Rabrai II

For 2009 my dad and I decided to do a day of Ragbrai. We met on Thursday in Mt. Pleasant, the end town, and he dropped off his truck. Then we took my car with his Salsa La Cruz and my Raleigh Prestige to Ottumwa where we met one of my dad's biologist friends. We camped in the backyard and woke up the next day at 6AM with a gang of bikers already on the move. My goal was to make the 75 mile route into a century ride. My dad just wanted to eat stuff and ride his bike. We had bananas, chocolate, chocolate bananas, beer, bread, chicken, ketchup, hot dogs, buns, all that stuff. I saw the usual amazing stuff and insanity. Good times had by all. Well except one guy who accused me of cutting him off then slowing down. He was having a hard time and didn't seem to realize that I passed him on the downhill and he caught up on the uphill when I wasn't pedaling. In other words, it isn't my fault gravity affects me more than him. My odometer shorted out at 50 miles and came back on later in the day, so when I got to Mt. Pleasant I doubled back and played chicken with 30,000 bikers for fifteen miles before I decided it was insane and turned around when, serendipitously, my dad rode by. We were fairly dead by the time we made it back to the truck and had a nice time checking out the old trolley and steam powered threshers at the fair grounds, home of the worlds largest steam thresher and giant old machine festival. On the way back home from Ottumwa to Iowa City, alone in my car, I watched as on either side of the road two huge tornado storms raged. By magic I threaded the storm needle without getting more than a few drops on my windshield. When I got home I rode in circles in my apartment parking lot until the odometer said 100. I had a good sleep that night.