Box and bike I intend to fit into it. Wish me luck.
My youngest son’s girlfriend is giving him a sweet birthday gift—she is arranging for his bicycle to be shipped from Iowa to the East Coast, where he lives.
Thus, I went to a bike shop in town today. Having them pack it would take $80 and a week. Frankly, I would be willing to pay the cost, knowing my incompetence with tools, but the week’s delay was the problem. Or, they could give me a free box and I could pack it.
Fortunately, I have a guide. I have two sons, and the older one lives on the West Coast. Sons from sea to shining sea. Anyway, the West Coast son has bike traveled before. He and his wife rode RAGBRAI a few years ago, and he packed their bicycles for the shipment to the middle of America.
So we had a video call Wednesday night, and the older son briefed me on the process. Today, after getting the box, I went to a Menard’s, purchased some pipe insulation, PVC pipe and tape.
The pipe insulation is easy to cut to size to protect parts, such as the front forks and the upper part of the frame, a cable-rich area on this bike. The PVC pipe—that I would cut to hold the front fork in place after the wheel was removed.
I started with two tricky jobs. Removing the handlebars was not difficult, but involved lots of fiddly parts, including nine hex nuts in all. That part was a bit detailed and fiddly, but didn’t require much muscle. The next part was both simpler and more difficult—removing the pedals.
Front wheel is off, axle placed through PVC pipe spacer, pedals removed. Front stoop rail is poor man's bike rack.
I don’t do a lot of bike maintenance because I’m a writer and professor and machinery is best left to more able humans. But I have swapped pedals before. It’s not hard to figure out what to do, it’s just that there are two issues. One is that the two pedals are threaded in different directions, so “lefty loosey” will only help you on half of the process. The bigger issue is that, for some reason, of all parts I’ve ever had to loosen on a bike, the one that requires the most brute force is removing the pedals.
Sure, changing tyres on a road bike sucks for similar reasons. But pedals? Bleah.
Still, it was not a complex process, just a bit of a time-consuming one. It’s an odd problem for me, because I tend to use my right arm for brute strength tasks and my left one for deft work—I’m left handed, but like most southpaws, I think I use my right wing more than most right-handed people use their left wings.
In the end, I think it was the dominant hand that won. On both sides, it was a final tug using my left arm that loosened the pedal. The thing about pedals is that the first 1/8 turn is the hard one. After that, it’s loose and easy to remove.
Bike fits in box!
I texted my oldest son several times during the process for bits of advice, and he was very helpful. In the end, the process of packing the bicycle was not all that bad. Not that I volunteer for it again. And yes, I would gladly pay someone else $80 to do it for me—the whole thing probably took me four hours (including time to run to two stores for supplies). I’m not quite like that movie character who won’t get out of bed for less than $500,000 (“mom, we are in a state of alert here”), but my time is worth more than $20 an hour.
Still, my bike mechanic life is not filled with all that many wins. Today was one of them.
And it is done. I hope it arrives safe and sound out east!
Besides four songs, I almost forgot this video: Saturday’s ride featured us passing a train in downtown Cedar Rapids as we rode home after lunch.
I like the natural sound in this video, which gives a sense of how loud these are. I’ve been stuck by trains before, but we were lucky this time. I think the train was still adding cars, because it rolled slowly east into downtown, and we were on its south side. It blocked all the intersections for cars, but allowed us to roll parallel to it.
And as we neared the west end of downtown, the train began rolling backwards towards the railyard there beside the big Quaker Oats plant.
So it felt like the train was just escorting Team Joe on our final ride.
Third Avenue bike lane, near art museum, heading south early in ride Saturday.
A ride that’s not a RAGBRAI (I sometimes omit the A, as you will see in the mileage chart)—it’s done. It was good. The week’s mile total was 356, which I would call OK. A typical RAGBRAI totals about 440 miles, or maybe 470 with optional loops. I rode two full RAGBRAIs when I started participating about 2010 or so, but in more recent years have been a member of a family team where four riders take turns driving a support vehicle, so with around 2 driving days, a typical RAGBRAI for me would probably total 350 miles or so.
