My sister riding her trike north of Urbana on July 13, 2023. We rode 100 miles together that day, in training for RAGBRAI 2023.
As I noted on another of my blogs, my life recently underwent radical change. On Dec. 18 last year, I rode 11 miles on my bike, but had an appointment with a heart doctor the next day that put a temporary end to my two-wheeled life.
Only a temporary end, knock on wood. I’m growing stronger day-by-day following a Jan. 10 heart bypass operation, and am fully convinced I’ll be rolling across the planet again soon, although I don’t know exactly when. Will I ride some part of RAGBRAI this summer? Plans are for a very pretty, attractive, not too hilly northern route, and north Iowa is (I can give them credit as a man who has lived primarily in the middle of the state) the prettiest part of Iowa.
It should be a great year for RAGBRAI. If you ever considered it, this may be the year to join it.
From RAGBRAI.com, their announcement of the 2025 overnight towns. Details will be coming later, but if you ever thought of riding RAGBRAI, this looks to be a good year to experience that.
I am not sure, however, that it will be my year. I can’t begin training yet, since my broken breastbone where they split me apart to fix my heart will take some time to mend enough so I have full use of my arms again and can bike. And when I do start riding, I think it will be like beginning all over again. Plus, I’m on all kinds of blood thinners and need to take special care to avoid any traumatic injuries when I can bleed out so easily.
That sounds like whining. Honestly, I am grateful. They caught the heart problem before anything terrible happened, and the fix in my pump should last for decades—it’s what I needed to get me back on track, so I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about the route I’m on.
I am sure it will lead me back to biking soon enough.
Team Joe during some 2024 rides. In Solon, above, and Des Moines, below.
Meanwhile, the first few times I rode RAGBRAI, I had a particular ambition. I rode every mile (excluding, back in those days, the century loop, which I did start riding later). Before my third RAGBRAI ride, when two of my sisters and a brother-in-law formed “Team Joe” to institutionalize the family RAGBRAI ride, my RAGBRAI style changed, as we took turns driving a support vehicle.
But I didn’t mind riding 75 percent or so of a RAGBRAI. I had already proven I could do every mile.
I am now 66. My body was attacked—my heart surgeon noted that most medical doctors treat you, but surgeons assault you. Still, I have six sisters, two of them younger than me—and the next in line to me, who is two years younger than me, has the ambition this year—she thinks this is her chance, her most likely shot.
Riding with my sister on newly paved stretch of trail north of Brandon in all, 2024.
She rides a recumbent trike and wants her three wheels to cover every mile of RAGBRAI 2025. Well, good for her, and I hope I in no way jinx it by writing about it—I hope she achieves her goal.
There is something special about a RAGBRAI where you click in at mile one and keep rolling all the way to the Mississippi River.
Will I share in any of those rides with her? That’s not as clear. I may ride my own fake RAGBRAI again this year—ride a bunch of miles in RAGBRAI ’s honor but ride near my home. It’s up in the air what my status will be in terms of how trained I am, and how comfortable I am being farther from home base.
But this should be her year. May she acheive her ambition. And here’s hoping I can rejoin the rolling herd soon—and I fully expect to. I’ll let you know when you might see me again on two wheels!
Meanwhile, be careful of those crazy trikers out there. One of them is training to check off a big point on her bucket list.
Leaving Sioux City in scrum of walkers on first day of RAGBRAI, 2023. My sister rolling slowly with the walkers, on her trike.
March 1--I worked a bit late that night and am riding home at sunset--but this is the corner of Blairs Ferry and C Avenue, which means I'm almost there. Not as many rides are in the dark as the light is gaining on the dark at this time of year.
March can be a fickle month in Iowa—sometimes, the soft foreshadowing of spring, sometimes the clinging on of a cold winter, sometimes a bit of both or a bit of in between.
We’re only three days in, but they have not been a harsh three days. My late February rides were a little constrained by snow, an ice storm and cold rains. Yet, on balance, it was a good month, with nice enough days at the end to travel on my road bike rather than the winter beater mountain bike.
And, while we’re getting plenty of blustery winds, the deep cold of winter has only visited now and then. Rides have been doable—and many days, warm enough that I could skip the thermal long underwear.
Feb. 19--Sunday afternoon ride--last year's flowers seen at Cedar Lake, still icy (it's water, now).
