Detour: RAGBRAI, Savages, and Iowa Trailer Trash

Des Moines, IA -- If you're wondering why I haven't posted in a while, here's an answer you may not expect: I was swept up in a crowd of 15,000 bicyclists riding across Iowa from West to East. The Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, RAGBRAI, crosses the state every year and draws thousands of riders, so for the few days preceding it, a lot of people who saw me with my loaded bicycle figured I must be heading for the starting point. Every time but one, I just explained myself and went on my way, but on a bike path outside of Des Moines I met a group who just wasn't satisfied with my "I'm heading in the other direction" line. They told me that RAGBRAI was an experience not to be missed, and that if I rode it back to Des Moines, they'd drive me west again so I didn't lose too much time. And so began my adventure.

These folks were pulling bike trailers with their gear, ("Trailer Trash," they called themselves.) and riding with them was a change in my routine. We slept later, stopped in bars in towns along the way, and generally took it easy. I haven't been powering through places too quickly, but taking it slow for a few days was really nice. We met a really cool young woman who had bought the bar she used to work at in Panora, and in Lidderdale I had the best prime rib dinner of my life. I left them at a campground on Sunday and rode on to a RAGBRAI overnight town to see the show and join the big ride the next day.

And what a show it is. Aside from the fact that it still involved riding my bicycle all day, RAGBRAI had almost nothing to do with the rest of my trip. The ride does require people to do pretty good mileage every day -- 60 to 80 miles, usually -- but they don't have to carry their gear, there are people selling food all along the roads, and every town the ride passes through is like a big party. Actually, the whole ride is like a big party. People dress up themselves and their bicycles, eat and drink to excess, and even decorate the road kill they pass. In the overnight town where I picked up the route, Ida Grove, I met the Subtle Savages in between getting a gyro (only one of many dinner options) and getting a beer (I'm not sure if Miller Light is an official sponsor, but they may as well be).


RAGBRAI has a tradition of teams that ride the route together, have team support veichles to carry their gear, and party together every night and in towns along the route. The Subtle Savages distinguish themselves by wearing kilts instead of bike shorts, (yes, instead of bike shorts, not over their bike shorts) have a well-appointed remodeled red school bus, and party as hard, if not harder, than they ride.

I hung out with them that night, and rode with them on and off for the next two days. My bike path friends sure were right -- RAGBRAI was unlike anything else. By the time I finished, I had was wearing two bracelets from bars identifying me as of legal drinking age, a Michelob Lite pendant in the shape of the state of Iowa strung onto Mardi Gras beads, and my left thumbnail had been painted blue with a white bicyle on it.

So it was quite an experience. I'm in West Des Moines right now, staying with these Trailer Trash folks, and true to their word, they're going to give me a lift onwards this weekend. I'm going to head into South Dakota. I want to see the Badlands.

Iowa's only about three hundred miles across, but it's going to end up taking me about ten days from entry to exit. It's been well worth it, though. South Dakota's got a hard act to follow.