RAGBRAI LII, Day 2
Mon, July 21, 2025 (43 miles, 835 ft. climb)
We got some great tailwind today! But only for the first 16 miles, as we headed north. But it sure was fun to go 18 mph after slogging it out with headwinds all day yesterday. Today, for the first time in RAGBRAI’s 52-year history, we crossed into my home state of MINNESOTA!
There were a lot of great food vendors in Brown County Park, southwest of Jackson, Minnesota. But my digestive system STILL was not working, and I still had no appetite.
As we left Minnesota and headed back south into Iowa, we had to face the headwinds again. But at least today was much shorter than yesterday, at only 43 miles. After going through the town of Superior, we made it to our campsite in Estherville pretty early.
We camped with a couple from Arizona, Dave and Ursla, who were first-timers. In fact, they had never really biked much! But they thought RAGBRAI sounded fun, so they bought bikes and trained…a little bit. Their longest ride before this week was thirty miles! I got a nice interview with them that I plan on using in my YouTube video, and included a short excerpt here.
Tomorrow’s another longer day, at 74 miles, so I hope my body will finally be back to normal by then.
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “RAGBRAI” = Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, the world’s oldest, longest, and largest recreational bike ride. Started in 1973, it now averages about 20,000 riders per year who bike from the Missouri River on the west coast of Iowa to the Mississippi River on the east coast, usually 420-500 miles, over seven days.
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066334039590
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):