The 2020 planned route, form LeMars to Clinton, would have been 420 miles, so 350 would be a reasonable estimate of how many miles I would have biked in a better world this week. That 2020 route, by the way, is the plan for 2021, and may the universe conspire to make it so.
Anyway, as has been my tradition on this fake ride, I did some song parodies on Saturday’s ride, and as my sister and I pedaled around Ellis Park, we kept thinking of new ideas, so today’s video is a special 4-song extravaganza of bad singing:
I did get a few miles in on Friday, although it was the day after our century ride and a designated “driving” day. I have a 4-year-old grandson who has been under our daytime care, and he missed me this week, so I spent much of Friday in a sandbox, or pushing a swing, or pouring water at a splash pad.
Friday, the Iowa weather was warming up, so it was a good day for morning shade play and afternoon hiding out in the AC.
After rest time with grandma (the kid missed me and likes me, but these days grandma is his special pal), he wanted to know if I would give him a bike ride home. He wanted a fairly direct one—Friday night is movie night for his mom and him, and so he didn’t want too much touring. I agreed.
But he did want to check the duck pond on C Avenue at Collins Aerospace—and as luck would have it, we saw a mother and two babies. He had to spend some time watching them and tossing grass to them, which they dutifully pecked at, much to his amusement.
Friday, bikes on bridge at C Avenue duck pond at Collins Aerospace. And grandson (above and below), watching the ducks in the pond.
And, as we headed north to his home, at Dry Creek on C Avenue, a doe was munching grass beside the mostly dry waterway. It was watched, which further delayed the trip home. So, we didn’t really ride around as much as we might have, but also didn’t get him home as soon as we could have.
No harm done, and I’m sure movie night delayed was still enjoyed.
Wildlife seen on Friday ride, many images of cute duck family, plus the doe we saw later.
After Friday’s “driving” day, my sister and I planned a shorter ride for Saturday. The temperature was to top out in the mid-90s, with humidity that caused a heat index in triple digits with a weather service heat warning. We took that to mean “ride some morning miles and finish not-RAGBRAI/ARTNAR before the brutal heat of the afternoon.”
I was going to ride my road bike, but after the century, I noticed some serious wear in the rear tyre (note: it’s a style thing, since the rubber tyres used on “safety bikes” were invented in Britain in the 19th century I use the British spelling of tyre on this blog), so I got the slower hybrid bike out to ride Saturday.
Friday was warm and humid, but as this view of the Lindale Trail shows, still not bad for biking. After returning grandson to his home, I rode a few a few miles on the Boyson-Lindale trails.
One advantage of not-RAGBRAI is that I used all three of my bicycles this week, which was nice. The road bike is for sure the official RAGBRAI bike, but this week was not an official RAGBRAI.
Anyway, I was running a little late Saturday morning, which shocks nobody who knows CR Biker, so my sister triked over to meet me. She had acquired a new rainbow flag for her tricycle, which was nice—it flies at about biker height, and since I followed her for much of the final ride, it was a good marker for whether I needed to duck for branches.
Riding Saturday on the CEMAR Trail.
Passing Mount Mercy University Plaster Athletic Complex. I teach at MMU.
Riding on Third Avenue bike lane north of downtown.
My sister has her own route to get to downtown CR, and our plan was to ride to Ellis Park, a local biking landmark not included yet in this week’s rides. Then, we were going to just randomly cruise the west side before heading to New Bo for the victory lunch that would signal the end of the week’s rides.
My sister’s route involved heading to the CEMAR Trail (another bikeway not used before in this week), and then heading down 15th Street to Third Avenue. It’s not a route I would have ever used to get downtown, but it’s a good route. One reason is that the Third Avenue bike lanes in downtown CR are the best in the city, thanks to the lane being completely segregated from traffic and parked cars once you get to downtown.
