Bet you can't wait til November 15th....
RAGBRAI 03  (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across IOWA!!!
Glenwood was the first night on the trip.  We started here on the western edge of Iowa.  They threw a pretty good party for a small town.  The Sheriffs office even got into the swing of things; you can't read it, but the door says JAIL HOUSE ROCK!   The guy on the bike above had a smoker/grill thingy on the back as well as a stereo system and speakers.  I never saw him after this so I wonder if he really rode the bike with all that stuff. . .
DAY 1  57 miles
Day one was hot; 95 degrees, but comfortable.  And the food was good.  I stopped for my first piece of pie in EMERSON as well as some homemade ice cream.  Yummmyyy!  Didn't go into
SPANKY'S  beer garden though.
As you can see I got "leid" on the way into Shenandoah, our first night on the road.  One day down; I don't feel bad at all!!!
Tammy introduces some folks who dressed the part for our "Bada Bing Bash"  this years theme for PORK BELLY VENTURES.                                   Below, the team mascot.
Day Two  62 miles
Mama Raphael's Breakfast Burritos was a popular breakfast spot!
The Krazy Cowboy performing in Clarinda. www.krazycowboy.com
Ragbrai 2003.  Where to start?  I heard about RAGBRAI over 20 years ago and thought that would be a cool thing to do.  And in 1986 one of my coworkers did RAGBRAI and raved about it.  So last year I decide this was finally going to be the year.   700 miles or so of training later, and off I went to IOWA, of all places!   I figured if nothing else, I'd be able to cross another state off my list.  Actually, since it was better for me to fly into Omaha, NE, I was able to cross TWO states of the list.  And even though it really shouldn't count, my flights connected in Minneapolis, so that was three states, all in one day!!!  Cool.
Oh sure, just what I'd wanna do; bike all across IOWA with an Extracycle!!!
Below, another picturesque IOWA field!
LOREN and SUE RIPKE (IOWA)
I sure wouldn't want to be on the front! Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to be in the back either!!
What to do on RAGBRAI while you're riding along.  I mean, the scenary in IOWA is pretty, but it's redundant.   After the 37th cornfield they all start to look the same.  And I grew up in farm country so it wasn't new to me anyway.  So about haf way through the 3rd day I started paying closer attention to the legs of all the women riding around me.  Actually, being a leg man I had noticed them right from the start; now I decided I would seek out the best looking legs!  Sort of a HOLY GRAIL search of LEGS.  And boy were there some legs; long, short, muscled (some more than guys!), flabby, scarred and every now and then, a REALLY nice loking pair of legs that were toned, shapely and cellulite free!!  Interestingly the best legs turned out to be on women in their late 20's or even 30's!
Now this was a totally subjective exercise and I'm sure my choices wouldn't be everyone else's choices, but hey, my game, my rules!  So here are my top 5 choices for BEST LEGS ON RAGBRAI 2003 in no particular order.

Diana from Texas
Tonya from Rockford IL
Kari from Yakima, WA
Lisa from Modesto, CA  (Hi Mark! Lisa's Hubby)
Julie from Chicago; member of C.U.B.S.

Actually there were a few honorable mentions but I didn't get their name cuz their tag was missing on their bike by the end of the week.  And if you were riding a recumbent bike, well you weren't eligible.  Like I said, my game, my rules.  Just something to pass the time going up and down (and up and down some more) through IOWA's cornfields!!!

FOOD on RAGBRAI:  One word;  Methodist Church Ladies!  They served up lots of good food.  Okay, that's three words, but if you say it fast. . .  (and besides, my rules!)  And if you insist on ONE word than the word is PIE!!!  And lot's of it.  I had Blueberry, Rhubarb, Mincemeat, Apricot, Peach, Pale Peach, Blackberry, Peach again, and Rhubarb Crunch.  (sort of like apple crunch)  And homemade ice cream.  Of course no RAGBRAI experience would be complete without a visit to PASTAFARI; a bunch of guys that set up every day along the road, often next to a corn field and cook penne pasta served with a spicy marinara sauce and topped with grilled veggies  All to the beat of booming REGGAE music!  What could be better or more unexpected in IOWA?
