The final recap

While the week of ragbrai is my favorite week of the year, the week after seems to be the hardest for me. That post-ragbrai hangover is a tough one. Whether it's because I won't be on my bike that day, having to get back to the real world, not seeing my teammates, not eating all day or any of the other 100 reasons I could list. I miss Iowa and the people of ragbrai.

Of course reality will set in and this will all be a distant memory. I will continue to remember the crazy stories, the funny stories, the heartwarming stories and the amazing stories until they fade into the back of my mind.

As far as the weather goes, last week could not have been any better. Nothing to hot during the day and nice and cool in the evenings. The wind seemed to be a little weird with headwinds heading north for 2 days and when we headed south, the headwinds were back. The only rain we saw were some little drops one morning and a 30 minute storm one of the nights I was in my tent. It was so perfect that I am afraid of what next year.

That seems to be it for this year's ragbrai posts. If I try to keep reliving more to block reality a little longer I may post more.

For anyone looking to see some of our photos you can check out the Team Cuisine Facebook page.

See you down the road!!

The food recap

After having time to digest the week I started thinking of the food.

This week our chef team of Beau, Dan and Morgan rocked, as usual. With kicking off the week with my favorite of 'breakfast for dinner" things just got better and better. We discussed on the bus home all of our favorite meals and after everyone argued back and forth we decided that there is no clear winner of "best dinner of the week" since we all seemed to enjoy every last bite. It is amazing that after a week like that I can come home heavier than when I left.

It is easy for me to discuss the dinners because of the talent we have in our kitchen but they only do dinner so we are on our own for breakfast and lunch. What we do for that is stop in the towns or the food trucks that follow us along for the week. Here are some of the memorable meals that we had this week:

Breakfast:

Reinhart family farms-egg souflee sandwiches on foccaccia with 3 different choices of cheese.

Slipstream-a bowl of yogurt with a homemade granola and fresh blueberries.

Farm Kids-a group of actual farm kids that make up a breakfast bowl with eggs, bacon and a host of other toppings. These kids amaze me with how hard they work.

Lunch:

Custom grilled cheese at a food stand. You could add bacon, which of course I did, and a fresh tomato slice, also did that. For something so simple these were really good.

Salad bar. That's right a salad bar! A new addition in the towns this year was new to us for sure and while I did not partake in this my teammates sure loved it.

Dessert:

Pie:
One tradition of ragbrai is eating pie. I did not partake every day on pie, mainly because I switched between that and the ice cream sandwiches. The last stop we made this year was just a quick stop at a church where there were some nice Amish folks selling probably the best peice of black raspberry pie I have ever had. If I had more time I would have had more.

The ice cream sandwiches:
Thelma's ice cream sandwiches is a food truck that seemed to expand this year. I saw them on the road and in the towns. I did only make 2 stops to Thelma's this year but that was more because the lines were so long. I did have my standard peanut butter cookie with chocolate ice cream in the middle the first time but then I branched out and got the peanut butter cookie with banana ice cream. I can't say which one was better because they were both incredibly good.

I think thay wraps up the food for this year. Next year I am really going to try weighing myself before and after just to see.

The final day

Day 7 was a really long day this year so taking Friday off may not have been a terrible idea. We started the day off with the team picture at 6 am. That was not really that bad since it seems like we were up at 5 am most mornings any way. After trying to muster up a sleepy smile we hopped on the bikes for a scheduled 71 mile ride. Of course with our bonus miles we ended up with almost 80 miles for the day to make my total for the week, even with the day off, to 413 miles. Not bad for a week!

We rolled into the meeting point about 2 pm and we were the last group in. It was nice to see so many teammates excited to see me but as it turns out, they were less than enthused to see me but they really wanted to get on the road. We did get rolling after a quick bite to eat at a local watering hole and the best part of ending in Davenport is the ride home is much shorter. We rolled into the "Irish Inn" about 6 pm with a quick flury of activity to get everything unloaded, although this year our incredible support staff of Don and Chris had everything off the truck already. That is when the hard part starts, the goodbyes.

After 5 years with team cuisine it amazes me how 25 strangers from incredibly different backgrounds can be so close after 1 week a year together especially when you consider all the riding and on little to no sleep all week. The goodbye is a little tough knowing it will be 1 year until we do it again and in most cases I will not even see them until we get back on the bus next year. Only 356 days until ragbrai 2019!

The art of the SAG

Being one of the youngest members of Team Cuisine you would think i would ride every day but when duty calls....

After a rough night in the tent I started to get ready for a relatively easy ride I found out one of the cars needed a driver. After 3 milliseconds I decided I would step up and take one for the team, at least that's what I was telling myself. So started the SAG.

