Prologue 1 :

Thursday, July 22, 2004

We left Atlanta with two cars, seven bicycles, six riders, and - - unfortunately - - five bicycle helmets. 10 minutes into the ride yours truly realized I forgot my brain bucket and we had to drive back home and pick it up before our journey legitimately started. For anybody who lives in Atlanta, we had to drive down interstate 85, across 285 and back up 75 in the dead of Atlanta rush hour. For a group of speed junkies, this was not the best planning. The crawling traffic was complimented by 100-degree temperature and stifling humidity. We were 10 miles and one hour into our journey when everyone started thinking about dinner.

After two hours of traffic we finally got into the open road, heading towards Tennessee. Our route to Iowa took us through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and then to Iowa. The mid-point was just outside St. Louis. Along the way, we sloshed through driving rains, which my cycling coach knew was the only way my bike was gonna get a wash.

I was riding with a group of very health-conscious and highly trained athletes. Accordingly, my dinner, which I deemed best-of-breed among our group, consisted of a Wendy’s burger, a milkshake, three cokes, a big bag of gummy bears, and a bigger bag of chocolate malt balls. “Just be glad you’re not sleeping in the same room with me tonight”, I said to Pat, my co-pilot. “I am sleeping in the same room with you tonight”, Pat lamented.

The rush hour traffic and the driving rain slowed us down, so we didn’t get to our mid-point until around two in the morning. Nashville is an exciting town at two in the morning. Nashville, Illinois is not. The next morning I asked three locals who were enjoying the excitement of the Best Western lobby, how the town got its name. “Never thought about it”, was their same response. “What’s the population of Nashville?” was my next question. “Where, there’s me”, I got as a studied response. No more questions.

With very little prodding, I convinced three of the passengers to wake up at 6 in the morning to do an early morning ride. The other two members of our entourage wisely selected to sleep in and enjoy breakfast. Ralph, my cycling coach, started the ride at a blistering pace. Three hours of sleep and a tummy full of gummies is not the recommended precursor to a blistering bike sprint. Then it got worse. Ralph hates getting passed when he’s on a bike. That’s OK, but he hates not only when other bikes pass him, but also when cars and truck pass. A big 18-wheeler blew by us two minutes into our ride, so Ralph swerves behind the truck to catch its draft – at 36 MPH! This, like Ralph, is nuts. Not only was the pace unbearable, but drafting a truck can be like chasing a parked car if you’re not careful.

Fortunately, Ralph has eyes in the back of his head, which were required to see that he left the rest of us in his dust. He let loose on the throttle and we settled into a “whose bright idea was this !@#$% ride?” pace.

Going north on the main strip through Nashville, we turned east and went through New Minden (hate to see Old Minden), population 250. From New Minden, we approached the outskirts of Irvington, a bedroom community of New Minden, and turned back to complete our 25 mile “pre-ride” ride. Corn fields, cool weather and the sweet smells of pig effluvia delighted our sense. Actually, the fact that we weren’t dodging the traffic and obscenities of Atlanta was a welcomed relief. However, the vacation ended because for the last four miles, someone in our group had the dopey idea to take turns doing half-mile pulls at the front of the group at maximum effort. Last night’s gummy bears, and this morning’s Fruit Loops and glazed donuts were dangerously close to coming back up when our first ride – thankfully – ended.

25.2 miles; 25.616 MPH; 0 crashes; 0 flats

Prologue 2—Finally arrived in Heaven (Iowa)

Friday, July 23, 2004

Our second day of car travel was much better than the first – principally because it was our last.  Our route through Illinois was a long one and I don’t think we went through half of the state.

The highlight of our day was eating at the Woodhull Family Diner.  The jukebox was cranking out some great tunes that I had not heard since cruising around in my K Car.  In lieu of lunch, Ralph wanted to do a lunchtime 20 miler, because that’s what Ralph is Steve in a cornfieldprogrammed to do at lunchtime.  I hid in a cornfield (left), which was becoming the scenery of choice, to escape another round of torture.