And what better way to start the day than with CHRIS CAKES?  All you can eat pancakes that were just right, sausage and  .  .  . TANG?  YUCK!  But hey, the cakes were great and when you went back for seconds you had better be good at catching them as they were flipped in the air to you!  And if you were in the mood for something else, Mama Raphael's Breakfast Burritos were pretty good although I personally preferred Farm Boys burritos.
I didn't try Mr. Pork Chop or Tender Tom's Turkey; guess I'll have to go back for them!  If you haven't figured it out, most of these eatery's set up every day along that day's route!
GRIPES!!!
Well the first and biggest gripe I had was the folks that felt they had to get up at 4:00am, start tearing down their tent and packing up so they could hit the road by 5:30.  Now I can appreciate getting an early start, but I don't need to hear you laughing, giggling and carrying on normal conversation at that hour.   Like nobody else was asleep!  The surprising thing was the offenders were usually OLDER people, not the Gen-X'ers and under.  Hmmmm.
As far as the bike riding went, well for the most part the riders were pretty considerate and reasonably competent.  As is usual in life the few faux pas I saw were more likely an honest mistake than sheer rudeness or incompetence.  Actually, I noticed that some of the really hard core bikers; the ones that rode real fast all the time, were more likely to engage in rude and dangerous behavior than the average bike riding hack.   Of course that's just my observation and since I was usually in the front quarter of the pack I was rarely around to see the truly awful riders that you wonder how they survived, although I heard about some of them.  (One fellow was oblivious to the fact the mass of bikes in front of him was NOT moving and plowed into a group; damaged several bikes and some were unrideable.)
UPS.  Usually I like the men in brown.  They bring me lots of neat toys for my boats and bikes.  Damage my bike in shipping and I'm not so fond of "BROWN".  Damage it AGAIN on the way home and I'm downright pissed at BROWN!!!  So now I'm looking for replacement forks for my 1986 TREK 400.  Yeah, it's a 17 year old bike, but it's comfy and I like it!
TRAINING:  You are going to train, right???  This year's RAGBRAI had over 16,000 feet of vertical gain and was supposedly the 6th hilliest ride ever.  Yes folks, there are hills in IOWA!  I was furtunate to train in the hills of Virginia and Maryland and it paid off.  A two or three hundred foot hill in IOWA was like a warm-up for me.  It was really evident on the hills when I passed hordes of people huffing and puffing, some standing on their pedals and really struggling while I just concentrated on spinning and went right by them.  Actually, every now and then some super athlete would go blowing by ME on the hills; I'm certain most of them were triathletes or long time bikers/racers who train way more seriously than I do!  One thing I would do is go on a couple of long rides.  I was pressed for time this spring and never rode over 35 miles at a time.  The hills I was riding on got me in shape but if I have to do it again I'd fit in a 50-60 mile ride once a week or so and then 2 back to back a few weeks before IOWA.
If you get a chance to train in a pace line, jump on it.  While pace lines are officially discouraged by RAGBRAI for safety reasons, they do form up and every so often I'd find a pace line that I could keep up with comfortably and also not feel like I was being held back.  The biggest problem was some of these pace lines were REALLY cooking and I mean faster than I was able to comfortably go.  And some of these riders were real good pedallers, but not too considerate of the other bikers around them or good at holding a line. 
GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!
Day Three   75 miles (100 if you do the loop)
LEON, IA  Cool stained glass windows in the Methodist Church, good food too!
Another corn field.  Somewhere in IOWA. . . Who cares where; they all look the same.  And just about every few miles you'd see a bike lying alongside the road; sometimes you'd even see the rider entering or exiting the cornfield!!  One farmer even set up a table w/ T.P. and signs for HIS and HERS sides of the cornfield!
Pete's gas powered blender with the throttle on the handlebars!!  What a blast it was making tasty beverages with this!!!
