Dubuque, Iowa

RAGBRAI came to an end yesterday and left us in Dubuque, Iowa with all of our gear attached to our bikes again. Alex and I had a great time riding with Team High Life and our riding companions will be missed in the weeks to come. Also, as much as we despised it at the time, the 6 am wake-up call (bugle followed by Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash) will also be missed. We are already back to our old habits of getting up late and trying to hit the road by 9 am...

We were joined at various times last week by a number of friends and family. My friend from college, Lando, rode with us on Sunday and then rode yesterday as well. My brother, Kyle, rode with us on Wednesday and Thursday. My mom, dad, and grandma came to visit on Thursday night in Waterloo. Alex's friends from his internship at Rockwell and his roommate from Iowa State also came on Thursday night to hang out with us. We are definitely going to be in people withdrawal this week!

Some other highlights of the week include getting poured on for all of Friday morning (hey, all that rain gear we bought finally came in handy!), a monstrous 19% grade hill outside of Dubuque known as Potter's Hill (probably the steepest hill we've climbed with the exception of the random bike path hill in Bismarck, ND), and random run-ins with friends also doing the ride.

Now we are getting ready to start the next phase of our adventure. Today we will leave for Illinois. We no longer have Adventure Cycling maps to aide us, so we will be following highway maps and tips from locals from here on out. We will try to take the most direct route possible to Raleigh, as we only have 15 more days of riding left to get there. We are both excited and still exhausted from RAGBRAI at the same time.

Lastly, thank you to Ashli and Tony for letting us stay at their new house in Dubuque last night to recover a bit and do some laundry! Onward we go!