Feb. 19--I climbed the hill at MMU on this ride, and saw this hawk on top of Warde Hall in the late afternoon light.
And the light is coming back. In January, most commutes even in the morning, were with lights. I often have to work a bit later in the office, but these days it’s well past 5 p.m. before I feel compelled to turn on the bike lights.
Last time I checked (Feb. 19), the gate on the Cedar River Trail headed north was closed. And I haven’t done any longer rides yet this year, nothing 40 miles or more. But I have started changing my biking routine a bit, mostly by seeking out hills. Whenever I ride my road bike, my rule these days is to climb at least one hill. Either I climb the Mount Mercy hill by one of the “hard” routes (it’s easiest to reach the campus via the gentle drive by Warde Hall, any other road or sidewalk approach involves a longer, steeper hill) or, if it’s a weekend and I’m not riding to work, I’ll climb the Brentwood Drive hill in my neighborhood.
Feb. 19--The end of my ride north, gate closed on Cedar River Trail. I know, I could have gone around it, but I was on my road bike and the ground was mushy, plus my heart wasn't set on a ride north--I just turned around and rode south as far as the Cedar River to get my miles in.
While I have no “long” rides yet, I’m adding hills to my routine in anticipation of summer. I know from experience that, if one is riding RAGBRAI, one does not regret any hills climbed earlier in the year for practice.
I finished February this year with 161.1 miles, compared to 147.85 in 2022. I have 25.1 miles in March on the third day of the month, and 317.02 miles for 2023. I realize there are bikers who have passed 1,000 miles this year, but I’m not in a race with them. I want to ride enough to please myself, and, as I advance in years, any month or year in which I can look back and say I rode more now than I did then, well, that’s a win.
I noted in my previous blog post that on Feb. 18 I saw a bike alone on the Grant Wood Trail and wondered a bit about it. This is Feb. 19 on the trail that runs along the levee towards the Sleeping Giant future bridge--and again, a bike with no biker. Hmmm.
My two longest recent rides. It may be May before I do any "long" ride, mostly because time is too precious during the spring semester, but I've gotten a few miles in. And some hill climbs.
Sept. 7--Monday, first day of classes at university where I teach. Bike in driveway before I leave home.
Morning glories blooming in someone's yard, seen on my Monday morning ride.
Monday morning--I have arrived at Rohde Family Plaza, Mount Mercy University.
Odd weather--storm, then heat wave, drought, cooler weather--some spring flowers are blooming. Lilac seen on bike ride.
Sunrise Monday morning at C Avenue pond of Collins Aerospace.
Another view, from another camera, of my bike on campus Monday morning.
The biking week in Cedar Rapids wasn’t much this past week. I commuted to work as usual Monday, Sept. 7, on two wheels.
And then it rained. And Rained. And rained. It was raining Thursday, but I was home a bit early and the weather app on my phone claimed there was a break. So I got out my mountain bike. It was sprinkling, but the weather radar said “clear” so I ignored my senses and trusted the smartphone—probably not the smartest thing to do.
After a quick ride of 3 miles or so I gave in to reality and went home.
Thursday afternoon--mountain bike ready for damp ride.
Heading south on C Avenue.
Heading east on Brentwood Drive towards the hill.
I drove to work Friday. As I had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Man, commuting in a metal cocoon, cut off from the world, kind of ranks high in the suck-o-meter. Now that I’m used to bicycle commuting, car commuting feels very lame.
Saturday was cloudy and damp, but not raining for most of the day. I took a 4-year-old grandson to a park, using my bike and a Tag-A-Long seat. He seemed to enjoy it.
Grandson on bike Saturday. Cool, damp day, but it didn't rain on us.
A finally, today, glorious Sunday—aptly named, as it turns out, for the first sunshine in six days. We had a terrible derecho storm on Aug. 10, and then drought until the rains this week. I rode over to the Lowe Park Trail, then to the neighborhood where my youngest daughter has bought her first house, and then home—about 12 miles in all, enjoying it the whole time.
Well, the weather has cooled. This week should be dry, and I should be able to ride more. Or so says my phone’s weather app. I guess I should also look with my own eyes.
Sept. 13--Bike parked at Lowe Park on, finally, a sunny Sunday.
Lowe Park, looking west from the east end. Sunny day, but to the south, clouds are coming.
A few minutes later, I've stopped at home and decided I can head north. I'm on may way west to Cedar River Trail, looking at grey south sky.