We crossed the river on the Third Avenue Bridge. When we headed west on First Street towards Ellis Park, we ran into an issue as the trail on the levee west of the Five-in-One bridge was closed by road construction. Our resulting detour took us by the monument to the flood of 2008, which flooded about 20 percent of Cedar Rapids and permanently leveled the housing in this neighborhood.
Crossing Cedar River on Third Avenue bridge. Passed by courthouse (unseen to our right).
Passing under Five-in-One Bridge. This bridge carries the main drag, First Avenue, and Interstate 380 over the Cedar River. It's also built on a dam which used to generate electricity (although it doesn't anymore). Not sure how it makes the bridge "five," but Cedar Rapids, land of four confusing quadrants, has an odd thing with the number five. The city motto is "city of five seasons," which makes as much sense as you think it would. The city symbol is an odd metal tree that looks like an inverted toilet brush. The official motto refers to "four seasons plus time to enjoy them all," which is a pretty nonsensical way to get to five seasons. I think of it as "four seasons and time to clean the potties, too."
The "Time Check" neighborhood (the name has to do with the city being big in the railroad era) was destroyed by the June 2008 flood. This is the monument that commemorates the flood.
The entire Northwest quadrant (badly named, it's the western quarter of the city--besides being the city of five seasons, Cedar Rapids is apparently the land where the compass malfunctions--I live in the Northeast quadrant, which is so named so strangers can't figure out it means "north") was not washed away, but this is in memory of a neighborhood of this quadrant that was destroyed. Sad chapter in city history. In CR neighborhood names, Northeast=North; Northwest=West; Southeast=East; and Southwest=South.
The morning was warm and humid, but not really hot yet. By the time we got to Ellis Park, both of us were thinking a bathroom break would be a good idea—but most in the park were closed, with Kybos placed at them. Which helps explain the theme of one of my songs, as I “performed” several to celebrate the final ride.
Anyway, we did find one public restroom in the park that was still open, so that adventure has a happy ending. CR bike riders, look for the horseshoe pit, it’s beside the actual real live indoor plumbing, in case you don’t want the warmth and smell of a seasoned Kybo on a warm summer ride.
Riding bikes on the banks of the Cedar River at Ellis Park (above and below).
After riding in the park, we rather randomly cruised the west side for a while, taking a snack-water break in the shade of a tree in a church parking lot.
We ended up over by Czech Village and circled around on the trail east of there for a while. The Bridge of Lions, which carries the Cedar River Trail over the Cedar River, is closed for resurfacing, so we took the detour route behind the Czech and Slovak Museum to cross the river and head to New Bo.
New trail on levee east of Czech Village, hooks up with Cedar River Trail seen at left.
Hey CR peeps. Is this the Eighth Avenue Bridge? It's the detour because Bridge of Lions is closed.
We also rode the short Sinclair Levee Trail, and encounter some bike traffic there.
Earlier this week, there was lots of broken glass at the north end of the detour bridge. It was gone today. Thank you, city of CR, I assume. Or whatever random biker carries a broom.
It was a few minutes before 11, opening time, when we got to Fong’s Pizza, our lunch spot. It was growing hot, but when asked about seating, we opted for the patio, partly out of respect for other diners who probably didn’t want to experience the odor of warm-day bikers. The patio is in the shade between buildings. The structures helped focus what breeze there was, and although the day was hot for biking in the sunshine, being seated in shade in a breezy alley between buildings was comfortable.
Our waitress, who said her name was “Mystery”—which I thought either meant her parents had a sense of humor or she wisely gives out a fake name, as bar girls and waitresses sometimes do for their own protection, and she liked the sound of and humor of the pseudonym Mystery—apologized for the slowness of our meal at the not-busy restaurant, but apparently an early and large takeout order had caused a kitchen delay.
CR Biker and sister contemplate what to order on patio at Fong's.
Mystery apologized for the wind carrying away our umbrellas. No matter, the fruit juices and rum in the Painkillers did indeed kill our pain. And note how the table umbrella in the background makes it look like my sister has a gnome hat.