TEAMS:  Whooboy, I won't even mention some of the team names here!  Let's just say it was real amusing seeing grown people wearing shirts that had stuff printed on them they'd probably never let their 15 year old wear in public!!!  That said, I saw all kinds of teams and team buses.  In fact, the running joke is IOWA is where old school buses go to die, but first they have to serve as a RAGBRAI bus. 
One of the neatest ideas I saw for a team theme was TEAM GOURMET.  This group of friends/acquaintances has a gourmet chef and 3 or 4 sous chefs that set up every night at some lucky host family's house and prepare a feast!  And of course they have a different theme each night.  One night was Wizard of Oz night and folks dressed as their fav character.  And forget joining; thre's a waiting list to get on the team and you have to be sponsored!
Another good team was team S.P.L.A.T.  (Slow Pedallers Lingering At Taverns)
Team BONE got a few laughs and the joke from the women riders was to say they had been "boned" by one of Team Bone's members.
Team Skunk dressed with either a black T-shirt with a white stripe down the back or a tux shirt.
Mennonites selling jam, pastries and baskets.
QUADZILLA!
This was a very typical cemetary entrance; straight out of a low budget horror flick!  Just on the edge of Chillicothe.  After passing here we hit a couple of big hills and just as I topped the longest hill of the ride so far, my rear derailleur started acting up and stuck in high gear.  I had to hold the shifter in place the last couple of miles until I got to Blakesburg where I was able to get it adjusted.
Bloomfield,  Rocking and Rolling.  This is where I picked up my hitchhiker!  (Pink Flamingo Beanie Baby)
KY-BO RACES!!!  Ky-Bo was the name of the porta-potties used in the early RAGBRAI's.   Don't remember which town this was but some guy was taking dollar bets on which KY-BO would empty first!!!  Money to benefit some local restoration project.
Fill up your water bottle before heading back out on the road.
Day Four  78 miles
First, start your day off with pancakes from CHRIS CAKES.  A nice easy 8-10 mile ride and then some yummy breakfast.  I had 11 cakes and 5 sausages for starters this day. 
A few of the different bikes participating on the ride.
ROADKILL was usually adorned with some stickers and Mardi Gras Beads and in this case some flowers!
Interesting story.  This family has done multiple RAGBRAI's.  I think Mom and Dad have done like 14 or so.  The eight year old on the back has done one every year since he was born.  The six year old was taking the day off and was replaced by Mr. Dolphin for the day.  AND. . . the 2 or 3 year old that rides in the TRAILER was taking the day off also!  And I did see all FIVE of them riding one day. 
Hi-jinks above left as Mom and Dad captain the tandem bikes, the two boys shoot it out with water pistols on the rear!
Below is a low rider recumbent with under body steering and his "BOB" trailer with all his gear. 
Day Five  67 miles
Day Six   66 miles
We crossed the Des Moines River three times this day and the Skunk River also. 
Day Seven   43.6 miles!  The end is in sight!  Next stop, the BIG MUDDY!  (Mississippi River)
Bikes:  Just like people they come in all different types, sizes and shapes!  I saw road bikes, recumbent bikes, hand powered bikes for the handicapped, three seaters, even a quad seater named Quadzilla of course.  I saw one family with mom and dad on a tandem pulling a two seat bolt-on for the 8 and 6 year olds and then a trailer behind THAT for the youngest!  Bet hills were fun for them.  I actually talked with them later in the week and they had done something like 14 RAGBRAI's together!  Some of the recumbents were tandems and some even had underbody steering.  I saw tricycles and even a regular bike with big training wheels!  Seems like there was something for everyone.  I even saw this one guy riding an old Schwinn 10 speed from the early 70's.  Made me feel a little better riding my 1986 TREK.  Speaking of which, I saw one JUST LIKE MINE one morning coming out of Chris Cakes after breakfast.  I finally saw the old guy who USED to ride a single geared bike and USED to have a sign that read "GEARS ARE FOR WIMPS", but this year he had a geared bike.  Still was wearing blue jean coveralls and a t- shirt though.  Guess he thought he'd look stupid in stretchy bike clothes!
