RAGBRAI

This will be relatively short because I wasn't there. Shad should be writing this, but I'm the one who does the blogging. RAGBRAI is Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, and has been in existence since 1973...or something like that. It's a pretty big deal--some 20,000 riders, plus vendors, entertainment, support stations, etc, total at over 30,000 participants. Shad's brother Dan and a group of his Air Force friends have been riding it for 7 or 8 years as Team Fearless Wiener, and Shad wanted to join them this year. The Fearless Wieners joined forces with Team Bat this year, so they share the Bat Bus.

Crowds at the beginning.

Shad and Dan

Shad got tattooed VIRGIN because it was his first time. He's standing in front of one of the houses they stayed at. They had places to stay every night, whether camped on someone's lawn or property at a mechanic shop, or actually inside a house with a shower.

Here's a rundown of the numbers: Sunday--50 miles. Monday--75 miles. Tuesday--58.5 miles. Wednesday--65 miles with optional 32 mile route to make 100 miles. Thursday--51.5 miles. Friday--68.5 miles. Saturday--50 miles. Shad did the full 100 Wednesday.

This is how they propped up their bikes.

Shad, left, with some team members. Dan in the middle.

Badges for completing the 100 mile ride!

Odometer totaling at 101.74.

Shad and Marlene after the 100. They rode the extra loop together.

Exhausted wieners after the Wednesday ride.

Out to eat.

End of the ride, Saturday. Hooray, he finished it! Biked a total of 450 miles.

Dan, Marlene and Shad at the end.

Bat Bus packed up with bikes.

And look at those fine lines!

There were some bike malfunctions and breakdowns along the way, but they all made it and survived for another year.