RAGBRAI LII, Day 3
Tues, July 22, 2025, Estherville to Forest City, Iowa (74 miles, 874 ft. climb)
Today was the longest day of this year’s RAGBRAI! It was another very windy day, peaking at 16 mph, but it was straight from the south, so we only had small sections of headwinds and mostly crosswinds. I would usually do the optional century loop today, but I was not sure with the winds. And my body.
I woke up early and was literally on my bike ready to go with all my camping gear stowed in the truck at 5:08 a.m. This would be my PR in early departures on any RAGBRAI! I wanted to get a head start on those winds and the heat. However, just before I started pedaling, I heeded the “urge to purge,” and then discovered that my digestive system was STILL not normal. 🙁
When I finally did get pedaling at 5:25, it was still cool and quiet, but I was wondering if my GI tract would ever be normal again. I mean, it has now been EIGHT DAYS! But I was starting to feel better, and I made decent progress biking from Estherville through Armstrong, Swea City, Bancroft, Titonka, Woden, and Crystal Lake.
I came up on a guy whose license plate said John from Cedar Falls, and I struck up a conversation with him. My son married a girl from Cedar Falls in 2024, and they just had a baby they named John! So I told this John that there was now one more John with ties to Cedar Falls. (And I am thrilled to now have Iowan blood in my family tree.) I ended up getting an interview with him on my GoPro while biking alongside him.
I got some great drone footage of several small-town water towers, and was excited that I was in the last pass-through town, Crystal Lake, around 1:00 p.m. With only 10 miles to go, I figured I’d be at the campsite by 2:00 pm with plenty of time to set up before dinner.
That’s when disaster struck.
I LOST MY CELL PHONE!! I am so careful with it — it is always either clamped into my handlebar mount, or in my left pocket. Could it be in the last town? Or two towns ago? I was down by the lake in Crystal Lake, and mentally retraced my steps. Looking up the block, I saw the smoothie stand, and remembered that I took a photo of the smoothies while waiting. So I knew it was on this block!
The only thing I did after the smoothie was lay my bike down to fill my water bottles. So I looked all over that area, went back to the smoothie stand, and asked around. No sign of it. I looked in every nook and cranny of my pockets and handlebar bag and frame bags. As I was walking by the fire station I asked some guys sitting in lawn chairs if there were a lost-and-found. He pointed across the street to a bake sale and said to talk to those ladies. Better yet, he made a quick phone call, and said they had a lost cell phone there!
Greatly relieved, I walked across the street and asked if they had a cheap iphone for sale. They handed it to me — but it was NOT MY PHONE! Dang. I left my name and went down to the lake to wait. After a while I went back, and they said that I should have the singer with the microphone up the hill make an announcement. So I did that, and guess what? Someone came with another missing phone! However… this one was NOT MINE EITHER!
I went back to the lake to wait some more. I took some drone footage of bikers along the lake to take my mind off the impending disaster. I thought back to all the photos and videos of the past three days that I could lose. I thought of the iPhone 17 I was planning to upgrade to when it comes out in September…would I have to get this year’s iPhone 16 right before it becomes old news? I thought about what would happen if someone stole my Apple identity and got all my credit card info and blocked me from accessing all my contacts and photos. Yikes.
Then it hit me — I remembered that I employ a very low-tech method of ID, in the form of a piece of paper inside the protective case on the back of my phone. I thought carefully about what was on it…hmmm…our land line number is now useless. My email address won’t do much good since I have no way to access it. But I did include my wife’s cell phone number!
I raced back to the bake sale ladies and explained the situation, and asked them if I could borrow their phone. I called Beth and said “This is your husband,” since she wouldn’t know the incoming number. Before I could explain anything, she knew all about my predicament.
It turns out a guy found my phone near where I laid it down to get water. His name was John Koch. Beth was talking to John, and when she found out he was from Cedar Falls, she told him that our son married a girl from Cedar Falls. After a pause, John said, “Wait…I think I met your husband today.” Yes, this was the John I had interviewed on my bike!!
Not only did John find the phone and call my wife, he also biked two miles past the main campsite to bring the phone to my charter, Pork Belly Ventures. So when I finally got there, he was waiting with the phone! MY HERO!!
Needless to say, I did NOT do the optional century loop today. It was stressful enough as it was! But there is more GREAT NEWS for today: At 4:00 pm, I felt a sensation that I had not felt in eight days — HUNGER. Maybe my body is finally starting to get back to normal!
And just in time, because tomorrow is predicted to be the hardest day of the week, as we head straight south 72 miles into vicious headwinds from Forestville to Iowa Falls. But if this kryptonite is really gone, maybe my biking superpowers can carry me through.
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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):