle of the day but it wasn’t unbearable. All in all it was really an excellent day.

Today’s words: Hills (I think that’s just a weekly one, and I should quit saying it), Cold (I wore a trashbag for the first half of the day just to keep my core warm), and Headwinds (hoofta… there were quite the winds for part of tody!) Matt and Tom also tried their hand at Skillet Throwing. It was great but I don’t think they’ll make it to the championships.

We had an excellent breakfast at the Methodist Church in Orient. (Incidently, there are a lot of UMC churches in this neck of the woods – I feel a bit like a fish out of water!)

Anyhow… Gotta go, the internet truck is closing in a half an hour and there’s a linup!

Short day tomorrow (If I recall correctly), and the weather’s supposed to be beautiful.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

PS: my phone has been off all day, so if you tried to get a hold of me I didn’t get it. I’ll check my messages when it’s done charging.

Yep, it rained today. It was chilly and overcast until about 10am and then it took of and started spritzing. No complaints really – I think I’d rather a cool-ish day with spritzes as opposed to a 100 degree day with humidity. It only got miserable during the last 6 miles (and last 3 big hills) when it moved from a reasonably pleasant spritz to an outright rain and got cold.

That said, it was a long a hilly day (72 miles; about a mile worth of climb). Tomorrow is a bit longer (77 miles) but less climb – about one big hill less.

Rumor has it that thunderstorms are threatened for tomorrow. We’ll have to see – I’ve learned to believe about 10% of what I hear as rumors on the route!

High lights of the day?

I got my first peace of pie (Rhubarb) and it was AWESOME, and I got my first sweet corn on the cob of the week – it was great too, and only $1, so I got a second.

Low Point of the Day?

Things are going well. I’m having a good time. If you want to follow a few comments during the day, you can follow my twitter feed (username: teejtc) or my facebook status updates (the two are the same).

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Well, I made it through day 1. It was an amazingly hilly day (although tomorrow is worse) but the lion’s share of it was incredibly beautiful.

I didn’t sleep well last night – partly because the concert went late and was REALLY loud, partly because it was absolutely frigid! The morning warmed up nicely, though, and it didn’t take long before Iowa showed it’s truly incredible ability to pull out wonderful weather. (As a side note — Council Bluffs biffed it on guessing how many port-a-potties to get… they WAY undershot their guess and I had the unfortunate experience of seeing fuller port-a-potties than I ever thought possible…ick.. I know… It was even worse in real life.)

So far, I’ve managed to stick with my few little goals:

Grace and peace,
`tim

Well, we made it to Iowa last night (Friday) and to Council Bluffs today. We spent a wonderful night at Brenda’s house and enjoyed a home-made breakfast and a good shower (can’t beat that!)

We’ve been in Council Bluffs a total of about an hour and Tom has already been interviewed by Chanel 8 out of Des Moines — Looking forward to the hills, he said… well… the down-side of them! Touche!

Like the last two years, Brenda rode with us to the starting point and will meet us at the end with our vehicle – great sister in law, huh?!

The weather is beautiful, although I’m hoping the wind will die down before tomorrow!

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Before I forget to tell you, I’ve set up a flickr set on which, theoretically, I’ll be posting pictures on from Ragbrai this year.

We’ll be leaving on Friday and spending the night at Brenda’s house. Brenda is JJ’s sister and has graciously hosted us on the first night out each of the last three years. She also has handled our vehicle during the week (dropping us off a the start and picking us up at the end) each year too – don’t you wish you had a sister in law like that?!

Anyhow, pictures will be at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24266318@N00/sets/72157621266126539/

The plan is to blog here. If you want a direct link to the Ragbrai stuff it’s:
http://ragbrai.tenclay.org

Grace and Peace,
`tim