Let's review: I'm an introvert spending the week riding across Iowa on a bicycle and staying in an RV with my future in-laws.
So basically, crazy.
What I didn't know is that normally by Thursday everyone is ready for a break and Jeff is the only one riding.
So I was completely exhausted and hadn't had a chance to recharge through some alone-time. Jeff and his dad and I all rode in the morning and everyone else took the day off.
By the end of the day, my entire being was telling me that I needed some time alone. So I went for a walk.
I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say at that point I was seriously considering ordering an Uber to take me back to my car (which was parked in Pella). I was upset, I was exhausted, and I was just done.
Jeff and I had a long talk late into the night (well it may not have been that late, but late for RAGBRAI nights).
I just felt like I couldn't not ride because I would be letting Jeff down, since he can't really ride the tandem without me. I didn't want him to be disappointed. But I really had nothing left to give. Jeff reassured me that I was not disappointing him and that he would much rather have me with him at RAGBRAI and not ride the whole thing than ride the whole way by himself.
So we worked through it and I tearfully agreed that it would be okay if I took the next day off.
Current Mood: Not sure it can be identified
Predictions: Tomorrow will be a better day and hopefully I will start having fun again
Best Part of the Day: Going to sleep
Worst part of the Day: Not communicating well with Jeff
Since riding your bike across Iowa (I believe it's over 460 miles this year) isn't enough of a challenge for some people, they add the century day.
They choose the day with the most mileage (it was 40 miles in the morning and 45 in the afternoon) and then add an optional loop that will get your total up to 100 miles in one day.
And since they are especially crazy this year, they added a loop that made it more like 112 miles.
No. Thank. You.
Jeff has done this century loop several times but since we were riding the tandem, we opted to only ride the measly 45 miles in the afternoon.
Kolton wanted to do the century loop. He's done it before, but this would be the first time that he would ride it on his own. I still wasn't feeling well (allergies and hives, yay) so I slept in. Kolton had to get up early to get started on his day. He pulled out around 6:45 am.
Everyone else rode in the RV in the morning. We went to the dump site to get rid of our waste and had to wait in line for an hour (there are a lot of RV's on RAGBRAI). I got to witness the excitement of the dump site, which was absolutely thrilling.
We reached the meeting town and Braden, Jeff, and I put on our gear and rode in to get some food. We had some pretty good stuff and I FINALLY got to try Amish pie. (Spoiler alert: my pie is better.)
Jeff and I were wearing matching Dutch jerseys, which he got from his friend Reuben, who lives in the Netherlands. We happened to run into the only other person on RAGBRAI wearing the exact same jersey! He was actually from the Netherlands and we had fun talking to him.
We finally got started on the ride. I'm not really sure how I made it through those 45 miles. That was insane. We stopped a lot along the way, in these tiny towns that you miss if you sneeze. At one stop in Bethlehem, IA, we got watermelon all over my shoe!!! It was so gross and got inside the shoe on my sock as well. Fortunately, I kept an extra pair of socks in our bike trunk, so things could have been worse.
I don't think I would have made it through that afternoon without the pace lines. You often see these groups of riders moving along quickly while drafting off each other. It looks so cool and you might feel a little jealous as they go buy. But today, we jumped in the pace line! I'd never seen a tandem in one of these lines before and we didn't get any negative comments while we were riding in it!
The pace line went so fast that the miles kind of flew by us. It also distracted me from the pain in my rear and from how tired I was. You have to concentrate pretty hard to be in the pace line because you are riding so close to each other. If anyone slows down or speeds up, you have to notice right away and adjust your own pace accordingly. One wrong move and you can take down the line!
As we were riding, another faster pace line came by and Jeff hopped over into that one! And then people were drafting off of us! I wasn't sure we could keep up with them but we held our own. We even skipped stopping in one of the towns because riding in the "train" was working so well. We caught up to Braden and he joined in, doing some pretty impressive riding.
Eventually we found Kolton who found Jeff's friend Josh. Josh and Kolton rode the Century Loop together. Kolton said he couldn't have done it without Josh's encouragement. So even on RAGBRAI, the world is still pretty small sometimes.
When we finally made it to the overnight town, all of us were totally exhausted and could hardly move. We had a wonderful dinner at one of the churches (and I think Margaret is now friends with the entire congregation).
After dinner, Jeff and I rode to the HyVee to get some Benadryl for my hives (yes, now I have hives too, yay) and some more sunscreen.
Finally, we all crawled into bed in the RV, totally spent from the day.
3 more days to go.
Current Mood: ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Predictions: Ride all day tomorrow? Will anyone ride tomorrow?
Best Part of the Day: Pace lines, Kolton completing the Century
Worst Part of the Day: hives
