Jay’s Note: This is part thirteen of a running two-week adventure log for RAGBRAI. Each day I’ll be posting a journal entry and some pictures from our trip that begins in Virginia, lands us in Iowa for a bike ride, and then eventually gets us back to the East Coast. Part twelve is here.
Late wake up today — 5:30am, which after a week of RAGBRAI genuinely counts as sleeping in. It’s the last day, and it’s a short one: Dyersville to Dubuque, about 34 miles with 1,700 feet of climb, ending at the Mississippi River. No rush.
We got everything packed up in a small mist. We’d camped out at that county park — the one that was supposed to be five and a half miles from town and turned out to be eight — and most of the guys didn’t want to ride the extra stretch in, so they got dropped off at the start. I rode in solo and linked up with the route at the starting point. The mist was fine enough that it didn’t soak you, but it collected on my sunglasses in a smattering of rain that made it hard to see. All doable, though.
My knee was feeling better today, I think because of the easy ride yesterday with the girls. So I hauled hard for the first five miles of the route (on top of the five it took to get there), and then heard “hey, Jay!” behind me. It was Jeremy. Great to see a friend out there. I slowed up and we rode together, catching up.
The first stops on today’s route came all in a row — Field of Dreams at mile five, then Farley, Epworth, and Centralia, none of them more than about five miles apart. So it was stop-and-go for a while, but really fun.
My first stop was the Field of Dreams, and it was absolutely wonderful. You come up on the huge stadium field first — the one where MLB plays its Field of Dreams game — and then, past it, the real thing: the original ballfield with the farmhouse in the background, exactly like the movie. They had players in White Sox uniforms taking pictures and pitching to anyone who wanted to step up and swing. Every time somebody connected, the whole crowd would cheer. It was as American as apple pie and RAGBRAI. Hold onto that thought, because the Field of Dreams comes back at the end of this post.
From there it was a beautiful ride in. The last stretch into Dubuque is downhill and fast, and it felt really great to let it run after a week of Iowa’s rollers. We stopped quick to figure out where we were meeting Sarah and Amber, then Jeremy and I rode down to the bottom and got to the Mississippi. Made it. River to river.
Then came the last order of business: Beekman’s. Finding it one more time was one of the reasons we rode all the way in, and it was nowhere near the finish. We looked around, gave up, and rode off. A few miles later, Jeremy heard it — that same old put-put sound of the hit-and-miss engines, somewhere in the background. Man! That guy saved the day. He tracked Beekman’s down out in the middle of nowhere in Dubuque. One last homemade ice cream over the bike, then we cycled on to meet everyone.
We met up near a Hy-Vee parking lot, where I grabbed some Burger King — no roadside pie stands left to be loyal to. We checked the trailer, which we’d rearranged so that everything would come off in one quick pack-up at Starved Rock. Andrew and Rudy got in a while later, and we said a quick goodbye — might see some of the guys again at Starved Rock, where we were all headed next.
Then we drove out of Iowa and into Illinois, to Starved Rock. We got in pretty quick to the old family cabin we used to stay in years ago, then headed up to the lodge for dinner. Everyone ate, and everyone loved it. There was a wedding going on at the lodge too, which somehow made the whole evening feel more festive. We took our food in, went back to the cabin — where I’d set up the Starlink and Sarah had put it on the roof — and put on Field of Dreams.
That’s where I am right now, actually. The kids are loving it. This morning I stood on that field and watched grown adults take batting practice from guys in Sox uniforms, and tonight I’m watching the movie about it with my kids in a cabin in the woods. It filled my heart with joy, and I don’t have a fancier way to say it than that.
The thing I’ve learned through all of this — something I’ve always reminded myself of — is to be a kid. To never give up on my dreams. Every year I do RAGBRAI, I learn something about myself that I didn’t know before. This time around, I remembered something too: have some fun.
Same stuff. Post for the day.