1) Sometimes you eat the pork
I'm a vegetarian slowly exploring a reintroduction to the meat world. Prior to RAGBRAI, I had added fish and bison into my diet. I was adamant that pork would likely be a meat I would never eat again (what? never say never?). Fast forward to the first day of RAGBRAI...starting in Sioux City, we biked a whole six miles to Leeds where we spent an extremely inordinate amount of time at the bar for riding only six miles (why not?). Heading out of Leeds, looming ahead is (unbeknownst to us) the bike tire killing fields. I ride over the ridiculous set of train tracks and get a flat tire (yes, six miles into RAGBRAI). I am soon joined by at least five other riders with flats (not an exaggeration!). My teammate, Jeff, and I stop to fix the flat (with the help of a little Ten High whiskey) and that is how the day started. So, by the time we got to Quimby, we had ridden a lot, drank a lot and eaten little. Enter the pork sandwich. Jeff, an experienced RAGBRAI-er, had wisely decided we needed to eat to make it to our overnight stop in Storm Lake so he bought both of us pork sandwiches and Cheetohs. I hesitated (for more than a little while) and reluctantly ate the pork sandwich because I knew I needed to eat. Lo and behold, it was good! Not only that, I know I wouldn't have had the energy to make it to Storm Lake without it. Aaaaaaand...when someone does a kindness for you, I've learned that accepting the kindness is gracious and a gift to both parties. So, even though pork is still not going to appear on my list of meats I go in search of, sometimes you eat the pork...for multiple reasons.
2) And sometimes you stick to the courage of your convictions
Our team, like several other teams, has a rule that we always stop for free beer. On a particularly long stretch between towns one day, we saw a sign for free beer. What clinched it for me was the mechanical bull I saw set up next to the cornfields. We dismounted from our bikes and checked the scene out. It turned out that a political group was taking names and addresses in support of corn ethanol production in Iowa in return for a free beer ticket. This was something I just could not bring myself to do (this is not the blog to discuss the ins and outs of my corn ethanol beliefs...suffice it to say, no way was I signing my name in support)...so I went in without a free beer ticket and made a beeline for the shiny object that caught my eye...the mechanical bull. I have been obsessed with riding mechanical bulls since my college days and I was so excited to revisit my awesome bull riding abilities from years past (this recollection was in no way clouded by alcohol previously consumed that day). As luck would have it, even without signing away my beliefs, I ended up with a free beer and a bull ride (nailed it).
3) Take the alternate route
The second day of RAGBRAI, I was informed that four well known RAGBRAI teams were having their anniversary party together and the party was "off route". This meant that to get to it, we had to bike off of the official RAGBRAI route...so there wouldn't be police officers or sag wagons and we wouldn't be riding every official RAGBRAI mile. The extremist in me balked at this...wasn't this why I was here? To ride EVERY mile of the official RAGBRAI route? Luckily, my better half won out and I was off biking to the alternative route party. Let me tell you...it was amazingly fun. Whenever someone asks me to name my most fun RAGBRAI memory, this is inevitably one that comes up. The teams had sponsored a party in Twin Lakes, IA, at a country club. There was an awesome DJ and grassy dance floor, where my friend Todd and I proceeded to dance our asses off, an adult slip and slide (not gonna lie...it has been a lifelong goal of mine to participate in an adult slip and slide), beer pong and so many fun people.
4) You don't have to ride every "official" RAGBRAI mile
It was so much fun at the alternate route party that we ended up staying a little late and drinking a little (lot) too much so I ended up on the DLO team bus heading to Fort Dodge. These were the only miles I didn't ride in the six days I did RAGBRAI. Todd and I were a little disappointed in ourselves for not riding all of the miles but the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that is what RAGBRAI is...it's the experience, whatever that looks like that year, and it's not about literally riding every single "official" mile. The next night we went off route and went to a beer garden in a little town called Osawa...the sign advertising a beer garden that was open all night was like a siren's song. We biked the 1.5 miles off route and found an awesome beer garden where the DJ played whatever song we wanted. My friend Jeff finagled a shower with a garden hose at a house across the street from the beer garden (complete with Ajax dish soap and towels) since we knew we'd be getting back too late for the camp showers and then we proceeded to dance and request songs into dusk. This is where I got the opportunity to brush up on my jitterbug and request as much 80s music as I possibly could. We biked back at dusk...and the night ride was utterly gorgeous. The air was fresh, the sunset was amazing and the day was so much fun...well worth forgoing a legit shower.
