Jen and Rebecca Bike Up a Lot of Hills in the Rain

R: One of the guys in our group told us as we were setting out on Monday that there was a chance of rain. Yeah, there were a few clouds, but they didn’t look too ominous. Turns out they were indeed rain clouds. Sigh. But it didn’t start raining on us until about halfway through the day. Up to that point, we were able to see Swedish dancing in Stanton, plus Stanton’s famed water towers shaped like a coffee pot and a tea pot!

Hills

J: Then it was on to Villisca - home of the Murder House. We were too cheap to take the $5, 5 minute tour, so we don’t have all of the details, but we did learn that several members of one family plus some friends were axe-murdered in 1912. My bike and I got into several spats yesterday as well. It almost got axed. But, after fixing my chain five times, I’m very good at putting it back on. Plus, I got to meet some very nice bike mechanics on the road who adjusted the cables for me. It appears to have to worked.

The Villisca Murder House

R: Because Jen’s bike pedal bit her and I had some sort of allergy-eye itch issue, we also took a pit stop at the first aid bus (provided by the U of I, thanks Jen’s alma mater) which made our stop in Corning a bit longer than anticipated. We did have yummy sloppy joes AND we got to use the indoor toilet which had a museum/old fashioned bank safe in it. Sadly, the line behind me was too long to spend much time in the museum after doing my business.

J: The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I guess that’s not entirely true. While I was at the bike repair stop to get my chain checked, Rebecca and Aaron 3,050 pound bull headed to the Iowa State Fair. The rain wasn’t much fun, but we survived. I did make a new friend. He kept offering to race me up hills, and then he’d let me win. Hmmm….. But, he was funny and distracted me the pain of climbing.

Rebecca and the bull.

Jen and her repaired bike.

R: He was funny because he said he’d rather Jen won the race because he’s get a better view. Tee hee. The last few “towns” of the ride were those fake towns where it’s pretty much a beer tent and nothing else. But we survived that too. Once we set up our tent in the rain, we headed to the nearby high school for showers, and made it one-stop shopping and had lasagna dinner there too. Where we saw Miss Iowa giving autographs. Sadly I hadn’t brought my camera. (Afterall, I thought we were just going to take showers.) We also wandered around the town square with Aaron where we finally got pie! Jen and Aaron chose rhubarb and I went cherry.

J: Yep, I can go home happy. I had some homemade rhubarb pie. Once I have walking tacos my trip will be complete.

R: More riding set for Tuesday, and we hope the forecasted “intermittent thunderstorms” don’t
come to pass…

Jen and Rebecca Start Biking

R: We made it through day 1! (Sorry for the posting delay. Apparently free wi-fi access isn't abundant in small-town Iowa and we've lacked the energy to get ourselves downtown to the Iowa Telecom booth where internet is free.)

R, still :We had another night of not great sleep in part because of the loud music/party we could hear nearby (sadly for Aaron, it was right by his campground, though down the road from ours.) Plus we could hear trains and it was chilly overnight. Turns out a sleeping bag wouldn’t have been overkill in this weather, and I should have brought one as the blanket didn’t quite cover it. We didn’t get started as early as anticipated either because I hadn’t recalled how long the lines to the kybos are at the main campground--I was spoiled riding with the Hawgs with their attached kybo on the back of the bus. Then I discovered my rear tire wasn’t holding air, so some of the bike shop guys at our campsite fixed it for me. We joined up with Aaron and got on the road at 7:00. We passed grandma’s condo on the way out of town, so I guess Aaron and I took a partial Eilers memorial tour of Council Bluffs

J: I am too dazed by day 1 to write anything! Overall, it was an okay day. I think I started out a little dehydrated and exhausted from 2 nights of bad sleep and it hit me on the first set of hills out of Council Bluffs. Once we finally made it to the top, I chugged a bottle of Nuun and inhaled a quick snack and the situation was drastically improved. On to the first town! We stopped in Mineola for Chris Cakes - my first pancakes of the week! Yummy!

Jen's first bite of pancakes.

Fortunately, no one was thrown into the hoosegow in Mineola during our brief stay.

