RAGBRAI 2022 – DAY 7 (+1) – JULY 30 & 31, 2022

WEST UNION to LANSING

DISTANCE: 65.4 miles CLIMB: 2966 feet

Well, Day 7 of Ragbrai 2022 had dawned. Folks were up and at ’em bright and early.

Tents had to be stowed, duffle bags packed, clothes sorted and packed for long distance travel in a small space, and the bikes had to be packed per our plan from last night. One last breakfast as a team, one last pet of the team mascot Caribou (who had been a real champ all week), one last pumping of the bike tires, one last check of the route map to get to the bike route. One last . . . . one last . . . . . . one last . . . . . And finally everyone was ready to head out. But wait !!! Gotta do the requisite mug shot for my ipad .

ERIK, ED, KEVIN, and CHRIS

And we wanted to capture our team in its various ‘subsets’.

DAWN, ED, and CHRIS (Dawn’s son) – The Indiana contingent

ED (David’s nephew), DAVID, and DAWN (Ed’s wife)

ERIK and KEVIN (our son) – The Colorado Contingent

Taken at the meeting town of Postville

DAVID, CLARA and Mascot CARIBOU with her human KEVIN

David, Clara, and Caribou – support team

Now that the pictures were out of the way, it was time for the bikers to load up, push their bikes to the top of the hill, and get on the road.

The support team completed our departure checklist and carefully made our way up the hill, driving on the small dirt road between the white fence and the corn field – the same road that Harlan led us down the day before.

We didn’t have far to go. Since the Colorado contingent – Kevin and Erik – had decided to ride only to Postville, the meeting town, we had a drive of just under 20 miles. Clearly, we didn’t have to rush. When we arrived at Postville, there were a slew of support vehicles already there, waiting to provide their team members with whatever they needed in the way of beverages, snacks, or a comfortable place to rest for a bit. All we were looking for was a good place to park Ark that would be easy for Kevin and Erik to find. We drove around for a bit, chatting with a police officer at one point, before settling on a dirt parking lot that we had passed on our way into town. There were a few other RV’s that came and went in the lot, but it never filled up while we were there.

Here is where we deviated from our carefully laid out plan from last night – the plan that called for us to load all of the Indiana folks’ stuff onto Ed’s and Chris’ bikes to make the Lansing trip – you know, because we were driving only as far as Postville while they were going all the way to Lansing. Well, we had spent further time mulling that plan over during the night. As great a plan as it was (and it was a great plan), we came up with another plan to get that Indiana gear to Lansing that seemed to make a little more sense. And so we executed it. The revised plan called for us to unhook our car from the motor home, load it with all of the Indiana gear, and drive it to Lansing – along with Dawn, who had ridden with us in the motor home from West Union to Postville (notice that she didn’t have her riding gear on in the pre-departure pictures). She had the keys to their truck, and she knew where it was parked. So, armed with the support vehicle map, we – David, Dawn, Caribou, and me – headed out of Postville towards Lansing. The trip was quite an adventure as parts of the support vehicle map had incorrect highway numbers on them. We wandered around a bit, doing comparisons to the maps on our ipad and to the bikers’ route. We were finally able to sort out the errors on the support vehicle map and make our way to Lansing and the parking lot where their truck was parked. We offloaded all of the gear that belonged to Ed, Dawn, and Chris into the truck. We said our goodbyes to Dawn, who had been an immense help to us during the week on the days she did not ride. And she and Caribou had become great pals over the course of the week. We were then able to make our way back to Postville (now that we knew the correct route between Postville and Lansing). The generator in Ark had been running in our absence, and the air conditioner had been humming along. So the inside was pleasantly cool, and David and I settled in to wait for Kevin and Erik to arrive.

Meanwhile, the guys were pedaling the bike route, and here are some of the sights they saw:

Okay, the last picture needs a bit of explanation. There is a bike team called TEAM ROAD KILL. They have been riding Ragbrai since before our team started riding in 2005. They have their own team bus and team jerseys. They carry with them on the bike rides all kinds of odds and ends of items that they use to decorate any road kill that they find on the bike route. Raccoons, squirrels, mice, rats, rabbits, any other rodent you can think of – if it is squished and on the road, a Team Road Kill rider will memorialize it in a fashion similar to the late rodent seen in the above picture. Rumor has it that an occasional squished banana can end up with a bit of decoration appropriate to a deceased fruit.

We had communicated our location to Kevin and Erik, and they soon pedaled in. They loaded their bikes on the bike rack on the back of the CRV, and Erik secured the gear he would need in the motor home from his bags stored in the bay. We then headed out, making our way thru the twists and turns, the hills and valleys, and the backs and forths of the small country roads that led us from Postville toward Council Bluffs.

We had almost 900 miles to drive to get back to Kevin’s place, so the farther we got on Saturday, the shorter our Sunday drive would be. We drove and drove and drove, making it all the way to Greenwood, NE, and the Pine Grove RV Park & Campground, about 375 miles.

The office was able to order pizza when we checked in, so that’s what we had for dinner. Everyone was ready for a good night’s rest. Erik slept on one of the bunks, since setting up his tent was not permitted in the campground. Besides, who wanted to dig it out and set it up, even if it was allowed. We left bright and early on Day 8 (Sunday), heading west on I 80. We had a distance of almost 500 miles to travel between our rv spot at Pine Grove and Kevin’s driveway in Colorado. So no time to waste. Because our top speed when towing the CRV (which is 99.99% of the time) is 65 mph (per the CRV owner’s manual towing instructions), it takes us longer to cover that 500 mile distance than it would if we were in the CRV all by itself. Ark doesn’t mind going 75 mph by itself or when towing the car. But we keep it in the 63-65 mph range when towing to protect the CRV (and maybe improve our mpg).

So, miles were driven

Naps were taken

Being a mascot is exhausting work !!

In due course, we drove into Kevin’s driveway. Ark sighed deeply, glad to be settled into a spot for awhile. She had worked hard and had taken very good care of us in the 11 days we had been on the road.

We offloaded Erik’s gear from its various spots, and he headed home, about a 45 minute drive from Kevin’s house. Now came unpacking, rearranging, doing laundry, and cleaning. It had been a great Ragbrai. Riders did very well, Caribou had excelled at her first outing as Team 3Dudaks mascot, Ark had made her way thru some really bad driving conditions reliably and safely, and we were all intact. Our Indiana contingent had arrive home safely. All was well, and Ragbrai 2022 was in the books. Thank you to everyone who had made it a great outing: Kevin, Erik, Ed, Dawn, and Chris + the support team of David, Clara, and Caribou. Love to all !!!!!