July 20, 2009
Day Two: Red Oak to Greenfield
Our first pass-through town today was Stanton. The towns are a lot more crowded than the roads, and the first few towns are more congested than the later ones. Everyone walked their bike through the first couple of towns.
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Stanton (pop 714) is a Swedish town which had some locals doing a dance on a stage. They would call up some of the bikers to help them out.
The town is famous for its two water towers. The tanks are painted and shaped like a giant coffee pot and coffee cup, referencing the town's most famous citizen, Virginia Christine, the actress best known to TV viewers as "Mrs. Olson" in classic commercials for Folgers Coffee.
First-time Ragbrai riders are called virgins, and many of them had it displayed on their calves.
Some pictures along the way:
In Villisca (pop 1,344) we stopped for hot dogs and chips. There was more live music and good food. All of the food was reasonable priced since that's a requirement for RAGBARAI to go through an area. This is a huge moneymaker for these small towns, but they have to agree not to price gouge or the planning committee will look elsewhere in the future.
The shirts below say, "We draft 12 ounces at a time." The word "draft" has 2 definitions, one which means riding close behind someone else and using their slipstream to make your ride easier, and the other, of course, has to do with beer.
There were REAL toilets at the high school so we stopped there on the way out of town. Surprisingly, there was a line for the men's restroom and not the women's. One woman was really happy about it and as she bounced down the hall toward the exit she quipped, "Have fun waitin' in line boys!"
The next town down the line was Nodaway (pop 132). We were looking forward to some Church Lady pie (the theme for this year's ride is pie), but they were sold out. We talked to one of the church ladies who said they made 900 pieces of pie, and sold out by 11:00 AM. They had no idea there would be so many people coming through.
We talked for a while with a woman named Jean. She's originally from Iowa, but is currently living in Sacramento and teaching in an underserved school where there are 5-6 languages spoken. Very few of the children know English upon entering the school system, and it makes her job pretty hard. One interesting thing she said is that there's a new "accent" that some kids have. Instead of having a Vietnamese or Russian accent, it's an accent that results when a child only hears speech made from people who have a tongue piercing. When the kids speak, they sound just like their parents... as if they have a tongue piercing because that's how they heard and learned the sounds.
It rained on us periodically throughout the day, but it wasn't bad, and actually kept us fairly cool. I've heard that a couple of RAGBRAIs over the years have been blistering hot so we really didn't mind. When the rain started, people would pull out all kinds of rain gear, including garbage bags.
Corning (pop 1,783) is the childhood home of Johnny Carson. He lived there until the age of eight. Again, we were foiled when we tried to get some Church Lady pie.
Heather has had a crick in her neck since she slept funny on the bus traveling from Burlington to Council Bluffs so she got a massage in Corning.
The town of Prescott (pop 266) is actually just off the route by a quarter of a mile or so. However, there were some people who came over to show their support, including the owners of Iowa's largest bull, "Big White," who weighs in at 3050 pounds.
On the way to Williamson (pop 163) I saw the dumbest guy in the entire state. He was riding slightly (very slightly) faster than the rest of the riders, so he was in the lane of oncoming traffic. He was doing that going over a blind hill which, if that was all he was doing wouldn't be so bad because if a car had come over the rise it would've simply improved the country's gene pool. However, what makes this guy a stellar dumbass is that he was wearing earbuds so he couldn't hear anything... such as the ambulance which pulled up behind him. Even with its lights on it was unable to pass for a full sixty seconds as the guy pedaled along, oblivious, until someone was able to get his attention.
More pictures along the way:
Fontanelle (pop 692) was the last town before our stop for the night, Greenfield, and by that time we were soaked, and a little cold, so we didn't stop for long.
In Greenfield (pop 2,129) we followed the signs to the city park where our charter company was and set up camp. After showering at the city pool we went to the downtown festivities, then back fairly early to the warmth of our tent and sleeping bags.
Distance 75.59
Average speed 11.4
Maximum speed 36.7
Time 4:40.10
Cumulative 131. 21
Climbed 5096 feet
Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 132 miles (212 km)
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She did RAGBRAI twice when she was a teenager, and has told me that it's something that I should never, ever do.
So far, your journal has reinforced my feeling that it would be an absolute nightmare for someone with my sensibilities.
All those cyclists of (extremely) varied experience levels; all that drinking; all those long lines for the restrooms; etc.
Thanks for documenting this. I look forward to reading more, and getting a vicarious thrill from something I'll never do myself!
Jeff
2 years ago
It makes me wonder about cyclotourists in general, about whether we're more introverted or extroverted as a group. I suspect you can't make any generalizations, but out of curiosity maybe I'll post a forum question sometime.
2 years ago
Personally, I liked RAGBRAI--certainly not because I'm a big people-person or anything, but more because of the food and the spectacle. (There was a little partying too, I guess.) Plus, one year I met a group of self-supported bike tourists who had ridden up from Texas and made RAGBRAI part of their tour. I thought to myself, "hey, that sounds like something I could really get into." It definitely planted the seed for my own bike touring aspirations.
I kept journals of all my RAGBRAIs, so now I'm going to have to dig up the 2009 edition and compare notes. I remember many of the towns and events you are describing.
2 years ago
I really enjoyed RAGBRAI as well, but since I prefer touring I'll continue burning those vacation minutes elsewhere. However, when I retire I'll probably do it on a regular basis.
I'm looking forward to reading about your RAGBRAI adventures!"
2 years ago