“Oh darn,” my sister said. “We have to rest for a few minutes longer.” We didn’t care. We were enjoying fruity rum drinks called Painkillers, and were feeling little pain. The service was slow, but not terribly so, and a sit in the shade was a good way to spend part of the day. Our drinks and food, when they arrived, were quite satisfying.
Then we had to slog our way home in the early afternoon heat. We took it easy, but went ahead and circled Cedar Lake when we got there, so the heat must not have been too bad.
Cedar Rapids bikers will be completely not surprised that we had to dodge some geese while circling Cedar Lake.
When we got to my sister’s house, her wife had left a bottle of CR tap water on the driveway for us to use to “dip” our tyres. On RAGBRAI, it’s a tradition to dip your rear tire in the Missouri River at the start of the week and finish the final day’s rid by dipping your front tyre in the Mississippi. We usually don’t partake in the ritual—there’s often a scrum and we figure the way physics works we’re encountering water molecules from the two rivers all week long anyway—but it was a cute gesture.
Paulette also left us a cooler with two bottles of Not Your Father’s Root Beer. Not Your Father’s Root Beer is a brand that has alcohol in it, if you’re not familiar with that product.
Paulette makes image of my sister Cate "dipping" her tyre.
A toast to a ride that was not a RAGBRAI. Cheers!
And so, the week came to a close. RAGBRAI always signals the end of summer for me. There is a lot for a college professor to do before a semester starts, and this year the fall prep, with all the uncertainties the pandemic brings, will be especially hairy. But I am thrilled that my wife Audrey suggested this week’s rides, and that my sister was game for ARTNAR. Audrey also baked some chicken and some potatoes, so my post-nap supper Saturday was a fitting feast to commemorate the end of the summer ride.
Cheers to a good week, Cate. And as we toast our rides in the official root beer of Team Joe, we hope for better days ahead. Wear your mask and wash your hands.
Starting out on the Cedar River Trail, less than half a mile from the Cedar Valley Nature Trail which we will ride almost 50 miles north--deer! I did not expect my sister to say, "hey, I know that buck," but she did and does. This is not far from her house, which abuts the woods at Prairie Woods Retreat, and one of these guys hangs out in her yard sometimes. Clearly he was here with a friend to wish her a fine ride.
Nearly silent, only because I thought that I had apparently failed to record my music cover song of the ride—which I think was my best work of the week, a remake of “Ticket to Ride” with the lyrics “Fat Tire to Ride.”
It was as brilliant as all my music videos this week have been, but sadly, at first it seemed to be unavailable. My camera was acting a little funky—later on, some of the images recorded as a blank white screen, and I assumed the shutter problems the camera was having caused the video failure.
Happily, or sadly if you have any musical taste at all, the simple answer is often the most correct. In fact, I had accidentally deleted my video file, I had not failed to record it. So, biker blog bad music cover fans from fake RAGBRAI 2020—fear not. Your tune of not awesome, found in the computer trash, will be coming up.
Thursday, day 5 of not RAGBRAI, was, again, a glorious Iowa summer day. My sister and I planned to ride north—and the question in our minds, given the length of the trail north, was whether we would go for a century.
Nice blue sky. Warm, but not hot day, very pleasant morning--these images are early in the ride north. Above, paved trail (in area where music video was shot). Below, north of Center Point, where pavement ends.
The trail to Waterloo from Cedar Rapids has been detoured for years because of a falling bridge in La Porte City, but reports online said a new bridge had been built. And if we were riding to inspect that bridge, we would be well over 2/3 of the way north on this 52-mile trail anyway.
RAGBRAI has an optional loop one day, the Karras Loop that is named after John Karras who is one of two founders of the ride. That loop means one day’s ride can total, if a rider chooses to ride it, more than 100 miles. We weren’t doing a Karras Loop, since we were just going to ride north and then head back on the same trail, so we thought of this ride as our Karras Line. (And my sister posted a remake of a song from a Chorus Line on Facebook, so at least some music got recorded today).
