Ride distance: 78 miles; ride time: 4:24; cumulative distance: 2441 miles; average speed: 17.8 mph; calories: 4942; ascent: 2047 feet; descent: 2261 feet. If I had to give today a title, it would be “Sea to See meets RAGBRAI”. RAGBRAI is an acronym that stands for Register’s Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa. It is a huge one week bike ride across the state of Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register (newspaper). There are about 10,000 registered riders but with tag a longs, there could be twice that many. The cyclists come in all shapes and sizes and have all different kinds of bikes. Every night, they stay in a different town in Iowa. The town folk prepare for this mass invasion by setting up all kinds of food stands and other stopping points for the riders. It seems to be a very festive atmosphere. Anyways, getting back to our story, about 25 miles into our ride today, we met up with the RAGBRAI riders. They were as thick as locusts on the road in front of us. Our course intersected theirs for approximately 15 miles. We had a lot of fun riding 
with them. I was in our fast group consisting of Zack, Paul Bayfield and myself so we must have passed dozens and dozens of RAGBRAI riders. It was great sport. In town, we slowed down to a stop and spoke with some of the riders. We explained what we were doing and one of them gave me a donation on the spot for Youth for Christ. Now I feel a little guilty for passing so many of them. .One of the cyclists had her dog in a carrier. She has carried that dog across the entire state. She claims that the dog loves it. I can’t speak for the dog but it did seem like he was having a pretty good time and getting lots of attention. When we got to a spot about 10 miles from Muscatine, we came to a road closed sign. The road had been closed because of flood damage. One of the transportation department men drove up and I asked him if there was any way we could cycle into town. He thought about it a minute and told me that we could cycle on the closed section of road if we stayed out of the way of trucks and equipment. Since this would save us a ten mile detour, we readily agreed. The damage to the road was extensive for about two miles. The flood waters had undercut the footing of the road and whole sections of the roadway had slumped to the side. We w
ere fortunate to be able to get through. When we arrived in Muscatine, we found out that they have had two floods this year and a bad wind storm with 90 mph winds. There were trees and limbs down all over the city. Cedar Rapids was hit even worse. The Cedar River caused devastating damage in that city. Hundreds of homes and buildings were destroyed by the flood. They estimate that a flood like this only happens once every 500 years. Our host church in Muscatine is an Evangelical Free Church which happens to be the same denomination of the church that I belong to. They served us pizza then we were taken by our host families.
with them. I was in our fast group consisting of Zack, Paul Bayfield and myself so we must have passed dozens and dozens of RAGBRAI riders. It was great sport. In town, we slowed down to a stop and spoke with some of the riders. We explained what we were doing and one of them gave me a donation on the spot for Youth for Christ. Now I feel a little guilty for passing so many of them. .One of the cyclists had her dog in a carrier. She has carried that dog across the entire state. She claims that the dog loves it. I can’t speak for the dog but it did seem like he was having a pretty good time and getting lots of attention. When we got to a spot about 10 miles from Muscatine, we came to a road closed sign. The road had been closed because of flood damage. One of the transportation department men drove up and I asked him if there was any way we could cycle into town. He thought about it a minute and told me that we could cycle on the closed section of road if we stayed out of the way of trucks and equipment. Since this would save us a ten mile detour, we readily agreed. The damage to the road was extensive for about two miles. The flood waters had undercut the footing of the road and whole sections of the roadway had slumped to the side. We w
ere fortunate to be able to get through. When we arrived in Muscatine, we found out that they have had two floods this year and a bad wind storm with 90 mph winds. There were trees and limbs down all over the city. Cedar Rapids was hit even worse. The Cedar River caused devastating damage in that city. Hundreds of homes and buildings were destroyed by the flood. They estimate that a flood like this only happens once every 500 years. Our host church in Muscatine is an Evangelical Free Church which happens to be the same denomination of the church that I belong to. They served us pizza then we were taken by our host families. 
1 comment:
Hi Tom,
Your Cedar Rapids story reminds me of my layover there in the 90's during the last "great flood"...I took a shower using 2 liter bottles of Evian Drinking water because the water system was shut down. God is Good..All the time. Isaiah 58:11 " The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be likea watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail." Have a great day.
In Christ, Dale
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