After a gruelling 45 minute drive over hills that would make me wimper on a bike we had a great breakfast at Billy's High Hat in Iowa city. It was a neat little cafe lined with pictures of famous drummers throughout the years. It was a cool little spot. Post breakfast it was time to drive to the house for the night and unload the truck. Not really near as hard as riding. Wrapping up my day in the hammock getting caught up on the blog was really a nice way to "take one for the team" 

Dinner tonight was a special one because our hosts are Kurt and Kim who were the owners of Devotay, until recently, and were our chefs for a long time. Of course with 35 riders descending on their house they still let Morgan and beau handle the kitchen. It is what they do!  The dynamic duo of beau and morgan whipped up fish dinner! We had wahoo/ono that was so flaky that it almost melted in your mouth. Along side that was a kale & carrot salad, potatoes & onions, the last of the cucumbers with a vinegar sauce, more fresh baked local bread and a pineapples/onion mixture that may have been one of my weekly highlights of a team cuisine. For dessert we had a homemade pudding with coconuts. Pretty good way to finish up the week.

After dinner was time to head to the festival to see the Jayhawks, this year's big name band. It was pretty darn good and in have always liked this band but watching a concert in a setting like that just isn't the same. Too many people talking around you. Still a great night.

Thursday?

First off, I forgot to mention that Wednesday night in Newton we had some special guests, uncle jerry and aunt jo. Jerry is riding 3 days and jo is his support team. Jo has dined with us before but jerry was new to our world and it seemed like they both had a great time. It was really special to have them there!

As usual I'm lost in the week. I know there were no trees for the hammock Wednesday and rain in the forecast so it was tent for me. With the amazing houses we've stayed at this year I will not complain one bit. It did however adjust some body parts to add some more soreness to the body.

Thursday's ride may have been the toughest yet. A long day with a lot of hills I was physically fine but mentally wiped out. I never felt that great on the bike all day despite being physically ok but luckily, when thought all was lost we had a wonderfully paved road with a tail wind for the final 10 miles which really helped. The overnight house was close to town so that meant after dinner it was time to go down and see Pork Tornado rock out covers of pop songs with a heavy rock tinge. It was great to see these guys again and we had a blast. I did have to tent again that night and when we arrived back to camp late I realized that in left the sleeping pad in the truck and that was locked home or the night so I was a little concerned about the night but oh well.

Dinner was chicks night! Morgan came in to relieve Dan for the last few days and her uncle's family recipe for grilled/basted chicken was outstanding. Along with the chicken we had a green bean salad and an onion/yellow squash dish that made up in flavor for how ugly it was. We also had sweet corn for the first time at dinner (I have had it 4 times at lunches) as well as a wonderful bread baked by Dan's baker friend. To top off the meal Morgan made he famous chocolate cake. It was heavenly.

Hump day

Connection issues again. With no wifi and 20,000 texting at once I was not able to connect for the last few days. Honestly, it's been pretty nice.

Wednesday was culture day. Mike and I rolled into the town of State Center after about 25 of our 60 miles done and heard some good things about the town's library so we decided to add a little culture to our ride. On the way to the library we came across the grocery museum in town. It looked a lot like the western springs store did at the beginning. After that museum we went on to the library which is in an old Victorian house. We were thoughroily impressed with the library and after talking to a few locals we were sent to 2 other museums, the old schoolhouse and the newly opened train depot museum. We talked to the ex-history teacher/mayor and learned a lot about Iowa then we talked to his replacement as history teacher about the train lines. It was so crazy to have such a cool experience while biking.

Speaking of biking, it was a pretty decent day with a lot of stops for food as well as the culture bit we needed them. Turns out the elevation totals looked low for the whole day but it seems like it was all compacted in to the last 20 miles. Headwinds and hills were a bear and the worst part was the text from uncle jerry telling me how bad the last 20 would be as we had 22 miles to go. Turns out uncle jerry was right, it was brutal. I was really glad to off the bike.

Taco night! Starting with a beet salsa with edible flower then a bean mixture that was so delicious that's all I wanted to eat but then the 4 types of taco mixtures it was hard to choose, so i didn't. I had all 4. Again, flawless.

The best day yet

After a long Monday ride I was expecting to really just wash out of Tuesday's ride and phone it in but I was wrong!

Starting out 5 miles into the route is kind of sweet. After Monday I was willing to give up those miles despite actually already doing them ahead of time. We kicked off with some great bunch of Iowa's rolling hills. After a breakfast stop I launched up a hill and kept flying along for the next 15 minutes thinking I was the tour de France champ only to be brought crashing down to reality when I was told we had a tail wind all morning. Oh well, I still felt great. We ended up with about 55 miles today and they felt great. I even had some gas in the tank when we rolled in. It was a great day.

