Since RAGBRAI was passing near our home town my eight year old son and I went to ride part of it with the trail-a-bike. We started in Story City and went the 44 miles to Marshalltown in about 6 1/2 hours. 9 am was certainly not to early to start as the crowds are already passing through Story City. People must have gotten an early start with the high temperatures today (100 degrees Fahrenheit or a bit more).
My son did great and had lots of fun. Of course his highlight was in Marshalltown when we rode side by side with another kid on a trail-a-bike and he could talk with him. I wish though he would let me rest a little longer at some of the breaks but he wanted to keep pushing forward. Especially at the beginning when the saw all the people passing by us. Later he must have figured out that there are always more people coming, an never ending flow of them, and even requested some short rests.
Riding with the Adams trail-a-bike was though due to the hitch slop. Whenever he shifted weight, be it from pedaling or something else, my bike gets suddenly pushed to one side or another. So I had to make sure to keep the bike under control and be ready to act on it. This meant that I had to keep both hands constantly on the handle bar. People passing closely and cutting in front of me didn't help either. A tandem for such rides would be extremely nice.
Special thanks goes out to all the people and organizations that provided free water, bananas and other treats on the way. My son was saying that we couldn't do the ride other times since there wouldn't be places to fill up our water bottles. I disagree, we would just have used the two liters of water that we hauled the whole way.
What a great father-son day!
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| In McCallsburg for a shaved ice break |
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| Enjoying a turkey leg |
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| Resting on top of a hill |
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| Celebratory jump at the end |
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| Oh, ... and me |
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| The route |
