Another year, another birthday, this time the twenty-fifth.
And the weather on this one was as bad as the weather was good the year before. In fact, I have no doubt that the weather on RAGBRAI XXV was the worst, the most difficult the ride has ever experienced. The humidity was in the 90s the entire week. And it was hot, hotter, hottest. Overcast skies through the middle of the week, and a drizzle at least one morning helped, but then the sun came out with ferocity Thursday afternoon and stayed out all day Friday and Saturday.
There were places on the road at the bottom of hills and in sheltered areas untouched by breezes where the temperature had to be well over 100 degrees.
The route was no help. The first day, Missouri Valley to Red Oak, was 82 miles of unrelenting hills. The rest of the route went mainly through southern Iowa, overnighting after Red Oak in Creston, Des Moines, Chariton, Bloomfield and Fairfield and ending in Fort Madison.
I knew it was a difficult route from the start, writing in the February announcement story, "This year's route could be characterized as the answer to a masochist's dream -- it is guaranteed to make strong men weep, strong women stronger and young children old." And that was before anyone knew anything about the weather.
John Karras and Ann Karras, Ragbrai: Everyone Pronounces It Wrong
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