Headed to Iowa !!

Yippee !! I'm officially on the road to Iowa. I drove about 10 hours today, after a nervous 5 hours sleep last night, and made it up to Nashville Tennessee. I wish I had my Ukulele with me, so I could play me some country music.

Here are two photos for today's post -the first one is a group photo from last year's bike ride across Iowa, with good buddies Doc, Barbara, Mike, Kendra, and me.

The other picture is of me and my sweetie, Bev, sporting some nice handlebar mustaches.

Tomorrow, it's Iowa, here I come !!

How to Prepare for a Bicycle Tour

Today's post is a cute video by Michell & Ryan of "America ByCycle" ( americabycycle.com ).  This video tells you how to prepare for a bicycle tour !  

Click on the image below to load their YouTube video ...

 





 

Countdown Starting ... T Minus 5 Days !

Only 5 days until we start riding cycles across Iowa. Let the countdown begin !!
 
Bicycle gear is all ready to go. I'm putting together my clothing now, using my buddy Dennis' advice "one on your back, two in the pack". Dennis is a wise man !!
 
Today's photo is of the rear end of the bike. I got my Adventure Cycling triangle and a few red blinky lights. The round one is new, given to me by my good friend Jimmy Scott - I love it ! I'll be thinking about & riding for Jimmy this tour. He's recovering from a bad infection, and will be laid up a while - Heal Fast Jimmy !!

Today's Test Ride

 


Today I tested out my touring bike with a fun 60 mile ride thru the Havana Hills with good friends Barbara, Doc, Rita, David, and Rita Ann. My Trek 520 worked fantastic - the new chain & cassette were smooth as butter. 

I had the bike about 3/4s loaded, about 70 pounds I think. I can't wait to finish packing and hit the road !!

Bike Preparation

It's a lot of work and worry getting ready for a bike tour. In the past week I've put on new tires & tubes, new chain & cassette, painted over rust & scratches on the bike frame, cleaned & adjusted brakes, put on new handlebar tape, put on a new handlebar bag ( I love my new yellow Ortlieb handlebar bag ! ), and on and on and on ...




I'm just now starting to pack my bags, which is always fun. Luckily I have a packing list I've put together over the years, which helps a lot.  Here's a photo of all my gear drying out after a couple of days of rain on my Blue Ridge Parkway bicycle tour in May ...

It's good to know if you forget anything, there's always a store along the way to pick up supplies, just don't forget your credit card !

Pete's Bike Ride Across Iowa

I'm heading out to Iowa in a few weeks to ride my bicycle - Yippee !!

I'm getting a ride to Clinton Iowa, where I'll meet up with good friends Doc, Barbara, Mike and Kendra.  We are doing a bicycle ride we call IARBGAR ( this is RAGBRAI spelled backwards ).  We'll spend 7 days doing the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) backwards, riding from Clinton to Sioux Center, staying at motels as we ride from East to West across the state.

When we get to Sioux Center Iowa on July 21, we'll turn around and spend the next week riding back to Clinton with our RAGBRAI friends on "Team Sprint", camping out along the way.  We have about 75 wonderful people on our team, and some of them have ridden RAGBRAI 30 years or more !

 There are usually 10,000 to 20,000 bicycles on RAGBRAI each day.  We typically ride from 60-80 miles per day, stopping every 10 miles to eat, drink, and visit with people along the way.


After RAGBRAI, I plan to ride back to Tallahassee on my bicycle all by myself, following the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers down towards Alabama.  This part of the trip should begin on July 28.  I will be following parts of the Adventure Cycling "Great Rivers" and "Underground Railroad" routes.


I hope to post info and photos to this BLOG during my trip - provided I can find cell or wi-fi service !