Team Rooster Tracks, RAGBRAI XLI

You're going to see more photos than you really want to see.  I tried to upload a few other good photos, but they didn't make it for some reason.  Oh well, I'm sure you get the idea.

 

The first few pictures are from our charter bus ride from Waterloo to Council Bluffs.  We had our bikes loaded into semi trailers and we took the bus.  The charter was set up through the Cedar Valley Cyclists.

 

 We are in Council Bluffs in one of the tent campgrounds.  As soon as we got off the bus, people started racing to find a flat spot with soft grass for their tent.  We had other arrangements for our week.

 This is where we stayed.  It's called Joe's Bunkhouse.  He had three semi's just like this, as well as two shower houses.

 This is one of the repair shops at the RAGBRAI expo.  It was like this in every overnight town and in the meet-up town along the route.

 Here Trina and Jill (new friend) get ready to start their adventure.

 One tradition for RAGBRAI is to dip your back tire in the Missouri River and a week later, dip your front tire in the Mississippi River.

 Look who else likes to ride his bike!

 This was in important moment in our ride.  Trina was hurting and her chance to quit was parked next to us for five minutes.  She is a fighter and decided to keep going.  We had 30 more miles to ride.  This was the day with the most hills and miles.  Trina also developed heat rash and likely had heat exhaustion.  However, she didn't take the sag wagon!

 This was at the top of the biggest hill of the day.  It was about a 13% grade for a half mile.

 We took many breaks that day.  This family gave us shade, water and a laugh.  The wife is missing because a bird crapped on her white pants while we were there.

 We made it about 30-45 minutes before the hail came down on everyone.  If you look in the background, you can see an overhang on the building. Everyone in our camp stayed under in until the high winds and hail passed.

 College Jersey Day.  GO PANTHERS!

 When we finish for the day, Joe has this set up.  We also had a cooler full of water, pop and beer.  Three of the nights food was provided for us.  We loved it!  Did I mention we had air conditioning and beds?  we didn't have to sleep on the ground or in the heat.  We also had our own room for the last half of the ride.  Our bunk mates stopped riding once we made it to Des Moines.

 Here are some of the people we hung out with.  We didn't take pictures of everyone, or of their faces, but you get the idea.  This is Todd, Tony, Jilll and Tanner.  This is also one of the few times that Trina took a picture all week.

 At the Live concert.  Too far from the stage to get a good photo, so I took one of the jumbo screen.

 I lost my prescription glasses in Harlan.

 Someone mounted a bike on top of another bike and rode it across the state.

 Yep.  They rode that way.  The hot dog guy is also the rooster later in the week.

 It's hard to take a picture of a hill, because it's not fun to stop at the bottom and loose all of your momentum.  Although this was one of the least hilly rides in the history of RAGBRAI, it doesn't mean that there weren't hills.  If you think Iowa is flat, you've never been on RAGBRAI.

 I was the champion of throwing Ping-Pong balls into wooden shoes.

 Team Rooster Tracks (with Team Bonjour Kitty member)

 Chuck-A-Huffy

 Good for third place (currently)

 Team Road Kill throws beads on the dead animals along the path.

 A college buddy's team (Team Lizard) had a 100 foot slip and slide that ended in a pond.  See my Facebook page for a video.

 Afternoon naps in our air conditioned bunks were a must for Trina.

 Mount RAGBRAI greeted us in our final pass-through town.

 Mississippi River dip.

 WE DID IT!  I am so proud of Trina for setting a goal, making a plan and exceeding both of our expectations.  Love you!

 Grayson and Brad picked us up when the ride was over.

We want to thank Brad and Pat for taking care of our family while we were gone.  I know they loved being with you and have talked about their week with you often.  Without Brad and Pat's commitment, this wouldn't have been possible for us.  We hope that they enjoyed the time with our boys as much as we enjoyed our time together.

 The next vacation Trina wants to sit down the same amount we did this time, just not on a seat.  I wonder when she will start looking into a beach vacation?