Our final destination today was Roland, Iowa.  Jay is one of the travelers in our group and grew up in Iowa.  We’ll be staying with the Glasnapp’s from Roland, part of Jay’s extended family.

Our hosts, Gail and Judy Glassnapp were every bit of the classic Mid-westerners that we envision making up the “Heartland”.  Gentle, modest, disarming and kind.  They were both obviously proud of their children and grandchildren, some of whom we met and will ride with on RAGBRAI.

We were all of a little cagey from the travel.  Ralph and Pat must have forgotten the pain of the day’s early morning bike ride because they teamed up with Chris to ride another 20 miles around town.  Chris is a fellow neuroscience researcher with Jay.  Talking to either of them makes my brain hurt.

I asked Gail for a good running route and he directed me through town to the north end of some ball fields where he said would be the start of a trail.  I asked him how far the trail went and he said, “Oh, pretty far”.  I thought this was going to be a mile or two around the ball fields.  It turned out to be a 10.5-mile trail that went through farms, woods, and streams.  I had the whole trail to myself.  Back home, I run with headphones so I can block out the traffic, noise, heat and humidity.  This was the opposite.  I wanted to absorb everything.  The day was perfect weather-wise – mid 70’s, sunshine, and low humidity.  I ran through fields of corn, soybeans, and grasslands.  Wanting to take in as much as I could, I ran as fast as I could, covering about 9.5 miles in an hour by my estimate.  I’ve run nearly every day for the last 20 years.  That run was my nicest since 1989, when I ran 20 miles in an amazingly snowy night along the River Drives in Philadelphia.

DAY 1: Onawa to Lake View: 69.0 miles

Sunday, July 25, 2004
by Jay Alberts

Today was the first official day of RAGBRAI, beautiful weather with light winds.  The 2004 Pedaling for Parkinson’s team had 16 cyclists on Day 1 of RAGBRAI XXXII (a jump from just 6 on Day 1 last year).  We departed the McLaughlin’s a few minutes after our scheduled 7AM departure and the plan was to meet Darrin in Schleswig to re-fuel, re-group and agree on a final destination in Lake View as we were spending the night in Auburn at Maxine Stewart’s house.  For 15 of the 16 riders it was a great day.  Unfortunately, Jim’s trike had a major mechanical problem; he lost a wheel on the way to Schelswig so his delays continued.  Fortunately, Darrin and Jim happen to find each other in Schelswig.  They loaded up Jim’s trike and headed to Lake View where the group waited.  After a great dinner at Maxine’s house, Ralph and others went to work on Jim’s trike. 

DAY 2: Lake View (Auburn) to Fort Dodge: 70.5 miles

Monday, July 26, 2004
by Jay Alberts

Day two was almost a carbon copy of day one in terms of weather...perfect for cycling.  Since we stayed in Auburn, we decided to ride as a group to and meet the official route rather than caravanning back to Lake View.  We decided to drop Jim off in the meeting town of Rockwell City to give him a little head start, this way if he had a mechanical members of the group would come upon him throughout the day.  Turns out this was a good decision as Jim’s trike only lasted about 3 miles and the wheel again fell off.  I saw Jim on the side of the road talking to a farmer and I yelled hello to him and he pointed to his sad and lonely trike about 50 yards down the road.  The farmer was more than happy to help us; so we loaded Jim’s trike up for a rendezvous with Darrin.  Ironically, the farmer suggested they meet at a cemetery down the road; the rest of the group wondered if Jim was going to bury the trike.  Our host in Fort Dodge was Bruce and Roxanne Aden, fortunately for Jim and his trike, Bruce had a neighbor who was a magician with tools and he and Darrin fixed the wheel while Ralph worked on the shifting problems.  By nightfall the trike was ready to go and performed perfectly for the rest of the trip!!!  Bruce’s smoked ribs and beef and the rest of his spread were absolutely terrific.  The trend of gracious hosts continues.

Steve’s World: 7-26-04

Maxine Stewart’s house accommodated the whole gang very well.  In the brief time I’ve been on this trip, I developed a core competency at finding a spot in the house that looks entirely uninhabitable but in reality is the perfect resting place.  Day 1: the tool room, then the laundry room, then the utility room, and last night it was the tool room.  Each of these hovels had just enough space for one person.