The real RAGBRAI has recently added an optional gravel loop, too. Since this trail includes significant gravel, this was the all-loops day of not-RAGBRAI.
The morning was gorgeous. I decided to stick with plan A and rode the road bike. We made good time, but a few miles after we hit the unpaved trail north of Center Point, I started to feel a bit wonky—nauseous and dizzy. We stopped; I drank some water. My sister suggested eating a snack, and I wolfed down a fat peanut butter sandwich I had planned as an afternoon snack. We were only 25 or so miles into the ride, and I doubted, for the first time, that it would be a century day.
We began again. My sister was letting me take the lead because I’m the slower biker, and I deliberately slowed down a bit more. We had been making pretty good time, especially on the unpaved trail, but parts of it are treacherous—there are rutted places of dried mud, sandy soft spots, sticks on the trail and holes.
I had skidded a bit, especially in the “fast” first 3 miles or so of unpaved trail (the 14 miles between Hiawatha and Center Point are paved, it’s north of Center Point where the trail is gravel, limestone and dirt).
Anyway, the easier pace seemed to do the trick. Although the day warmed up a lot, and we had some long stretches between bathroom breaks (Brandon! Big fry pan, so what? Open a darn bathroom), it was a nice day all day long.
We had, a couple of years ago, ridden this trail to Evansdale, a Waterloo suburb. There is a section of the trail that my sister calls “the Mosquito Coast.” It’s a pretty and shady stretch, with the Cedar River off to your left (if you are riding north) and woody hillside, sometimes with rocky short bluffs, off to the right. Given it’s shady and damp topography, if you know Iowa in summer, you know the reason for the name. We both sprayed Bug Soother on for this part of the ride. Interestingly, we were both a bit surprised by the location of the coast, because in our mental maps, it was between La Porte City and Evansdale, when in fact, it was south of both La Porte City and a bridge over the Cedar River.
The error in coast location was not the first time our mental maps proved defective. The approximate mid-point of this trail north is Brandon, and my sister had assumed it was at mile 26. It wasn’t, it was just a bit north of that. “They’ve moved Brandon,” she said. The robot overlords running the matrix were having some fun with us on this ride!
We had been seeking a cornfield, which would have really recreated the RAGBRAI ride experience, but never found a likely one on the long ride between Center Point and La Porte City, both places where there was indoor plumbing.
Anyway, we made it to LPC, after our unexpected ride through the coast and also the woods where trees battled (recent storms left a storm of sticks on a section of the trail.
And there was a snake. My sister had told her spouse a fairy tale: that she was taking a snake on the ride to release, to ease her spouse’s mind. Her wife fears snakes, apparently, and had seen one in the yard, so my sister made a show of saying she had caught and loaded the snake for release.
Well, surprise, Paulette! I hope this image, shot during our sojourn north through the Mosquito Coast, does not give you the heebie jeebies. Clearly, Cate must have taken the snake for trail release:
Mosquito Coast, CVNT. A snake on the trail. I maintain it was released by my sister.
At La Porte City, we discovered:
La Porte City, trail "closed." But why?
The new bridge has indeed done. But the trail is marked as being closed at the new bridge.
I don’t know why. The trail and bridge looked fine. We were debating what to do, when two riders we don’t know approached the barrier from the south, skirted it on the grass, and continued on to the new bridge. We did not hear any splash, and after a few minutes the strangers did not return.
Hmm. What if we rode on the grass ourselves to flank the barrier? What if we crossed the new bridge? What if the barrier on the north end maybe presented a bit more of a challenge to my sister’s trike due to the narrowness of the gap, but was still a barrier that could be avoided?
What if?
I cannot say what happened next. I don’t want to admit any crimes on this public blog. Be that as it may, a few minutes later we were north of the new bridge, continuing our ride north.