R: The day was overall a short one, only 53 miles, but there were plenty of hills to keep up occupied. The just kept coming and became very tiresome. We learned that Matt rides faster than us, but Aaron, Jen, and I were able to stay together okay. Matt met us in the towns and at Pastafari for lunch, then rode ahead without us.

Matt being anointed a RAGBRAI virgin by some folks we met in the Pastafari line.

Jen bikes by, looking pretty happy!

Rebecca naps in Henderson.

R: The charter company tortured us with our campsite tonight--we had to climb several more hills in town to get to it. It’s fairly out of the way, and we were pretty tired, so we had dinner at the closest place to us, a church serving ham balls and baked potatoes. I’m wondering how I’m going to manage to stay up until a more reasonable bed time, like 9:00. Hopefully I’m tired enough to actually get a good night’s sleep, and if we go to bed early, we can get on the road earlier for a 70+ mile day tomorrow!

J: I had originally mocked Rebecca for wanting to go to bed at 7:30, but now it sounds like a fantastic idea! Here’s hoping for a slightly flatter day tomorrow!

Jen and Rebecca Get on the Bus

R: The day has dawned to get on the bus for RAGBRAI’s starting location! I don’t think any of us slept very well, being in different surroundings and being on edge about the adventure to come. But we still managed to haul ourselves out of bed at 6:00.

J: That’s sleeping in!

R: After dropping our stuff off at the charter bus and Penske trucks, Matt ditched us for the Lion’s Club pancake breakfast while Jen and I dropped our cars off at long-term parking. Jen and I made due with sweet rolls and fancy coffees from Saint’s Rest (we have to give a shout out to Paul and Janelle’s old bathroom - Saint’s Rest had the same walls) next to the bike store, but I think Jen was disappointed that she was denied her pancakes.

J: I’ll admit it, I was a little sad to miss out on the pancakes and sausage this morning. But, I think I’ll have several more opportunities this week. And my sweet roll was really good. After we loaded the busses, took roll call and got the standard safety speeches, we were finally off! And we got to see one of the most quintessential Iowa events – the antique tractor parade!

R: Granted, the tractors slowed us down, but as Grinnell is conveniently located next to I-80, and from there it’s a straight shot to Council Bluffs, we didn’t lose too much time. We frankly thought they were a little crazy thinking we wouldn’t arrive in CB until 1:00 or 2:00 with a scheduled departure of 8:00.

J: They weren’t too far off with the arrival time - we pulled into the campground at 12:00. We re-enacted the Oklahoma land run and picked the patch of land that would house our Taj Majal of tents for the night.

The land grab.

[Photo coming soon]
The Taj Mahal.

R: After exploring the bike Expo, where we bought some souvenirs (I learned on my last RAGBRAI not to wait until the end of week sales because the cute stuff is all gone) we biked over to the Bob Kerry Bridge to dip our tires in the Missouri River, as per RAGBRAI tradition. The ride was longer than I expected, but it was maybe necessary training. The bridge is pretty new and interesting looking and they had pumped water up to the bridge for tire dipping purposes. We also scuttled down to the banks for an official river dip, but on the Nebraska side, as it wasn’t really accessible on the Iowa side.

Bob Kerry Bridge

Dipping our tires on the bridge

Dipping our tires in the river

Nebraska-born Jen in Nebraska with Iowa-born Rebecca in Iowa.

J: The Bob Kerry Bridge is the second suspension bridge that I’ve been on this year. And, my fear of heights still has not subsided. I was doing okay until Matt got a flat in the middle of the bridge and we had to stop and I could feel the bridge swaying. I only freaked out a little bit…. On the bright side, a very nice man taught Matt how to change a flat.

R: I admit, I am the cause of Jen being on both suspension bridges this year. Sorry, Jen.

J: Apology accepted…unless you drag me onto a 3rd bridge.

R: Matt and Jen ditched me to go take naps back at camp and I met up with my brother where we made a valiant attempt to go see my grandparents’ old house on Commercial Street. I knew Council Bluffs got its name for a reason, but I’m pretty sure most of the bluffs are located all in the area of grandma’s old house. Once we hit the first giant hill, we decided we still had too far to go, and we gave up. The condo by Lake Manawa would have been a lot easier to access!

