Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Rain Boots & RAGBRAI

Every time I wear this bicycle pendant, I'm reminded of one of my favorite adventures - the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI for short.  It's an annual, seven day, 500 mile bike ride with more than 20,000 participants every year.  I fell in love with cycling while training for that ride, and came home with the conviction that I would ride across a different state each year.  Then real life got in the way... I've done a number of century rides, but RAGBRAI remains my one and only cross-state ride.

But what a ride it was!  I slept in a tent every night; showered in converted car washes, church basements, and school locker rooms (cold showers all week); danced a polka in a town square with 2000 other spandex-clad, slap-happy tired cyclists; ate about 150 Fig Newtons (which I don't even really like, but they were delicious in the middle of an 80 mile day); and learned to love a product called chamois butter (if you don't know, you probably don't want to).  Completing that ride was a real victory for the one-time 10 year old girl who walked her bright purple banana-seat bike to and from the neighborhood park because she was afraid of falling.  Seriously, I would get there before anyone else and I was always the last to leave so no one would know I couldn't ride it!
Clockwise, from top left:  Teams differentiated themselves from the crowd with unique garb, such as this crew in Cat in the Hat toppers; Only in Iowa do you take a bike break to gawk at the World's largest ear of corn; sleeping accomodations every night were wherever we could find a bare patch of grass;  Dancing to the sweet sounds of a live polka band in a town square.
As soon as the weather gets warmer and drier, the old Cannondale is definitely coming out of hibernation.  For now, I'll have to be content navigating the downtown puddles in my favorite monogram wellies and wearing my tiny two-wheeled transportation around my neck.

Fashion is what you buy; Style is what you do with it!
Bag (Brahmin); Boots (Zoubaby)






2 comments:

  1. Very good outfit. My favourite combination: black and white and a fierce colour. Chic wellies and wonderful bag. (We Dutch cycle everywhere, but I am afraid I am not very good at cycling. I do own one though and use it to go to town on high heels (15 minutes walk...)
    Greetje

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    1. Thank you, Greetje! I would love to have the option to cycle everywhere, but here the commute is a nearly 1 hour drive. I must say I've never cycled in heels, though - quite a feat! So glad you stopped by!

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