After a good night’s sleep, Pat and I blasted down the course.  On this day my training plan called for a long, fast bike day.  We broke the ride into three 40 mile portions, 70 of which were on the RAGBRAI course going in the correct direction, 30 going in the opposite direction, and 30 miles repeating the course.  Pat tortured me the whole day.  Many people tried to catch on to our wheel and Pat dropped them without mercy.  The whole ride went by in a blur.  In fact we finished the regular route before they could put up the direction signs.  This could have been a disaster for two men afraid to ask for direction in the middle of Iowa.  Nevertheless, we completed a long tiring day from Lake View to Fort Dodge, Iowa, twice.

Somehow I feel like I’ve included too many pain and suffering stories into these journals.  At the risk of committing a journalistic U-turn, I’m going to switch gears (sorry for the ill-placed bike humor) and sing the praises of some heretofore un-sung heroes.

The first heretofore un-sung heroes are our support crew, Jason and Keyton (pictured below) and Darrin “Don’t Call Me Darrell”.  These men drive the RV, trailer and van between our hosts’ homes and the ending point.  At the end of our long, hot rides the support crew was there with cool drinks, assistance to load our bikes and unload our bags, and a lift back to our next host’s house.  20 peoples’ bikes, clothing, food, drink and bedding are quite a haul.  In appreciation for their untiring work, we complain about our tired muscles and feign exhaustion when it comes to lifting our bags, but regain our strength when it comes to running in our hosts’ house to claim the best sleeping spots and grab the choice-est food and drink.Jason and Keyton.

The support crew hero-among-heroes is Keyton, a rising three-year old pistol with a spirit that has warmed the team.   Keyton rides his big wheel down the ramp of the trailer like Evil Knievel.  I can personally attest to his proficiency in chase, hide and seek, tickle monster and Gotcha Nose.  However, his thumb-wrestling skills still need a little help.  Many of the riders have kids and they have unanimously agreed that Keyton’s behavior is awesome.

The second un-sung hero is the weatherman.  The RAGBRAI veterans that I’ve talked to say this is the best weather they’ve ever seen.  The temperatures have consistently been in the 70’s, with sunny skies and low humidity.  By my estimate, 80% of RAGBRAI-ers camp outside in small tents.  Apparently the last few RAGBRAIs have been either soaking wet or stifling temperatures.  How one treks so long on a bike and then crawls into an uncomfortable tent is beyond me.

Speaking of rest, I’m signing off for the night.

DAY 3: Fort Dodge to Iowa Falls: 71.4 miles

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

by Jay Alberts

After enjoying a hearty dinner last night the group was eager to start Day three of RAGBRAI.  We had a couple of changes in the group, we were joined by Keely Greenslade (Kelly’s twin) and my wife decided that after 10 years of marriage she could go one day without riding the tandem with me.  So my brother Joel, from Minneapolis, agreed to be the stoker.  The fact that Joel is riding RAGBRAI is another inspiring story in the Pedaling for Parkinson’s group.  In February of 2003 he was cleaning snow off his roof to prevent ice dams (he had to explain to the Southerners in the group what an ice dam was and how if gone unchecked can wreak havoc on a roof and ceiling) and slipped and fell off the roof.  He suffered a severe bilateral calcaneal fracture (e.g. shattered both heels).  The first thing he said to me on the phone while he was in the hospital was that he didn’t know if he could ride RAGBRAI, but he would still like to be part of the team in some capacity.  So today as I rode off with him on the back of the tandem I was a little teary-eyed thinking off all he had endured and battled through over the past six months to get to this point.  I am proud of his commitment and work ethic and he performed like a champ all day.  He asked how he compared to Janelle as a stoker, and I gave the careful answer, “you are different.”  Cathy was performing great on the bike and her energy levels were high.  She was beginning to experience some discomfort on the bike as was the rest of the group after having spent ~140 miles in the saddle.

