RAGBRAI® is the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state west to east. This year estimates of over 17,000 riders and over 1,000 tandems rode at least some portion of the ride. The ride starts near the Missouri River and ends at the Mississippi River. Traditionally riders begin by dipping their rear tires in the Missouri and end by dipping their front tires in the Mississippi. This year marked the 25th time this bicycle ride has crossed the state, making it according to the Register's statistics, the largest, longest, and oldest bicycle tour in the world.

For my wife Jodie and I, this was our first tandem tour. With Jodie doing the stoking, we began pedaling across the state of Iowa in daily mileages that ranged from 55 to 100 for a total of nearly 500 miles. Contrary to most people's notion of Iowa, the state is not all flat. There are many hills, especially in southern Iowa. I was even tempted to push our bike up a few of the hills. However, Jodie insisted that we pedal the bike every foot across the state. While Iowa may not be as flat as some people imagine it, the corn does grow tall and yes, the pig farms do smell!

To me one of the biggest differences between this tour and our weekend rides was that touring combined biking with camping. Except for a few lucky people who had arranged housing, or RV support, the rest of us were stuck in tents. The tents were everywhere, sometimes with as little as 5 to 10 feet between us. I still remember the first night, Jodie persistingly kept rolling me over in my sleep so that I would stop snoring. Normally, this works. After being tossed around several times and being fully awaken, it finally occurred to me what was going on and I politely told her, "It's not me snoring, it's coming from the tent next to ours." Even considering the tight sleeping quarters, we still thought the organizers and the hosting towns did an outstanding job of providing campgrounds, luggage support, meals, and showers.

On the second day we had only gone a few miles when we saw a stoker wearing a t-shirt that read "Don't tell him I'm not pedaling." As I turned back to look at Jodie, a big grin had already filled her face. Her smile was mainly due to the fact that she has heard the expression "She's not pedaling" probably in excess of 100 times since we bought our tandem 6 months ago.

As the ride progressed, it became obvious to us that tandem bikes excelled on all terrain except steep uphills. When heading downhill or especially when there was a tailwind, tandems (our Cannondale MT1000 included) sailed past other bikers like they were not even moving. To help monitor speed, distance, and times, I had moved our cyclometer from the captain's to the stoker's handlebar prior to starting the tour. This worked out great. Jodie was now able to help out by more than pedaling and this also allowed me to keep two hands on the handlebars. I must admit, I was hesitant at first to move our cyclometer. I wasn't sure I wanted Jodie to know that we sometimes reached speeds in excess of 40+ miles per hour!

We were continually amazed at what other riders brought or carried with them on their bikes. Squirt guns, personalized license plates, inflatable pillows, bike horns that sounded like semi-trucks, and even compact lawn chairs could be seen strapped to the sides of bikes. One person even brought along his puppy in a covered Burley trailer with mess windows. A few tandems even pulled trailers that contained stereo systems with big speakers. From these speakers, typically the sound of fast paced, upbeat, older songs like the "YMCA" could be heard. When the music was on, typically large numbers of bikers could be seen following closely behind these trailers to enjoy their music. I must even confess to having followed some of these trailers so close that we could even eavesdrop on their music. Actually we enjoyed the music so much, that Jodie and I are thinking about carrying along a small radio or cassette player on future rides.

In addition to what people were carrying, we were also impressed at the average age of the riders. According to the Register's official statistics the average registered rider was 40 years old. Of the registered riders, 445 of the participants were between 60 to 70. Eighty riders were even in the 71 to 90 year old category. Being in our mid 30's, it is nice to know that biking is a sport which we should be able to enjoy for many more years.

The towns, and cities along the way also went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Some towns lined the streets with balloons or flags, painted the streets, or even placed old bikes on street poles much like Christmas ornaments. A few towns even created big bikes to greet us. Many of the residents along the way would sit in their lawn chairs, watching as bike after bike past their house. Some of residents even offered the riders free water or provided us with water sprinklers to ride through to cool down. While the water sprinklers probably shocked Jodie and myself more than cooling us off, we always rode through the water anyway to let them know that we appreciated their thoughtfulness. Early in the trip I tried to delicately maneuver the tandem though the sprinklers so that only Jodie would get wet. However, I quickly came to the conclusion that this was impossible. From then on, I started going straight through the middle of the sprinklers.

On one of the last days, the sun was beating down on us as the temperature climbed into the upper 90's. During one five mile stretch of the road, the right most portion of our lane had just recently been re-paved with a fresh coat of tar. Not your normal asphalt. With the temperature so warm, the tar was literally beginning to liquify. As we drove through this, you could hear our tires sticking to the surface like the sound of opening Velcro. Depending on traffic, I tried to avoid driving in it if possible and Jodie kept pleading with me to do the same. Once just to tease her, I deliberately ventured into the fresh coat. And then with a touch of seriousness in her voice, she cryed out "Get out of here before we stick like flies to fly paper." To my amazement, when we finished the day, tar and sand was still packed firmly in the treads of our tires.

Of all the things we saw on RAGBRAI, probably the most memorable sight to me were the little kids who sometimes lined the streets staring at us or even sometimes with mommy's or daddy's approval would give us riders high 5's. I guess through their young eyes we were heros. To them riding a bike around the block was a journey, the state of Iowa must haved seem like the universe.

The End