Ride to the River statistics:  12.6 mph average, 24.1 miles, 2:10 hours train time, 108 average pulse, 143 max pulse, 2249 kcal

As I did last year, I brought along my heart monitor for informational purposes.  I train with it all the time, just for the heck of it. I feel I get a decent workout if I can get my pulse up to about 145-150 and keep it there. So, at the top of the page for each day you will see some information from my heart monitor, as well as some information from my bike computer.

A group of us left from Altoona about 9 AM this morning. Steve drove his pickup, with me, Scott and Jake as riders.  He had about 6 bikes in the bed of his pickup. My dad’s pickup was the second vehicle.  Joe drove, with Mom, Stacey and Diane as passengers. Most of the gear for our group was in the bed of Dad’s pickup.

We arrived in Missouri Valley by about 11:30 AM.  Steve and Mom stayed around to help us set up tents in the host family’s yard, then they took off for home. Steve needed to get home so that he and his family could drive to Kansas City as they began their week long vacation to Florida.

After those of us remaining in Missouri Valley had relaxed for a little while, we decided to do the traditional ride to the river, to dip our back tires in the Missouri River.  As you can see from the mileage noted above, the trip was about 12 miles one way. The first 4-5 miles were against a substantial headwind but from that point on it was either a side or tailwind pretty much. The ride was very flat and the roads were good. Not much traffic.  Scott, Diane, Joe, Stacey and I did the ride.  On the way back to town from the river, I rode by myself, with the wind, for the last 4-5 miles, during which I was averaging about 20-21 MPH.

The people in our group of course took pictures of us dipping our rear wheels in the water.  There was also a conservation group (Friends of Wilson Island) that was taking pictures of the people dipping their tires. I went to their website http://friendsofwilsonisland.com/fg_ragbrai.html afterward and was able to see the pictures they took of our group. They are included with the rest of our pictures on the right.

Before we left town to do the ride to the river, we did a little searching around town on our bikes for a bite to eat. In the course of doing this, Scott lost his new MP3 player. He realized this as we sat in the downtown area eating a bite for lunch.  He decided he was going to retrace our route around town to look for it while we began riding to the river.  He planned to catch up with us. Scott did find his MP3 player laying in the middle of the Pizza Hut parking lot, and surprising enough, no one had run over it.

Josh arrived sometime after we got back from the river. His brother Ryan and Ryan’s wife drove him over from Omaha, after seeing a Batman movie. Jake’s friend David arrived later as well, being driven by his girlfriend I think.

After riding to the river, Scott, Diane and I walked to the main campground for a shower.  Man, it was a hot walk.  I was sweating bullets by the time we got there. The shower we used was in a local swimming pool and cost $2 apiece. There were only two or three shower heads, but they weren’t crowded at all. The showers were of the ice cold variety, plus the water pressure was so strong it felt like ice pellets piercing your skin.  Also, they were the kind of shower where you pushed the button and you got water for about five seconds, so we basically had to shower with one hand on the button all the time.

After the three of us showered we stopped by a Lutheran church that was having BBQ, potato and pasta salads, pie and lemondae for supper. It was a good supper but the thing I remember most was the excellent air conditioning.  I had rhubarb pie for my dessert.  Cost of the supper was $6.50.

Everybody sat around in a circle and talked that evening, trying to keep in the shade as it was pretty hot.  I did not sleep well that night due to the heat.  I was sweating all night. There was a pretty neat lightning storm display, but it was in the distance.  We never got any rain from it.

We also were treated to the sound of trains passing through town all night.  Missouri Valley is apparently on the main east-west line for one of the railroads. The trains didn’t bother me that much but others said it did bother them.

Our host home in this town was not one of the best I’ve had. They pretty much only gave us space to pitch our tents.  We were not allowed to use the house at all.

Original plan was for John to bring the rest of the group over to Missouri Valley later Saturday evening. He ended up getting a later start from their home in Glen Ellyn, IL, plus there was a lot of rain in Altoona when they were thinking of leaving. Bottom line is that they arrived in Missouri Valley about 3 or 4 AM and slept in the cars for a couple hours. In that group was John, Zach, Ben, Abby, Jeff and Anna.