July 19, 2020—today was the day that the first riding day of RAGBRAI would have taken place, and did not. I don’t blame the RAGBRAI organizers—there is no way that you could draw tens of thousands of bikers from around the world together in crowded town scrums and campgrounds, and not have it be a super-spreader event.
But, this week, my sister and I, who normally ride RAGBRAI, are doing “not-RAGBRAI,” a biking stay-cation. We are attempting to ride close to the total number of miles one would cycle this week.
Sadly, there is no way we will get all the pie one would get on RAGBRAI, but sacrifices must be made.
How did day one of “not-RAGBRAI” go? Rather well. My sister was tied up (she was preaching in church this morning), so she joined me in the afternoon. I got on the road by a few minutes before 8—rather late, honestly, by RAGBRAI standards. My goal was to reach at least 60 miles today.
I began by riding towards the Lindale Trail, to cut back through the side trail back to Boyson Road, heading for Lowe Park. As I rode the Lowe Park trail, the sky, which had been mostly clear and blue, began to darken and look a bit threatening.
Well, there was a very low chance of a thunderstorm today, and it looked like we were going to lose the weather Lotto. I headed back towards home to use wifi to check the weather.
My wife was a bit surprised to have me show up as she was eating breakfast. I had planned to take my first restroom stop at the trailhead in Hiawatha, but instead used my own facilities. I checked the weather radar on my phone, and there were storms in Iowa, but they seemed to be passing to the south. “Maybe you should go north,” my wife said.
Bike parked at Center Point, above and below. I thought this would be the turnaround point, until I started thinking of going under the bridge ...
I had been unsure whether I would aim for Center Point or ride south on the Cedar River Trail. This decided me. North, it was. The sky continued to look interesting now and then, but more sunny than cloudy, and no raindrops fell on me today.
The morning was warm, but pleasant. A breeze picked up, and a few times in the morning ride, in shady areas of the trail, I found myself actually feeling a bit cool. I had to remind myself to drink enough, and decided that, since I was not wearing a watch (usually I drink at least once every 15 minutes on a ride), I would drink every 2.5 miles. I didn’t always do well adhering to that schedule, but it helped, I think.
I reached Center Point, and had about 30 miles on the ride by 11 a.m. I decided it was lunch time, so I grabbed the peanut butter sandwich from my “Hello Kitty” lunch box, and ate that, a banana and some cookies.
Time to continue the ride. It occurred to me that I had ridden under I-380 earlier this summer, and failed to record a video of the tunnel, so I decided to head a bit north before turning south. As I rode, “Under the Bridge,” an appropriate Red Hot Chili Peppers tune, was my earworm. My mind started to re-write the words to be about today’s ride, and so, of course, as I rode under the bridge I sang a “not-RAGBRAI,” Cedar Valley Nature Trail, version of Under the Bridge.
You will be pleased to note, despite the temptation for authenticity, that this blog’s rock star kept his shirt on for this song.
After that, I did turn south. As I neared Hiawatha, I got a text from my sister, and met her close to Hiawatha on the trail. We rode together down to Cedar Lake, were I paused to eat a bag of nuts. She decided to continue riding north with me as I headed towards home—I had enough miles by the time we got to the lake, I was confident I would top 60 on the way home.
Rock star on the trail. With a shirt on.
More official bike picture north of I-380 on Cedar Valley Nature Trail.
My sister's trike and my bike parked at Cedar Lake park. My final break stop on ride.
Cate developed some shoe problems and decided to cycle home, so we rode together to Council Street, were we parted ways.
I got home, showered, took a nap, and had a RAGBRAI-appropriate feast of pasta, veggies and fruit prepared by my lovely host in this town. I think I like this staying in a house rather than camping on RAGBRAI, especially my house.
Day one, done. I won’t get as many miles on day 2—I have a Monday morning meeting. But my sister, who started riding at mid-day today, did reach 50 miles.
My goal Monday is a bit more modest—I’ll not be unhappy if I get 40 miles in the afternoon. Still, 50 would be nice, too. There is a chance of rain some days this week (my wife helpfully noted that on real RAGBRAI, I would just ride in the rain, hint, hint). But it seems like the weather gods will cooperate—Saturday’s 100-degree heat index is not expected to return.
I hope a couple of daughters may be able to join our not-RAGBRAI ride later this week. We’ll see. But day one went well.
