Getting Stared...When Pigs Learn to Fly

I fell into one of those deep deep  summertime afternoon sleeps. Cousins Pat and Monte have a great sleeping couch! Drifting up into occasional consciousness I caught a movement outside the window.
Between the trees I saw bicyclists wearing the black, white and orange cycling kits of the Pedaling for Parkinson's team. Shaking this vision out of my eyes, I fell back into the comfort of the couch and within seconds was into the deep sleep. When I woke again, it was dark. I peered out to see the twinkling headlights of dozens of  bicycles coming down the blacktop road outside the rural Iowa farmhouse. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The twinkling headlights became fireflies dancing in the tree leaves near the road. Two days after the completion of the ride across Iowa, RAGBRAI is still on my mind.

How do I relate the experience of this past week?  This RAGBRAI!  This is so popular amongst Iowans and Midwesterners that thousands of cyclists turn out each year to participate.  I am from the Pacific Northwest  My roots rest in Iowa cornfields, but I was born in the county of wheat and wine, Walla Walla. I now reside in Oregon..  There, corn has  recently become a prominent crop, grown in irrigated circles. RAGBRAI  training  rides took us past Oregon corn fields, pea harvesters, watermelon fields and hay laying in thick rows, waiting for the perfect moment to be bailed.  I road alone. I rode with Anne or Nancy. Finally Charlie was free to ride. Charlie and  I rode our single bikes together  and then the big yellow tandem became good company. Good saddle time. But not enough for endurance riding 7 long days of  RAGBRAI.

We were to meet the team in Hull, Iowa on Saturday July 19. Not wanting to miss a moment of the action we pulled into Hull Friday night...late, late Friday night. I had the address of Jason  written down, but there were no numbers to be seen on the darkened houses. We parked "Gertrude" and Charlie and I walked  from house to house with flashlights beaming on lights, doors and curbs, looking for numbers. Bingo! Stacks of tables and chairs, and cases of water and pop revealed our destination. The late  night insistent doorbell ringing brought a tall sleepy Jason out on the porch. He directed us to the church parking lot behind the house. "Park anywhere there. See you in the morning".

Smashed  insects were affixed to my bike with super bug juice. It had ridden in the place of honor, outside front bike on Gertrude's big bosom.  I scrubbed the white Bianchi, which Charlie nicknamed "beyond me", with...you guessed it, WINDEX. Numerous random and not so random people wandered across the expanse of the lot to check me out. I met Loren (yes the proper spelling), the church pastor whose parking lot we camped in. Jason came over to tell us breakfast awaited  in his house. The chair of Hull's RAGBRAI committee and president of the Hull Chamber of Commerce interviewed me and took my picture. Doug, Nan's husband greeted me. Mike, my Facebook friend showed up. There were Pedaling for Parkinsons   riders of all ages. What struck me the most about each and every one was they were not only cycling buffs but also buff cyclists.  I was not!!  We were instructed to get our "kits" in the garage. Boxes of riding clothes piled across from the paper goods, pop and water.

I felt like a flying pig!

We saw this truck at a gas station.

Trying to act casual I slunk into the extra cycling kit piles looking for a size larger than I ordered.  Oh no, two sizes larger!  Nan had suggested I lose weight, alot of weight before the ride.  I ordered smaller sizes expecting to have a smaller bod.  WRONG!  I gained weight during the training period.

DAY ONE DAWNED! That night was much too short.  I recall my tenting experience in a seperate post/ We packed the clean Bianchi next to Charlie's bike in the support trailer. 

Straddling the big yellow tandem, Charlie and I reviewed the communication commands from our tandem training : pedal up, ready, bike on, going.  A few blocks of quiet tree lined streets and we turned left to join the mass of humanity cycling into the sunrise.  RAGBRAI.  THIS IS RAGRBAI!!!
My heart skips a few beats in excitement. My Parkinson's induced apathy is gone. I am laughing and grinning from ear to ear. I actually feel something.!! Here we go. 69 miles until we sleep.

We pulled into the first town's confused mess and had to walk the tandem. For me that's like being drug through a throng of people by a big yellow praying mantis. I think that's what I will call this yellow Co-Motion tandem.  We stopped at the pig pink painted photo spot. .
And then got out of there as soon as possible. It was much safer and comfortable to be on the bike.  Tonight's lodging was to be at a private home near. Lake Okajobi. This vacation spot's name was soooo mispronounced by us. Dozens of times we were corrected... almost as many times as our Midwestern teammates mispronounced our home state by saying Ore a gone.  After 60 some miles Charlie and I were enjoying the speed of the downhill. The heavy tandem and our extra weighty bodies followed the laws of physics and gravity propelled us at 25, 35+ mph...only because my wise husband kept us in check and control.   Unbeknownst to us we sailed right past the street to the night's lodging and into town.  Charlie pulled up our yellow beast in front of a young local family who was enjoying the never ending stream of cyclists.  The kids were thrilled with our strange bike as parents gave directions. We got turned around, headed back up hill against the speeding downhillers. The faster riders hogged the entire side of the road we needed to travel on, just as we had a few moments earlier ...BIKE UP. BIKE UP  we both shouted.  Earlier that day we had  learned the warning call to clear the path as a cyclist pedaled facing the flow, like a salmon swimming upstream.  We were ever so glad to get across the lanes of  bike traffic onto the right road. And extra glad  to find that home. That night we ground up giant mosquitoes and pattied them for skeeter burgers.  For dessert we had biting flies.. Actually they had us.  A shower. A massage, a beverage and it was to bed in a tent of buzzing creatures. The praying mantis was sleeping soundly in the trailer.  We needed her tonight. Eventually I slept.  Tomorrow I ride "Beyond Me", my single road bike.