Ames is our overnight town tonight and I have been looking forward to this and for many reasons. First, despite zero allegiance to Iowa State I was really geeked up to ride my bike around the inside of the football stadium and it was really cool. Second, uncle jerry and aunt jo would be in town at their daughter Pam's house. I got a short visit in and got to see Pam's kids for the second time in a year so that was great. Third was our host. The Englemens would be our host for the second time and they seemed as excited as were we that we were staying and they have an incredible family and a beautiful house so the might has been a dream and it's still early. I would like to personally thank them for being part of team cuisine again. We'll see you in 10 more years!!!

Dinner was pasta night. We started with a local cabbage shredded with heirloom grape tomatoes then had a cauliflower risotto followed by 4 types of pasta. Honestly I was a little overwhelmed and lost track but there was spaghetti and a real wide pasta that looked like a lasagna noodle mixed with all sorts of veggies. We finished up the meal with a homemade sorbet made with 4 types of melons, grapes, basil and a few other things. That was really good but I feel like I am repeating myself when I tell you how good the dinner was because <enter yesterday's description here>.

Back at it tomorrow and I'm excited that I will eclipse my official training miles for the whole year for this week. I guess training is over!

Hot day with hills and distance

Due to connection issues again last night I was unable to post. I'm not sorry. It would have been a much saltier post. It was a long day and on top of that I was on kitchen clean up duty after dinner.

We kicked off the day with a grueling climb out of town that we had already done on Sunday while checking out the town. That was only the beginning. More hills kept us guessing most of the 80 mile day and an 8 mile stretch of headwinds to finish the day it was a tough one. Officially the day was 71 but with some "Bonus miles" we got to the house. The only reason I didn't melt down before the bonus miles was we actually cut off miles for Tuesday's ride because we were further down the route. That worked out at least.

Dinner was steak night! We had top sirloin that Dan (chef extrodinaire) grilled to perfection with mashed "beau"tatoes (beau is the jester chef), a mix of 3 fresh beans and a tomato/cucumber salad made with some local produce from one of our hosts guests. It was a highlight for sure. We finished the meal with a homemade carrot cake that was possibly the best I've ever had. As usual, another phenomenal meal but my one complaint is that they used too many dishes for me to clean.

Bonus miles!

Day 1, or as I am calling it this year, training day. With my lack of training miles this year today's official total of 43 would be my longest ride of the year. Not a good idea for ragbrai. Fortunately since team cuisine stays in houses overnight we get sometimes get BONUS MILES!!! Starting a few miles from the start at the beginning of the route had us at a total of 45 but that soon turned into 55 once we stopped in town for some good (not great) smoked pork butt we had to take a ride out another 10 miles to get to our house for the night but it might be worth it. We are on a sprawling estate overlooking some rolling Iowa hills. It's amazing! Glad we did the bonus miles!

One of my favorite phrases in the English language is "Breakfast for dinner" and my boys Beau and Dan whipped up one hell of a breakfast tonight. Smoked Berkshire pork belly, maple sausages, a Puerto Rican blood sausage, a frittata, an estrada, potatoes with leeks and a delicious scone covered with a buttermilk ricotta that may have made the meal. I am going to run out of superlatives to describe these dinners because each one is a gastric masterpiece. Hats off to the chefs again tonight. Well done gents.

And finally, Tall Tom's birthday was today and I forgot. I even rode with him for a good couple hours and didn't say a word. If you read this Tom, I am very sorry I forgot your birthday and you were stuck with me for your birthday.

Bus/grill day

Due to connection issues last night I was not able to post anything about the bus ride, but really, it was a bus ride. It's the usual routine of catching up to find out what's going on in each other's lives since we've last spoke and some times that has been since last ragbrai so it's a pleasurable ride, albeit long.

This year due to some distance challenges I volunteered to cook burgers(1/3#, grillmasters & ultimates), daisy skinless hot dogs and brats (regular and apple) from Mike's along with some American potato salad, creamy cole slaw and some garden pasta. It was a huge success and everyone had a great meal, granted it isn't the gourmet meal we will see tonight but it sure tasted great!!

Also, since I want to make sure he's happy, Don "the truck" got a steak. Don has been with Team Cuisine for a long time and is the backbone of the team. He knows where everything is in the truck and can fix anything we can break not without barking at us first but he is a major reason why this team runs so well and I always try to stay on his good side.