It was getting to be 11 a.m. and we were thinking about lunch. Last time we rode to Evansdale, finding a restaurant there proved challenging. We reached the depot at Gilbertville, the last town before Evansdale.
I was wondering if that was enough—I had reached 50 miles. The goal today was 100, and if I simply turned around and rode back to the inexplicably named City of Five Seasons (Cedar Rapids, home of city mottos that perplex rather than promote), I would achieve triple digits.
And two riders approached from the north. Where you from, the strangers (my sister and I were the strangers) inquired. They were from Cedar Falls, part of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls sister cities.
Well, locals, what’s a great place to eat around these parts? “Why, there is a place called the Rocket, in downtown La Porte City. They have great pie.”
So we turned around in Gilbertville and started our sojourn south. The route from the trail to downtown La Porte City was a bit odd (LPC, with the bridge repaired you may have more trail traffic—you might want to think of marking a route to downtown to promote biker-related tourism dollars staying in your town). And it turned out the main street was being dug up and replaced.
Road construction—it’s had a big impact on my bike rides this summer.
Anyway, we found the place after some experimental exploring of an unknown town. The menu was rather limited, but it didn’t matter because the food was grand. We both had specialty burgers. Mine had hash browns, an over-easy egg and cheese on a hamburger—I thought of it as Iowa’s answer to how burgers are served in Paraguay. Whatever else you can say about Paraguay, just in case you wonder, it’s a good country to get a hamburger in.
I had coleslaw as a side, and it was good. I don’t recall what my sister’s burger was named or had, but she liked it and had it with potato salad, which she said was nice. For afters, she ordered break pudding and I had strawberry pie. We each had the first bite of each other’s, and both were quite tasty.
If you’re from Cedar Rapids and adventurous enough to bike this far north, check out the Rocket in downtown La Porte City. It offers great bike chow.
La Porte City--we lock bikes to tree and walk through construction zone for lunch at cafe called "Rocket."
My lunch. It was very, very good.
Strawberry pie, my choice for after-meal treat.
My sister's bread pudding. And she said the stale bread might be doughnuts--the family that runs this cafe has a doughnut shop in Waterloo and a bakery with this cafe in La Porte City.
The ride south. What can I say about it? The day was turning warm and we were hot and tired, but doing well. We repeated the scenery in reverse, and the robot gods made no changes to the matrix.
Although I did turn on my lights for safety, technically we finished the ride while the sun was still shining. It reached just over 101 miles. Day 5 of fake RAGBRAI was the longest ride of the week, but still quite nice!
On the ride south, crossing Cedar River south of La Porte City.
View of the Cedar River. Second time on fake RAGBRAI we crossed this river, did it both north and south of Cedar Rapids. River runs through Cedar Rapids.
A short rest on the ride south, north of Brandon. Old grain facility looks like an old castle.
A bit farther along. Not quite to Brandon yet. The trail is an old rail line, and there are a few artifacts of time gone by--another closed grain elevator. And my sister on her Cat Trike.
And when I got home, I saw this while putting away my bike:
Monarch caterpillar on milkweed I planted in my front garden.
I planted the milkweed just so that this could happen—which is an odd thing, milkweed is the one flower gardeners in Iowa plant in hopes that caterpillars will show up to nibble away the leaves.
Summer in Iowa—it can be glorious! It can also be insufferably hot and humid, and after Thursday, the week made that unfortunate turn. I’ll post soon about the final rides in fake RAGBRAI.
And now. Time for a song? I guess you have no choice except not hitting play:
And, to further cleanse your ears, one of my favorite covers of a different Beatles tune:
The farthest point south on this ride--Sutliff Bridge in Johnson County. The bridge does not carry road traffic anymore, it's a historic site run by the county. And by the time we arrived, it was clear today's ride would be a long one.
Iowa was in a sweet mood on this July day. We had a stormy, damp day yesterday, but today was the kind of summer day that, if you could bottle it, you would want to keep it. It was sunny, but there were some pretty clouds to break up the blue sky. It was warm, but neither hot nor super humid. There was a breeze, but just enough to cool a bicycle rider without making for difficult head or cross winds.