TOWNS:  One of the most interesting things throughout the ride was the way the towns got into the festivities.  Not one person seemed irritated that 10,000 or so strangers were invading their space for the day.  And even the little towns we passed through each day got into the swing of things.  I'm talking about towns of 400, 500, maybe 700 people and they had these really nice downtown parks they would set up in and block off the streets and throw a big street party.  And just about all these towns had a decent little library, most courtesy of Mr. Carnegie in the late 1800's.  One of the requests of the ride organizers was the libraries open up early so we could access the Internet.   The parks though really impressed me; the towns were obviously really well laid out when they were built and though time and the economy have not always been nice to the towns, the parks were a welcome sight.  Really beautiful.
Amish farmer driving his horse drawn hay rake.
Last morning out, early light made this farm look so peaceful.
Saturday was supposed to be an easy ride; only 43 miles and mostly downhill.  Yeah, but the wind was right on our noses most of the way.  I tried to draft as much as I could and about 5 or 6 miles from the finish hooked up with a fast pace line composed mostly of TEAM SLAM riders.  We smoked into Fort Madison and tore down the hill to the river.  Once there the police had the train tracks under control and you had to cross the tracks and deal with the folks coming OUT from the finish area and dip site.  I did the customary dipping of the front wheel as seen at the right.  Someone had even hung a sign asking Wendy R. to marry him.  (She accepted I read in the paper later.)
TEAM BONE prepares to leave town.  Below a member of TEAM SKUNK
Coming down a hill towards the end of the day I picked up a draft and then broke out pedalling and hit my top speed for the week;  43 mph!!!
Above right is the original BENTONSPORT, IA post office.  Don't remember where the house at the right was, but I liked it!
Had PASTAFARI for lunch in this town today.
TEAM THIRSTSY DOG's team bus! 
DONE, and DIPPED!
So, I'm finished.  Now I have to go dismantle the bike, pack it up haul it to the UPS trailer, catch a shuttle bus to go get a shower (Ah, warm water!) get some lunch and THEN ride 6 hours on a bus back to OMAHA, NE.

This page was last updated on: August 14, 2003

Would I do it again?   Well, now that a couple of weeks have passed and I have almost forgotten how sore my thighs were by mid week, yeah, I'd do it again.  Maybe not next year, but sometime soon.  I think I'll wait til the route comes out in November to see how hilly it is.  I mean, I don't have to go to IOWA to ride up and down hills!!!  But seriously, the food was good the IOWAN's are great people and I met lots of neat folks who were PORK BELLY VENTURERS like myself.  And a special thanks to Tammy, Pete, Lori and the rest of the Porkers.  Also, I had a great time getting to know Jose, Luis, Julie, Jan, Pam and countless other folks.  SO if you have anything you think I need to add, please email me!!!
Thanks, David   Oh, and if you see a picture of yourself, email me and I'll email you back a higher resolution copy!
Here are some pictures I pulled off the Des Moines Register's web site. 
All pictures credited to the Register!
Except as noted all pictures copyright David Tabor.   Please credit accordingly.  Thank you
Please visit here frequently as I will add things people send me.
Pork Belly Ventures was featured in an article in the Register;  Jose and Luis celebrate the winning bid for a night in a hotel room with real beds!  Pete's Shower Thingy so you can take a COLD bird bath.  Tammy and sister Lori at right conduct the raffle.
WHO DID I RIDE WITH??  Well, I flew out to do this by myself.  Now I could've joined in with every other single (non-team) rider and had the official truck schlep my bag down the road every day, but I'd be on my own otherwise.  I very wisely joined up with PORK BELLY VENTURES out of Council Bluffs, IA  and they took very good care of me and about 200 other riders.  Each day we'd ride into town and they'd already have a premo spot staked out to camp in, our bags were unloaded and cold beverages awaited.  And if you had some extra $$$ you could get a massage and even get your bike worked on by the team mechanic.  All in all, a great bunch of people!!!
Bet you can't wait til November 15th....