Rain, Rain Go Away

July 30 - Mile 446.7

Team Simpson left Waterloo behind this morning, but not the water. On what turned out to be one of the most difficult rides of the week, we were treated to riding through four hours of rain and scattered thunderstorms. With typical Iowa hospitality, there were numerous opportunities along the way to seek shelter - in garages, farm sheds, and vendor tents - but in the end we were forced to complete the 70 miles to Manchester in the rain. As might be expected, more riders chose to use the sag wagons, probably out of a desire not to ride on a most miserable day. One consequence of riding in the rain seems to be a higher incidence of flat tires and we saw many of them on the route today. As another consequence, I caught a piece of road grit in one of my eyes and eventually southt teatment at the University of Iowa emergency trailer. It turned out to be very minor but with all of the water being thrown up from bikes up front, it could be expected that some of it would find its way into your eyes. Fortunately the skies cleared once we arrived in Manchester and we have been treated to an absolutely delightful evening. This is our last night on RAGBRAI and we are very fortunate to be hosted by the Manchester United Methodist Church. Pastor Roger Henry has provided indoor accommodations so we will not have to pitch our tents on this last overnight. Everyone is looking forward to tomorrow's 47.5 mile ride into Dubuque and to taking on what is now the famous Potter Hill with a mile-long climb at a 6% grade. I heard that some are estimating that as many as half of the riders will need to walk their bikes up that long and very steep hill.

John Byrd

We Have Reached Our Waterloo

July 29 - Waterloo - Mile 387

Several members of Team Simpson seemed to be a bit tired today as we made the 90 mile trip from Charles City to Waterloo. Along the way I had the opportunity to meet the parents of Cory Dawson, class of 2010, who reported that Cory is happily working as an underwriter at Wells Fargo. I also ran into Trevor Sharp '08 who has just started new responsibilities at Target Distribution Center in Cedar Falls. Today we started with breakfast at Hy-Vee in Charles City and had lunch at Tender Tom's along the way. They have a great turkey tenderloin sandwich. Unfortunately we were very close to a bad accident which appeared to involve multiple cyclists and the route was closed for a period of time as they called a Life Flight helicopter which took off with at least one of the injured riders. I know that everyone on Team Simpson hopes that the injured riders make a quick recovery. We are camped at the home of Paul Pechacek '85 (pictured with his daughters). We were warmly welcomed by Paul and his daughters, Shelley Pechacek (in the white shirt) and Kim Higgins. Kim attended Simpson in the late 80s before moving on to complete a nursing degree. We are treated to a huge back yard and as usual our hosts have gone out of their way to make us feel very, very welcome. With only two more riding days in front of us I think we are all feeling a bit sad that this year's adventure on RAGBRAI is almost over, but we certainly look forward to two more days and to our overnight in Manchester tomorrow evening.

John Byrd

Pictures from Michelle

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RIDER UP!

I am a big believer in biking karma. What goes around, comes around. This belief was confirmed while riding in this year's RAGBRAI. As anyone who has ridden RAGBRAI knows, there are always riders that are going against the traffic - RIDER UP! is the accompanying cry. I always wondered why these people did it.

I finally was voicing my frustration at having to move over to the side for another RIDER UP! and wondering aloud to another rider why these people have to keep going backwards. Do they just like being the center of attention? Do they really need to add to the ride mileage totals? What smug satisfaction could they possibly get out of this?

A few miles later, I had a spoke break on my back tire. I had never had this happen before and did not realize how drastically it effected your tire. I was five miles from the previous town and 15 miles from the next town. I got the bike moving again with the help of a teammate and, yep, you guessed it, took off against the traffic to the mechanics in Varina. Five miles on a wobbly tire against the traffic was a bit disconcerting to say the least. RIDER UP!!

So I learned a lesson. There are lots of reason to have to go against the traffic. Not everyone is seeking attention. After this experience, I looked at the riders thinking maybe they had mechanical problems or needed to go back to help a spouse/friend/teammate. I was more humble and more understanding. In my book, a valuable karmic lesson.

A lesson that many of the riders who had less friendly things to say than RIDER UP! will hopefully learn some day. And for the guy who ran me and my wobbly tire off the road on to the gravel because he refused to slow down or look up, I shudder at the lesson he might learn . . . or more likely he does not believe in karma.

Thank you so much to all of the folks who made Team Simpson so much fun to ride with. My brothers and I had a great ride and an even greater time being with such a wonderful team. I look forward to wearing my Team Simpson colors again next year!

Bob Krapfl

From Charles City

July 28

Team Simpson Co-Captain Kelley Bradder visits with one of our Charles City hosts, Roger Ramthum.

Charge 'Em Up!

July 28

Team Simpson Co-Captain Chris Goodale mans a table of electronic devices. Outlets are at a premium at every overnight stop as team members are looking for places to charge their cell phones and Blackberries for the next day!

Enjoying Chuck Town

July 28 - Mile 297.5

Team Simpson enjoyed a 57-mile ride to Charles City today. We saw a number of interesting sights along the way, including an elephant ride and a trapeze set up above a pool. We learned later that State Troopers shut down the trapeze in the pool due to some unsavory activity! Once again we were warmly welcomed by our hosts. Roger and Sue Ramthun and their son, Matt '02, were on hand to extend warm hospitality to everyone in our group. We enjoyed the park-like setting of their back yard and all of the special touches they added to make our stay most welcoming and comfortable. Pictured here is our host Roger Ramthun with Charlie Fiedler, Scott McQueen, and Jeff McQueen.

John Byrd