Aaron at the base of the hill at Pearl and 5th.

Waiting for the train to get back to the campsite.

J: It’s now dinner time and we’re about to head over to Ribfest (for ….well….ribs) and the Barenaked Ladies concert later tonight.

At the Expo. This just made us giggle.

Jen and Rebecca Embark on a Big Bike Ride

Another reason Jen and I started this blog now is because we have just departed on our next adventure—the 37th Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. What better way to see the world than on a bike? And what better place in the world is there to see on a bike than America’s heartland, and Jen’s and my homeland, Iowa?

I wrote the first blog entry on my own because Jen was already in a car on the way to our Iowa meeting point in Iowa. Now that we’re together, Jen is accusing me of being a control freak and wanting to write the whole blog, so I think we’re going to need to move on to a more conversational format (if for no other reason than she will only call me a control freak once for every two times she would otherwise.

R: I got us signed up with a Grinnell College alumni RAGBRAI team (the first year they’ve had one) when I convinced Jen to do the ride with me back in February. So on Friday we each departed our separate homes to meet up in Grinnell. I fortunately got to leave significantly later than Jen as my drive was fewer than half the miles. I had also convinced my Grinnell friend Matt to do the ride with us, so I had human company on my drive whereas Jen’s company was a book on tape.

Matt enjoying a quiet Grinnell evening at our host’s home as we wait for Jen’s arrival.

J: I’m not sure what possessed me to agree to sign up for RAGBRAI – maybe it was the allure of the pancake breakfasts and homemade rhubarb pie that both Janelle and Rebecca promised me would be available each day. Or maybe it was because I thought it would force me to get in shape so that I could ride my bike 442 miles. The second thing didn’t happen, so I’m still holding out hope for the first. Either way, I loaded up the car and headed out of Denver at 7am and arrived in Grinnell a little over 11 hours later.

R: Janelle and I rode RAGBRAI 35 in 2007 and she and her husband had intended to join us this year until she got pregnant. Oh well-maybe next time! (Still no baby, BTW, for anyone who’s counting.) Matt and I drug Jen on a brief walking tour of the Grinnell campus on our way to dinner at Jimbo’s, my favorite pizza place in Grinnell.

Jen and Rebecca about to enjoy their Wrigley Pizza. Rebecca was bummed that they no longer serve the Berkeley Nachos.

At Jimbo’s we ran into Team Evil Eye loading up on carbs. Who knew multiple RAGBRAI teams depart from Grinnell? I guess it’s a nice central Iowa location.

J: I had forgotten about the dangers of living in a small town after living in Denver for the past 9 years. As we were walking back to the house from the restaurant we were bombarded (by fireflies), nearly ambushed (by people walking out of bushes), attacked (by a child’s toy in the sidewalk) and blinded (by the lack of streetlights). We had to navigate our way around town using the stars—and fortunately the cloud cover had dispersed enough by this point to allow that.

R: The morning when we left home seemed really far away by bed time. I guess that means we’re already removed enough from the real world to begin enjoying vacation. Saturday, we’ll be off to the ride’s start in Council Bluffs!

Jen and Rebecca Embark on a Blog

July 2009 marks ten years since Jen and I began to travel the world together. In July 1999, she departed Tulsa and I departed Minneapolis to visit our mutual friend Janelle in Denver. (Jen was a college friend and roommate of Janelle's whereas I've known Janelle since birth--her birth. She's younger.) At the time, Jen and I were only acquaintances who both found the 4th of July weekend a convenient time to visit Janelle. But soon we were all friends, and decided that traveling together sounded like a fabulous idea. So in August 1999, Janelle, Jen, and I took a trip to London and Ireland. The rest, as they say, is history. Many trips later, we love nothing more than traveling the world together. Well, Janelle may love her husband and soon-to-be-born child a tad more, thus this blog is being hosted by just Jen and Rebecca.

To mark our ten years (and counting) of travel, Jen and I thought we'd start sharing our world-wide adventures with friends and family, and really anyone else who care to read about them. Hence this blog. Hope you enjoy traveling vicariously through us. We'll try not to make you too jealous.