DAY 4: Fort Dodge (Hubbard) to Marshalltown: 56 miles

Wednesday, July 28, 2004
by Jay Alberts
Last night we stayed at Brooks and Ester Glasnapp’s in Hubbard.  Brook’s is Joel’s brother-in-law.  Our hosts continue to exceed our expectations with their generosity.  The group agreed that Brooks made the best hamburgers anyone had ever had.  He was encouraged to go into business selling “Brooks Burgers.”  We started the day riding from Hubbard and would join the official RAGBRAI route at Eldora, this change reduced our mileage by about 6 miles for the day (I heard no complaints).  It was another great day with no major mechanicals or crashes.  Our overnight hosts in Marshalltown were Blake and Regina Hardy.  Blake and Regina are both Physical Therapists.  They provided us with fantastic accommodations, laundry facilities and great food.  Blake also offered to assist in finding us lodging for RAGBRAI 2005 as he has numerous professional connections in the area of physical therapy across the state.

Steve’s World

7-27-04 and 7-28-04
I’m combining two day’s worth of reports today for several reasons, not the least of which is that I’m a day behind, old and my memory is failing me.  Let’s start with the facts, shall we:

Yesterday’s ride was 71 miles from Fort Dodge to Iowa Falls.  We modified it slightly, by loading the bikes at the end and driving 16 miles south to Hubbard, where Joel’s brother-in-law lives.  Incidentally, I have in my mind to properly introduce all 20 characters on our extended team, but I’m old and I’ll probably forget.

Today’s ride was 50 miles from Hubbard to Marshalltown.  While the rest of the team rode the scheduled route, Ralph, Pat and I modified the course by adding 70 miles straight into a 25 MPH headwind.

Yesterday, I rode with Kelly, a wonderful woman, mother and wife, who resides in Des Moines.  Today, I rode with Ralph and Pat, of whom I have nothing nice to say, as it relates to biking and, come to think of it, as relating to everything.

The second and main reason I’m combining the reports is that I had an epiphany while regretting riding the alternative route on today’s ride.  Why not offer a side-by-side comparison of the two day’s rides?

Without further ado, I offer:

Ride Attribute	Riding with Kelly…	Riding with Ralph…
Stopping	Only under the following conditions: Eating Drinking Restrooms Shopping Tired Hot Good music is playing Bad music is playing Smelling the roses, enjoying the landscape, and other sight-seeing excursions that don’t involve bicycling If either rider feels like it If neither rider feels like it Death	Acceptable if pronounced dead
Eating and drinking	Yes, large quantities of high fat, good-tasting fare because its fun	Yes, large quantities of high energy, poor tasting fare, because it required to prevent death
A picture is worth a thousand words…	Riding with Kelly brightened my spirits so much that the far-left Democrat who sold me this headwear told me I was her favorite Republican.	Notice the ambulance in the background
Restroom breaks involving #1	Port-a-potties are absolutely unacceptable.  Invest the time to search out a cooperating doctor’s office with air conditioning, where hygiene is at a premium, the tissue paper is top shelf, and the music is soft.  Enjoy the ambiance.	Done while riding, but fall back to the end of the ride group so as not to hinder the pace of the ride.  Enjoy the ambiance.
Restroom breaks involving #2	Preferably something better that the #1 accommodations	Not suitable to discuss in a journal with wide distribution
Ride statistics	The following details are meticulously recorded: Location of the best ice cream vendors Location of all other ice cream vendors Tastefulness of the outfits of surrounding riders, especially footwear/jersey color coordination Best locations of jewelry vendors, perfectly acceptable to purchase while on a bicycle ride.  If purchases exceed bicycle storage capacity, arrange for support wagon pickup, resuming shopping until vehicle’s arrival	To the third decimal point, the following are recorded: Distance Speed Temperature, start and stop Heart rate output Wind conditions Road conditions Barometric pressure Position of the sun and moon
What to do after the ride	Discuss immediate plans in search of more food, shopping and entertainment.  Transition into a debate on the merits of dropping out of RAGBRAI and joining the support crew or one of the bands we listened to today.	Rehash every detail about the ride, much to the disdain of me and everyone within earshot.  Transition into a planning session for the next day’s ride.