In short, it was grand.
My sister and I have not seriously planned this not-RAGBRAI week, other than agreeing we would ride many miles in honor of the RAGBRAI that isn’t. Our plans are rather loose. But we always talked about two long rides—one south to Solon, one north far beyond Urbana.
Today, because I had a time limit, a late afternoon appointment, we opted for the southern ride. The day added up to more than 70 miles.
Cedar Lake, a pretty morning, mostly sunny sky. My sister (below) checks her phone right after I make the image above.
And there were many great RAGBRAI-like experiences:
Lunch at Big Grove Brewery mimicked a RAGBRAI feed in substance and style. I had a local craft beer with a French dip, and it was grand. My sister ordered and shared deviled eggs as an appetizer. We don’t have a lot of deviled eggs on RAGBRAI, but eggs, either scrambled or hard boiled, are frequent RAGBRAI food items.
Afternoon snack was an ice cream stop at Dan and Debbie’s Dairy in Ely. Definitely a RAGBRI type thing.
The ride to the Sutliff Bridge. The bulk of today’s ride, as all not-RAGBRAI rides have been, was on trails in the Cedar Rapids area. But we got to Solon too early for lunch, and my sister suggested pushing on to the Sutliff Bridge, a historic bridge over the Cedar River in Johnson County.
The ride from Solon to there was over 7 miles of county highway—and a reminder of what the geography of Iowa is like. Out-of-staters beware: Don’t come to RAGBRAI expecting to ride on the flat Great Plains of North America. Iowa is just east of that region and the land between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers rises and falls like a wrinkled sheet. We have no mountains, but the land dips into river valleys and rolls over numerous hills.
Hoover Trail, biking south of Ely on a gorgeous morning.
Just a bit north of Solon--the trail has crossed and parallels the county highway to the left. There is a bit of a rise in this area, seen below.
I know I use granny gear way more than younger, faster riders, but I think any rider would have found granny gear on this ride to Sutliff Bridge. My sister and I definitely worked for our lunch in Solon.
My sister on the county road out of Solon. She was the navigator because I had not biked to the Sutliff Bridge before.
The second road--more traffic, but also more of a shoulder for bikes. Both roads were fairly hilly--as my sister noted, it was more of a RAGBRAI ride.
Above and below, crossing the Cedar River on a new bridge east of the Sutliff Bridge.
View of Cedar River from county road bridge.
The bridge, when we got there, was worth seeing. It was fun to ride over it, too. I had never biked there before, and was glad to have a guide.
Views of the Sutliff Bridge.
Today, I rode the road bike, and my sister, while she would have ridden faster without me, was nonetheless pleased at our pace. I was not sure which bike to use for the other long ride—the trek north—because much of that trail is unpaved and the mountain or hybrid bike would be nice for those miles.
But it’s not a bad trail. And today’s ride pretty much sold me on the idea of using the road bike for these long rides.
Heading back to Solon from bridge. Iowa countryside view.
Old barn seen near Solon on the way back (detail below).
After lunch, heading back to bike trail heading north. This park on the edge of Solon is where we joined the trail.
Product placement, images of lunch at Big Grove (and ice cream snack at Dan and Debbie's).
So, there was a lot to like about today’s ride. Hence the song of the day:
That was sung along the Hoover Trail north of Ely in the morning. My sister seemed amused, and this was the first of the not-RAGBRAI music videos she was present to view the making of.
Tomorrow’s weather forecast looks pretty good. This week is a bit like RAGBRAI—it is hard to believe that it’s only Wednesday, it feels like the week is longer, and the leg pain is starting to be replaced with a sense that I can do this, that long rides are a thing. Onward!
My sister makes an image of me on county road as we cycle back to Solon from Sutliff Bridge.
Like previous image, this was made by Cate Sheller, my sister.. CR Biker making image of an old barn.
