Dear Porkers,
The tips just keep on coming!
Here's the final edition of veterans' advice, and as ever, our
vets are offering useful wisdom, strong opinions, and belly
laughs, sometimes within the same sentence. Mike C can't
be with us this year due to an injury, but he's a longtime
Porker, and Jenny was a first-timer last year. Her
advice is very good for women--she answers some of the FAQs
I've been getting. Thanks also Mike M (another longtimer
who can't make it this year), Phil, Tim, and all the vets who
contributed to Advice 1, 2, and 3. Here you go!
More updates to come,
Tammy and
Pete
From Phil:
Another tip.
Since my bike is always by my tent at night, I found that the
red blinking light on my bike served as a good "beacon" to
mark my tent's location when departing for long kybo trips at
night. Turn it on before venturing forth in the night
and you'll find your way back more easily. You'd be
surprised how easy it is to lose track of your tent among all
the other tents.
From Mike C.:
1. Line
your duffle bag with a lawn-leaf large trash bag and then put
your stuff in. Bring a couple of spares in case of a
blow-out.
2. Don't use a big bath towel to dry
off---"air dry" after a shower and your towel won't be a
stinking mess in two days. It's Iowa in the summer and
everything dries in 5 minutes.
Cheers.
From
Jenny:
1. Stamina-readiness does NOT equal
saddle-readiness, and an indoor exercise bike saddle does not
equal the real thing. My husband learned this to his
GREAT sorrow!
2. A bottle of water or Gatorade an hour
is excellent advice. Also, if it's at ALL hot (and when
is it not?), I'd say plain water is best to soak in.
Gatorade replenishes more than liquid. Again, my husband
learned this the hard way when he seriously cramped up around
2:00 pm the first day, even though he'd been drinking a bottle
of water every hour (he was too frugal to spend the extra $1
on Gatorade). A kind passerby gave him a couple of salt
tablets - cramps eased in about 30 minutes. Lesson
learned.
3. Don't bother bringing your own drink
mix.
4. Trail snacks, etc., are great, but it's more
fun to stop & shop from the locals, which means-
5.
Bring a WHOLE LOT of $1's & $5's. Whatever you think
you'll spend, bring half again as much.
6. I rode
RAGBRAI in a wet T-shirt with a cold bandana on my neck.
The first shock of the day is a killer, but the shirt helped
prevent sunburn & the wetness kept me cool as the shirt
dried. I had NO issues with heat as long as I hit every
mister or kid with a garden hose, or stopped & soaked my
shirt in the town cattle trough. I love bike jerseys,
but I found this method worked best with a regular cotton
T.
7. Ear plugs won't help with trains.
8. You
only need half of the clothes you bring.
9. Set up
& take down your tent in dim light at least once before
heading to Iowa.
10. Cave lights (head-mount ones) are
handy in the tent. However, you'll blast anyone in the
face if you're outside.
11. I would have paid $100 to
the guy with the battery-operated tent fan (hangs from hook or
mounts at a window opening).
12. I don't care what the
guys think, a hand towel, even micro-fiber, is NOT as good as
a larger bath towel, even a thin one.
13. I found
something at a travel store that I did find useful on RAGBRAI
- a box of travel urinals (3/box). They are plastic bags
with a crystalline substance in the bottom. Men/women
well-designed adapters screw in the top. The urine
reacts with the crystals in the bag to form an inert,
bacteria-free gel substance. The bag, when full, can be
safely thrown in the trash. They can accommodate several
'donations' and seal fully in between uses. Very cool -
no midnight treks, or morning bottles of yellow
'tea'.
14. Hang your bag on the kybo hook, or hold your
wallet in your teeth! Mine went down a kybo on the 4th
day. I thought it had been stolen until I received,
about a week after returning home, a box from a pumping co.
containing rusted keys & coins, and my plastic.
15.
Practice guilt-free eating for a week! Absolutely hit
Mr. Pork Chop at least once and Belgian waffles every time you
can!
16. God bless the Pork Belly crew for the morning
coffee & the hard-boiled eggs.
17. It's hard to be
very sociable when you're dog-tired & hungry, but a smile
goes a long way.
18. Live the creed! They're
right - it ALL makes for great stories later!
From
Mike M.:
One bit of advice I have for riders, is a
safety issue. The first time I did Ragbrai, I had never
before ridden on roads composed of poured concrete slabs with
an inch or so expansion space in the middle between the left
and right side on the road. These grooves are just
exactly the right width to grab and hold a front
wheel tire of a road bike. Please be sure that when you
make a turn on to a road, you cut across this groove at an
angle so your tire will not get snagged. This is also
true if you find you have to move from the left
lane into the right lane (and vice versa) during the ride.
Cross over at a very slight angle. Remember, it is
literally true; a body once in motion stays in motion.
Your bike will stop if your front wheel gets caught in the
expansion cracks but your body will continue on over your
handle bars and beyond. Oh yeah, I could go on
about the morons doing the pace lines and the riders for which
"on your left" is a foreign and un-utterable phrase but you
will see that for yourself . Aside from that: Be
prepared to have the most fun you will ever have on two wheels
in your whole life.
From Tim:
Tip for
keeping bike computers and cell phones dry. Wrap 'em in
a condom. No, don't use the lubricated ones or the
chocolate-flavored ones. Use the old fashioned plain
ones, like your dad gave you and you carried in your wallet
for 10 years. For cell phones which fold, unfold the
phone, roll on the condom, express the air, and tie a knot in
the end. That way you can fold it closed and use it as
usual. Don't worry about leaving that little space in
the tip of the thing.
Tammy (Phillips)
Pavich
Pete Phillips
712/328-0161
712/328-6836
tammypav@aol.com
petephillips@cox.net 