Now that I'm showered and clean, I can blog without complaining too much. Only one complaint - I had to wait on line for 90 minutes to take a 5-min shower! The day started with getting a little lost for maybe a mile or two. But, once we found our way, I was really excited. It's amazing to see the sea of bicyclists in front of us and behind us. It's even more amazing to see town people just come out to cheer all the RAGBRAI riders on. The beginning was pretty flat and we were going at a pretty good pace. But then, we hit steep bluffs, and on a tandem, that's just killer. It wasn't extremely steep, but it was a very long uphill. In fact, some guy came up from behind me and touched my lower back to help push me along. My NYC training almost made me straighten up my back, release my hand from the grip, and smack him in the face. But, then he said encouraging words and I knew he was trying to help me. Once we reached the top, we saw the downhill and wow, we were flying. The computer said we hit 72mph, but I don't think so. Probably more like 55+mph. It was fun and scary at the same time. I kept hearing Rick scream out on your left to warn riders we were coming. Iowa, I have discovered, is definitely not flat. There were a lot of rolling hills, and it was really nice to gain enough momentum from the downhill to easily go up some of the uphills. One scary point of the ride was when we were 3 miles away from the finish city. Apparently there was a pretty bad accident between two bicyclists. Either one bicyclist touched another from behind on a downhill, or it was a head-on collision. It wasn't a pretty scene with one bicyclist on the ground and the other trying to get up but having to sit back down. One of the better moments of today was meeting Mr. Pork Chop. He makes these heavenly bbq pork chops that are 3-in thick and slathered in butter. That one pork chop is probably more meat than what I eat in a week. I followed that up with a slice of homemade pie and a lemonade slushy. I'll talk about food options later. It's been interesting to see what people eat. One other interesting item...what people listen to on the ride. I heard gangsta rap, heavy metal, new age music, songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and even God Bless America.
I'm so glad I made it through Day 1. Tomorrow, Rick is driving the luggage truck, so he convinced me to ride a demo bike. I'm terrified! It's $6,000 carbon fiber Trek. I don't even know how to shift the gears yet. I better go practice.
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