RAGBRAI 2009: I've Decided to Do It - Now What?

Ok - as I mentioned in my previous entry, with a little prompting from my brother-in-law Bob, I've decided to spend 7 days next summer riding my bike 470 miles across the state of Iowa. What now?

As the reality set in, I began to think about things like, "How do I get there?" "How do I get my bike there?" "What will I eat?" "Where do I sleep?" and "With 10,000 other people there, including a lot of women, just how long are those potty lines going to be?"

For me, the first step was " Google Everything Related to RAGBRAI"

I started with the Official RAGBRAI Website, which was pretty informative.

Then I went to the RAGBRAI entry in Wikipedia,which was interesting and which lead me to

R. Bruhn's Best and Worst of RAGBRAI®

Mr. Bruhn has been doing RAGBRAI for a number of years, and each year he does a wonderful, wacky, irreverent and very funny Best and Worst of Retrospective, complete with pictures, narratives, observations and rants.

I particularly enjoyed R. Bruhn's Best and Worst of RAGBRAI® XXX, 2002, which gives a RAGBRAI primer and explains some of the basics, like

"What is RAGBRAI, anyway?"; and

"How big is RAGBRAI, anyway?" and

"If RAGBRAI is so wacky and so much fun, how can it possibly be held in conservative, Republican Iowa? Any way?"

He also explains about such essentials as "SAG"; the various strategies for getting your clothes and stuff across Iowa, including signing on with a charter outfit; the RAGBRAI concept of teams; and the all important "kybo"!

I also enjoyed R. Bruhn’s Best and Worst of RAGBRAI® XXXV, 2007

As I mentioned, in addition to being informative, he is funny , very irreverent, and includes some definitely "R"- rated pictures to illustrate his points.

In short, if you'd like an insider's amusing view of RAGBRAI, check him out.

By the way, Bob's answer to "How do I get my clothes and stuff across Iowa?" is

"Rent a huge RV and find someone to drive it!"

See you out there.