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Onawa is a small town in western Iowa, near the Missouri River. My brother Jeff and I rode over to the starting town of Onawa with his wife Mindy, their daughter Anna, and Mindy's mother. Jeff’s gear and my gear were in the back of Jeff’s new Envoy. We had five bikes on a bike carrier on the back of the Envoy. Two of the bikes were mine and Jeff’s, and the other three were for my brother Brian and his two sons Josh and Ryan. Jeff and I have road bikes while Brian and his sons have mountain bikes.
Jeff and I arrived in Onawa before Brian and Josh and Ryan, so we proceeded to set up our purple tent and unload the bikes. We were camping on a soccer field. Shortly after that, Mindy, her mom and Anna left for Omaha. They were going to spend a couple nights there and go to the zoo.
The tent that Jeff and I were using was the same one we used when we did RAGBRAI in 1995 and 1996. We were hoping that it would still keep us dry if we encountered any rain.
Many riders come as members of teams or clubs. Many of the teams have their own buses. Some are rather plain, while others have very interesting names and paint jobs. While on the drive across interstate 80 on our way to Onawa we saw one such bus with several naked inflatable dolls hanging out the windows. We also saw one bus broken down on a side road, with bikes being transferred to a livestock trailer.
Smaller groups of riders come in many different ways, including vans decorated with flamingos. Seems appropriate for Team Flamingo.
Showers are a necessity at the end of each days ride, but they are always questionable in regards to water temperature and pressure, and there is frequently a long line to use the showers. The showers are never free either, with the cost ranging from $3 to $5.
Traffic was heavy in the starting town of Onawa, as the bulk of the riders began showing up in the late afternoon. My mom rode over to Onawa with my brother Brian, his wife Sheryl and the two boys, Josh and Ryan.
A RAGBRAI tradition is for the riders to dip the back tire of their bike in the Missouri River. We had to ride about 8 miles to the west from our campground in order to get to the river, but we did it on Saturday evening.
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