Tomorrow is a “recovery” day, where I plan to ride with the ice cream tasters of the group.  That should be a good journal.

DAY 5:

Thursday, July 29, 2004
by Steve Kester

I wanted to wait several days before I introduced our illustrious crew.  I needed the opportunity to spend several minutes with everyone before forming life-long impressions and making judgments on everyone’s worthiness, or lack thereof.

Here’s the crew…

All in all, it was a diverse, fun group and there seemed to be great karma between us.

DAY 6: Hiawatha to Maquoketa:  77.3 miles

Friday, July 30, 2004
by Jay Alberts

As the group was getting preparing to depart Brian’s sanctuary in Cedar Rapids the rain started to fall a bit harder.  Darrin and I were outside helping Jason maneuver the RV and trailer so we could depart.  Fortunately for us, Brian came to our rescue and offered to pull the trailer out with his pickup as turning space was limited and we did not feel the need to re-landscape and plant new trees in his yard.  The plan was to drive back to Hiawatha and start there as a group.  The rain modified that plan a bit, as I walked into Brian’s basement the group was assembled and proposed we start the day by going for breakfast rather than going back to Hiawatha…I needed little convincing that this was a good idea.  We loaded up and sought out some Iowa café breakfast.  We were not disappointed as we had breakfast at Gwen’s in Lisbon, Iowa.  The cinnamon rolls were the size of small tires and the pancakes were huge; best of all it was dry.  We unloaded in Fairview, in the rain.  Fairview allowed Barry a perfect picture opportunity as that is the name of his practice in Minneapolis.  The rain continued through the morning and just when we thought things could get no worse, we had to navigate our bikes through about two miles of a muddy gravel road.  The bikes were a mess; the nice people along the route were more than happy to let us use their garden hoses to clean our bikes and ourselves.  After lunch the sun came out and our moods brightened as we went through the last few towns on the route enjoying the festivities.  Tip of the day:  be sure the stem on your spare tube is long enough to go through your rim.  Tonight we will stay with Bill and Marilou Risser in Maquoketa.

DAY 7: Maquoketa to Clinton: 56 miles

Saturday, July 31, 2004
by Jay Alberts
Bill and Marilou Risser were wonderful hosts, we learned that Bill’s father was a physician and would be celebrating his 105th birthday the first week of August.  The plan was to depart around 6:30 AM, meet in Elvira and ride the last 10 miles as a group to the mighty Mississippi in Clinton.  By 10:45 AM the entire group had assembled in Elvira, where there was a DJ spinning the latest country music hits (this music made the youngest member of our group, Kayla, head for the kybos).  The DJ failed to bring the classic Oak Ridge Boys tune “Elvira” and he was reminded of this fact every time he asked for requests.  With about 1 mile to go to the finish line the group caught up with Jim.  We re-assembled and rode the last mile together waving at the people in Clinton and passing Jason and Keyton as they documented the end of our journey.  As we crossed the finish line I patted Janelle’s arm and told her how proud I was of all the members of our group.  As a group we completed more than 8,300 miles with no crashes and about a dozen flat tires, our primary goal had been achieved as we had a safe and enjoyable ride across Iowa.  We achieved more than that however, a number of newspaper articles were written about the Pedaling for Parkinson’s team and our mission to raise awareness for Parkinson’s and to demonstrate the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle.  Every member of the team told me that at numerous times during the week someone would ask about our cause or relate to them that a friend or a loved one had or was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  I am grateful for all of the PFP riders and support crew; I am fortunate to now know some people better and meet new people who I will always consider my friends.  The overnight hosts were terrific in each town, thank-you for your generosity.  Thanks to all those who made contributions to Pedaling for Parkinson’s; your support is appreciated and its importance cannot be overstated.  A special thanks to Stan VanderPlaats, owner, of RV Central Inc., in Sheldon, Iowa for the donation of the RV and the trailer; these items made our life much easier for the week.  Finally, thanks to Steve Kester for keeping such a colorful journal and it is with great pain that I congratulate you for breaking my weekly FCP mileage record.  See you all again next year.

