Day Zero: Good job Karen

The Roadtrip

I keep hearing Willie Nelson’s On the Road Again playing in the background…

After months of anticipation and weeks of packing, it’s go time. We filled our car with minimal belongings (remember, we’re basically vagabonds this week), a serious amount of snacks, a couple car games (first person to spot a cow needs to moo!), and of course screens!

We’ve passed through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and making our way through Illinois as I write this. The landscape has officially changed to cornfields as far as the eye can see and crop dusting planes that look like they are going to dive bomb us every few minutes.

We’ve passed multiple other cars on the same journey and the kids got a kick out of beeping horns and waving. We’re actually hoping to meet up with a woman we met many months ago while on vacation in Mexico, who has Ragbrai’d for the last decade and kept in touch with us.

Today, the plan is to arrive in Des Moines (is the s silent?) and drop our car in the city of Ames, the home of Iowa State University, which is where we’ll end our Ragbrai journey the middle of next week. Post-ride, we’ll continue to stick around another day to watch my parents and a good family friend enter Des Moines. Yep, my parents signed up for the entire week adventure and they are much more physically prepared than we are,  having regularly trained for the past few months! As week-long riders, they will actually dip their back tire in the Missouri River at the start line and front tire in the Mississippi River when they finish!

Our daughters have been awesome travel companions, even with a 6:30am wake up call today following a long day of travel. We are weaning them into “we ride at dawn” mentality, which is quickly closing in.

Day 0 – introduced to Pig life

Today, we loaded our Pork Belly charter bus and headed to Sioux City!  Another early wake up call to walk a short distance to our loading zone, and we giggled this morning about the boys baseball team running through the halls last night interrupting our sleep. After encouraging me to yell at them to be quiet, my girls gave me a “good job, KAREN,” as I crawled back into bed.

Karma moment noted as my girls have totally been the annoying kids running amuck in a hotel while the other sports parents are getting their drink on in the lobby! Glad to see Iowans are no different!

After a 3+ hour bus ride to the Western part of the state, we were welcomed into tent city. Literally, tents as far as you can see setup across Riverside Park along the Big Sioux River, next door to South Dakota. Words cannot even express how many tents, RVs, and people span the city limits. I had imagined we’d set up camp all cozy and organized, but quickly learned that living out of a few book bags is actually pretty maddening. First, I’m pretty sure it was 105 degrees in the sun while we staked the tent. I then unzippered and then zippered our book bags a dozen times for literally every thing we needed. With all of the pre-organization and labeling, I couldn’t find a damn thing and almost died of heat stroke right there in the tent— on day nothing.

After checking in with our charter (Pork Belly) we headed downtown to the Expo (main event area with vendors and music) and attended a safety briefing where a State Trooper told us “stick to your plan. If it’s a one beer stop, keep it a one beer stop.” Thanks Officer. I was hoping someone might tell us how to ride a bike with 30,000 other people, but apparently it’s every man for themself.

Speaking of, I also found and returned a little 2-year old boy who managed to wander 3 city blocks. “Mama,” he cried when I asked if he was alone. After scooping him up, he was reunited with his a family a few minutes and lots of adrenaline later. Poor baby.

Along our travels, we have already been introduced to “Iowa Nice.” From waitresses to Starbucks baristas to the guy loading our bikes who told us he’s never heard of anything being stolen…ever – the hospitality is real. Meanwhile my husband was standing over our gear like a soldier protecting his comrades. We’re from the Northeast. We-trust-no-one.

We’ve been assured by fellow Ragbraiers that our children are going to love this experience… “Americana at its best,” one guy said. And that is why we’re here — to experience Americana at its best, to unplug for a bit, to view this through my girls eyes, to meet strangers, to not wear make-up, to support local communities, to eat pie and Iowa corn and pork chops, to see what will give out first— our brains or our bodies, to say we did something crazy; because very simply, we can. At this moment, it’s 9:00pm and camp is settling down while Taps plays in the background (a nightly occurrence apparently). Good night Sioux City.

Tomorrow…we ride.