5) You might get burned all to hell but it's worth it (and you'll know better next time)
So I forgot my sunscreen and my lip shit in my bag that I put on the truck every morning...the one that wasn't with me during the day when the sun was beating down on me...for three days in a row. By the time I noticed that my skin was frying and remembered to put my sunscreen and lip shit in my bike bag, it was too little, too late. By the end of the week, my lips were blistered (when I returned last Saturday, my lips resembled a character in The Nightmare Before Christmas) and the skin on my back looked like I was molting. Actually, by the end of the week, I think I was molting, burnt, inadequately nourished, dehydrated and exhausted. RAGBRAI was literally one of the most fun weeks of my life...and though I got burnt and fleetingly disfigured, it was so worth it. Next time, of course, I will hopefully (sometimes I don't learn the lesson after just one time...) prevent the severe burns. Either way, the ride was worth getting burnt and I'll know better next year.
6) Costumes make everything more fun
Next year, I will have more "fun" biking outfits and costumes. If there is fun to be had, a costume enhances that fun exponentially. I used to wear costumes and outfits and wigs all of the time...every event had a theme and I was dressing up for it. I quit doing that sometime in the last five years and RAGBRAI made me aware of the travesty that loss has been in my life. So I vow, not just for RAGBRAI but for all fun life events, costumes will once again be a part of my dress code. Thank you for the reminder, RAGBRAI! Oh, and for future reference, you can buy or trade for almost any costume component you may find you're in need of from random bar patrons and cyclists on the ride...
7) Setting up your tent is much easier when it's light and you're sober
It was the fifth night before I experienced this strange phenomenon. We got into Cedar Falls before dark and hadn't had too much to drink on the way in. Some people on my team, myself included, graduated from UNI and we were all looking forward to our opportunity to shower in a house in a real shower and go out on the hill (Suds!!!). I literally exclaimed out loud that setting up my tent was so much easer in daylight without being drunk (news to me!), which got a few chuckles. It was nice to have the comparison of those two different tent raising states for the sake of experience and RAGBRAI taught me that I can do both...
8) You can do more than you think you can
I wondered, even well into the third day, how I was going to ride all of those miles and still have ridiculous fun, stay up chatting in the circle of secrets at night and get up and pack up at 6:00/6:30 every morning. Actually, I'm still kind of wondering how I did that because it's a feat that I don't seem to be capable of in my real life. But I did and I was never too tired to ride, it was never not fun, even when it was raining or windy or hilly, and I even managed to stay up later each night as the week went on. Don't get me wrong...when we finished on Friday night, I was shot and a shell of my former physical self (please reference the aforementioned molting...also, my hands started to become more like clubs instead of adroitly functioning appendages for fine motor skills-casualties of gripping my handlebars). But I rode every day, every mile (except the aforementioned alternate route party day) and it was a blast. The adrenalin, the fun, the people, the life...it wasn't hard to love every minute of it and perform to the best of my riding and partying abilities.
9) Bring a journal to remember your RAGBRAI memories
I brought a journal with me, in which I idealistically thought I would document my RAGBRAI experiences and observations. What actually ended up happening was that my notebook was hijacked by my team and "entries" were made under my RAGBRAI name, Ami, by various members of our team. The journal was a source of many belly laughs and laughing until we were crying in bars...and it's even more hilarious because in each entry, no matter how ludicrous, there is actually a nugget (sometimes just a fleck) of truth. So I did end up with an excellent source of RAGBRAI memories and we ended up with a lot of laughs and ridiculousness. Well worth it.
These are only a few of the things that made RAGBRAI amazing. Of course, it was mostly the people...on my team, in the towns, on other teams...it was a week filled with joy and happiness and ridiculousness...what every adult needs more of in their life. And you know me...for all of the fun, there is always a philosophical connection. The things I experienced during RAGBRAI, I think, are generally good guides for life in general.
Take the alternate route...it might not be what you planned or what you thought would happen in your life, but guess what...it might be the most fun you've ever had and you don't know who you will meet or what you will learn on the ride. You don't have to ride every mile the way you're "supposed to". Life is about the experience and sometimes that is riding on the bike and sometimes it's taking the bus...the point is to experience it and live it and love it...every moment.
We have to know when to 'eat the pork'-when we need to be flexible in our lives-and when we need to stand by the courage of our convictions. Both have a time and a place and it is part of wisdom to know the difference.
We can learn from the experiences in our lives that "burn" us...AND that doesn't mean they weren't worth it or something we needed to go through to get to a different, more wisdom filled spot.
We are stronger than we think and can do more than we give ourselves credit for. Documenting our experiences, through writing or pictures or friends or story telling, is a very valuable practice and preserves our beautiful memories and happiness-es. And the costume thing...well, that just speaks for itself.
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