Steve’s World: The Final RAGBRAI Journal

7-31-04

I’m a little sad writing this.  On the one hand, 680 miles on a bike seat in a week can make anybody want to get that experience behind him or her, if you will.  On the other hand, I’ve really enjoyed the people I met and hung with for the last seven days as well as the whole RAGBRAI experience.

Plus, we supported a great cause.  Most of the recipients of these journals were my sponsors and, having seen firsthand the effects of Parkinson’s and the bravery of survivors, your money will be well-spent.

The last three days of the journey were from Marshalltown to Hiawatha (Thursday, 84 miles), Hiawatha to Maquoketa (Friday, 76 miles) and ended from Maquoketa to Clinton, IA (Saturday, 56 miles), where we dipped our bike tires in the Mississippi River at the Iowa-Illinois border.  On Thursday and Friday, we had heavy rains in the morning that cleared in the afternoon.  The morning sessions were grim, but I was impressed that most of the RAGBRAI-ers toughed it out.  Looking back on the week, we had 5 unbeatable days, two stinker mornings and two decent afternoons – a record of 5-2-2, which is very good in my book.

The end of the journey marked the beginning of poll taking.  For 90+% of RAGBRAIers, RAGBRAI is about food.  Ralph is the noticeable exception to this rule, so don’t ride with Ralph for a lot of reasons, but especially not if you want to enjoy RAGBRAI for what it is – biking 490 miles so one can justify feasting his/her way through the cornfields of Iowa, then drinking themselves into a feted slumber.

This next section is written by guest writer, Cathy Fraizer.

Steve asked me to type this final entry for him (mostly to keep me from whining during our 15 hour drive home…I am stuck in the back seat in a car with 3 avid bikers and I left my book and music packed in Jay’s SUV.)

We finished this morning together as a group of 19 riding into the end town of Clinton and ceremoniously dipping our front bike tires into the Mississippi River.  To do this we created quite a backup as all of us stood side by side across the water for a series of photos.  Our support crew, “Van” Darren, Jason and our team mascot, Keyton, were there, of course to cheer us on and direct us to the RV and showers 11 blocks away.  Opting for a quicker departure over personal hygiene, showers were foregone and we headed for Roland where we had parked all our vehicles for the past 7 days.  Some rode in the air-conditioned RV and others preferred the charm of the un-air conditioned, “smells like puke or a locker room” 15-person van.  After de-boarding and separating bikes, luggage, lawn chairs, coolers, etc. and loading our individual vehicles, we said our goodbyes and the PFP team went our separate ways – back to Minneapolis, Des Moines, California and Atlanta.

The trip was quite memorable – the group meshed incredibly well, the weather was beautiful, Iowa hospitality was unbeatable and the whole ride logistics was expertly planned and executed.  Thanks to Dr. Jay!  And thanks to all who …BANG!

We interrupt this guest writing with an announcement that Cathy Frazier has been fired for lack of production.  Three (weak) paragraphs after 4 hours on the computer ain’t gonna cut it in Journalwood.  Plus, Cathy is too nice in sharp contrast to your regularly scheduled author.  For example, she failed to point out that the showers mentioned above were abandoned because The Kids were slowed by an acute case of GI distress.

The exception amongst The Kids was Kirk, who seems to go faster the harder imbibed the night before.  On the last day, he hammered the hills to the amazement of everyone he left in his wake.  Of course, his choice of fuel meant riding behind him was done at the rider’s risk.  Rumors were circulating that Kirk was responsible for the deaths of three cats seen on the side of the road, although there was some confusion as to whether they had tire tracks on them or died of asphyxiation.  Further rumored was that Dr. Barry tried CPR on one of the felines, but failed.  Nevertheless, he tucked the corpse in his fanny pack and deep-fried it at the Mr. Porkchop roadside stand.

All-in-all, I enjoyed my co-riders and RAGBRAI immensely.  I look forward to riding again.
* * *
I hope you enjoyed the Journals.  Thanks so much to the host families and our financial supporters.

Steve Kester

721 miles.  4 flats.  One near crash.  Serious, serious saddle sore.

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