Atlantic to Carroll, IA

Okay, I've definitely been procrastinating on blogging about the rest of my Ragbrai adventure only because the next part isn't as nearly as glamourous as the beginning.  It makes me feel like a slacker. I sagged for the next two days.  Sagging is when you help out with the logistics of the team instead of riding; such as loading bags on and off the trailer, helping to set up camp, running errands for riders, etc. 

The first day was completely by choice.  There was no way I was going to be able to make it the whole way on day 2 and honestly, I felt bad about holding Katie back.  She's a great cyclist as is her brother, and I could tell how badly she wanted to ride with him instead of more slowly with me. 

Because there were so many other people sagging that day, we had four SUVs full of riders and pathetically, it was the very first day that I realized how many people on the team were battling Parkinson's disease themselves.  I learned so much about the disease on the car ride that day and was completely enthralled by the stories these patients were telling about being diagnosed and how biking was doing so much for them in terms of keeping their symptoms at bay.  It was humbling.

Jay is the guy who started Pedaling for Parkinsons. He is a biker as well as a doctor who specializes in Parkinson's disease.  One year, he casually asked one of his patients if she was interested in participating in Ragbrai on a tandem.  The patient agreed and astonishingly enough, when the ride was over, Jay noticed a huge reduction in his patient's tremors.  Even her handwriting had improved dramatically!  It's been several years now, and Jay's study continues to gain momentum.  If you are interested in his website, click here.

Anyway, I couldn't have spent that day anymore perfectly.  I was falling in love with these people.  And to top it off, when we arrived at our next campsite (another retirement home) we learned that there was an empty apartment with two air-conditioned bedrooms that our team would be allowed to use.  Of course, the Parkinson's patients had first dibs on these rooms and one of the guys, Jim, was sweet enough to allow me and Katie to crash on the floor of his room!  I was grateful to the point of giddiness!  Katie and I even unlawfully scouted out a washing machine in the common area of the facility and did a load of laundry. 

(My stuff on right.) 

That day too, we even got to go to Wal-Mart for a minute to run errands which was awesome not only because Wal-Marts are air-conditioned, but because they have huge, fairly clean bathrooms.

Here's a little secret about me:  I am hugely repulsed and scared of public toilets.  Infact, as a kid, I wouldn't even use the bathroom at school and instead would wait until I got home; my bladder on the verge of explosion.  Hell, I still would prefer to pee in our portable baby potty than at a gas station. (This may or may not have happened at least a handful of times.)

The first night, I was grateful to have the use of someone's home bathroom.  The second day, I avoided the port-a-potties at all costs by begging a staff member at the retirement home for the access code to the employee's restrooms.  (I was so grateful to have gotten it too!)  By the third day, I was more than happy to have my own stall at Wal-Mart and you can bet that I was happily sitting flat-assed on any public toilet by the end of the week, so long as it wasn't a putrid dump hut of a port-a-potty.

Camp at a retirement home in Carroll, IA

Carroll was such a cute town too with less than a handful of buildings in total.  We went to the local golf course 'clubhouse' (and I use that term loosely) that night for dinner.  The restaurant staff treated us all amazingly.  They doted over us as if we were celebrities! I think we all walked out of there a few inches taller than we had when we came in.  It was pretty cool.