The last day's ride is traditionally shorter and easier - to accommodate riders linking up with their home-bound transportation (of various kinds). But this year, "Saturday's child" had to work hard, especially as we got closer to Dubuque - going up and down a series of steep hills, some even within the city limits, before descending to the Mississippi River shore. In particular, one of these hills was a deal-breaker: one mile long at a continuous grade of 19%. We're sorry to have to admit defeat on that one, surrendering our pedals to hike the bikes part way up (along with 90% of the other riders!)
So, instead of completing 454 miles across Iowa on our bikes, we must tell you, we only made 453.3 miles.
Many of the food vendors weren't in evidence this morning; the best food stop was a farmer on the outskirts of Dubuque selling peaches for 50 cents - YUM!
At the river, under nice sunny skies, we completed the RAGBRAI ritual, dipping our front tires into the Mississippi - as we had begun a week ago with dipping our rear tires into the Missouri River.
We'll send a link to more pictures from the trip - but they won't adequately portray the beauty of the landscape and the fun of meeting people from all over the U.S. (and even other countries) - you'll just have to join next year's ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment