We biked 500 MILES across IOWA! (Our 50th STATE) | RAGBRAI 2023

We're in our 50th state of Iowa and tomorrow morning we're kicking off our most challenging adventure yet. We're going to be biking 500 miles across the state of Iowa. Yes! We're here for an event called RAGBRAI which stands for the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. It started in 1973 and is the oldest, largest, and longest multi-day bicycle touring event in the world. In its first year it had 114 riders cycle the entire ride and now thousands of people ride it every year. And what makes this year extra special is that it's RAGBRAI's 50th anniversary and since it's our 50th state we just thought it was perfect to be here even though logistically it was pretty complex to get here. Over the past couple days we boarded our pup Kona and parked our van in Atlantic Canada where we're spending the summer and fall, flew to Chicago, rented a truck and drove to Iowa, picked up our bike rentals and drove across the state to the starting point of Sioux City, Iowa. And over the next seven days we're going to be riding 500 miles from here in Sioux City to Davenport going through some large cities like Des Moines and smaller towns along the way. We have a feeling it's going to be full of highs and some lows. Today is really testing my mental strength. But if we can make it it is going to be one of the most rewarding things we have ever done. But before we get started let's meet the She's a good cook and loves to get lost in a good book. It's Jen. He's a lover of good pillowy treats and if you give him a fly rod he might catch something to eat. It's Adam. She can bust a move and spit a rhyme and she can take down five tacos in record time. It's Catherine. And last but not least he's one with the banana and is riding straight from Atlanta. It's Elliot. And together they are Jake Knott from State Farm. One, two, three, Jake. So apparently if it's your first time doing rag brye you got to write virgin on the back of your leg. Awesome. Looking good. If sharpies leave tan lines I'm gonna have lots of weird looks the rest of the summer. Like a virgin riding rag brye for the very first time. Like a virgin. We're not only rag brye virgins but this is also our first time ever wearing bike shorts baby. Got all that cushion. Feels nice. It's also our first time using chamois butter. If you don't know what this is it's anti-chafe cream and it just goes all down in your nether region. That's moist. And yesterday was also my first time ever riding a road bike so it is a day of firsts. Here we go. We have officially started. I'm so excited like a kid on Christmas morning. Not gonna lie I'm pretty nervous for this. We are super active. We love to work out, hike, do things that challenge our bodies but we are not cyclists. Most we've ever cycled is 58 miles and we're doing more than that today. Just the first day and then we'll have six more to go but we're a mile in. Going up a slide hill. It's going well so far. The first few miles of the ride are going through Sioux City and it feels like we're getting a hero send-off. Everyone's on the street corners and the sidewalks just wishing us a happy ride and a good day. Yeah! This is a long hill. Oh my gosh. It just keeps going and going. I have to say Catherine is crushing this first big hill out of town. Way to go. Going down the first big hill. Oh man you get so much speed. This is what it's all about. This is fun. Alright first issue. We're not even out of Sioux City yet. I think I've got a flat tire. Low pressure in the back tire. So we're gonna go try to pump it up real quick. Nice and flat. Alright we took the tire off. Checked the tube. Make sure if any leaks were there. Couldn't really find anything. Then we put it back in. Put the tire back on. Let it all chain back up and just kind of pump it back up and see how it goes. Sure is nice to have knowledgeable friends. I'd have been up a creek on that one. Alright hopefully this tire holds up. I'm so thankful for Elliot. Learned a new skill there so that's cool. We're reunited. You the real MVP. Yeah. Getting on the bike is my least favorite part. I'm so not good at it. Every time we gain some momentum there's a train that stops us or just a ton of people and we have to stop and walk. So we're gonna walk across Iowa instead. We've decided. The traffic of bikes is as far as the eye can see right now. This is crazy. After a little traffic jam we are back on the road. We got a big hill coming. How you doing Jen? Absolutely thrived. You're crushing it Jen. It is just hills as far as the eye can see. Just up and down and up and down and up and down. Alright first cornfield pea break. And we never saw her again. I have corn in my pants now. There are little flakes of something in there. How was it? It was wonderful. It was very secluded and yeah. You got some. Yeah that's what's in my pants. All of this. After about 26 miles of riding and sometimes walking we made it to our first official town along Ragbri Kingsley. How we feeling? My bottom is tingling. Along the route there are different towns that will set up water stations, restrooms, activities or entertainment and food to buy to keep you fueled for the ride. Alright we saw our first corn stand and you can't say no to that. Look at these beauties. They take the whole cob here, dip it in a bucket, a crock pot of butter. So juicy. Those kernels just pop in your mouth. That is so good. That's some good corn. Oh yeah. Thank you. For our first true meal on Ragbri we're having Mr. Pork Chop which is an iconic food item here dating back to 1979. It is this juicy thick cut pork chop that they just cook over fire. I'm so freaking excited and we're eating it in someone's front yard which I think is just the perfect example of what Ragbri is. Oh yeah. Oh my god. That is so good. So juicy. Oh dude that is really good. Mr. Pork Chop you know what you're doing. I also just love that you just eat it with your hands. That's awesome. Yesterday during our new rider meeting they told us that the town of Kimby had more pie than people and that we had to stop here to get some pie so we got some strawberry rhubarb pie. That crust is so buttery. That is the pick-me-up I needed to hopefully get me the next 25 miles. It is just perfectly tangy and sweet. Something else that's good to know about Ragbri is that cash is king. These towns get really overwhelmed by the influx of people so self-service really doesn't work so don't plan to have much self-service and make sure you carry cash. We heard that 50 to 60 per person per day is usually enough which kind of seems like a lot so we brought $700 in cash total but we're hoping that we do not spend all of it. We freaking made it to Storm Lake. Oh my gosh. My longest bike ride ever. Yeah. Yes. Oh my gosh. We did it. We did it. One day down, six to go. So the main way to sleep during Ragbri is camping and you might be wondering how do you get all of your camping gear here and if you're using a charter they'll bring it for you but any Ragbri registered rider can actually put it on a semi-truck and they'll bring it to the camping area at the end of the day but we actually have a very important fifth team member Connie, Elliot's mom, who's transporting our stuff for us and she secured us a campsite right on the water. All right it's free shower time aka the lake. I had like salt crystals forming on me. That's how dirty I was. I just need to like clean my hair but boom go. What a day one. Oh my gosh. I knew Ragbri was going to be hard. That's why I was very nervous about it. I wouldn't say it was harder than I thought it would be but I was kind of hoping it'd be easier than I thought it would be and it wasn't. Yeah. I don't know. I think the hardest thing for me about it besides the heat was just feeling rushed. Like we, part of the experience of doing Ragbri is to stop at a bunch of fun stops and get food and rest and hang out but we just had to keep going. We were going too slow. We had all these issues at the beginning with the flat tire and then also with just tons of bike traffic. We basically walked. Super busy everywhere we went. Yeah it did get better. Bikes. It got better throughout the day but like all the lines at every food place were so long so it just makes you feel like you can't actually stop and do anything so that part was a little hard but hopefully tomorrow will be better. We'll maybe plan our day out a little bit better. Yeah but how I felt throughout the day the first half of the day it seemed I felt really good like my body felt good like my endurance and energy and all that then like the heat set in the second half of the day and like I was hoping that the second half of the route was gonna be more flat but there was just like all kinds of up and down up and down yeah there's a lot of elevation today yeah and tomorrow's gonna be a really long longer day I think so yeah I don't know. I'm proud of us though because we are not cyclists. I'm not 100% comfortable on a bike. This event is just very out of my comfort zone so I'm very proud of myself for biking 70 plus miles today. It's more than we've ever biked before. She won't say it and she doesn't think so but she rocked it. She did. I often was the last one in the group and I was often the last one too like we kind of just we were we were the last ones. Jen and Elliot crushed it especially Jen because Jen did not think she'd crush it and she crushed it. She was blazed by us several times. It was it was awesome yeah but for the rest of the night now that we're showered in the questionably questionably clean storm lake I feel better though yeah we're gonna go head to the food trucks and get some dinner because we did not eat enough. That's another thing we're gonna try to focus better on throughout the week. Just getting a lot of calories like that we did not eat enough food today and then we're gonna go rock out at a concert. This band called the spasmatics. We've both seen them in Austin their cover band are playing tonight so should be really fun. It is day two of rag brine despite what we said yesterday we actually have less miles and less elevation gain today which I'm pretty excited about. How are you feeling Elliot? Thriving at like 455 this morning everything was very stiff and hurt but a couple hours later I'm ready to hop on the bike. I think just like Elliot I was pretty stiff getting up now that I've moved around a little bit got the tent put away got everything ready to go I think I'm ready to hop back on knees are a little sore but we're gonna push through it and we're gonna conquer day two. Considering yesterday was the longest I've ever rode a bike I actually feel pretty solid today. What's interesting is I expected my knees to hurt because that's kind of an issue I've had but my knees feel great it's places I didn't expect like my wrists hurt right here hurts just like weird pains from just being like not really more like all day long. I think getting on the bike today should be a very specifically the seat should be a very memorable experience it'll be lasting imprinted into my brain and into your butt and into my butt so we'll see how it goes. When you think of Iowa you may think of corn and the start of day two took us past what felt like endless corn fields. The state of Iowa grows more corn than any state and more than most countries. In 2020 Iowa corn farmers grew 2.3 billion bushels of corn with 99% of it being field corn which is used to make feed fuel and thousands of other products so obviously it only made sense to take advantage of as much corn as we could We made it! Halfway done for the day and now we eat. We are in Lakeview, Iowa and we stopped off at this Latin American food truck and we got a couple arepas delicious and then this is a Peruvian poncho look at the size of this thing. All right the Peruvian poncho has a giant bratwurst under there, shoestring potatoes, grilled cheese here look like cheese curds and then a jalapeno crema on there all on a massive hoagie bun. I don't even know how I'm gonna attack this. This is gonna be an adventure. Oh my gosh I can't even like fold it up. Oh man this is gonna be a messy one. Oh yeah it's good. We also got a pina colada smoothie because it is definitely starting to get hot out and this thing is so good. Now it's more like juice it's just completely melted but it's still Got Thelma's ice cream sandwich right here. Chocolate chip peanut butter. Yeah You're sharing that with me right? Oh it's bomb. No line, five dollars straight from Des Moines. Oh yeah My cookie's like gooey. It has been so fun stopping in all these little towns along the way they've all been very nice and all the locals are super friendly and it's just been really fun to be able to experience a different side of Iowa that we probably never would have experienced so a huge thank you to all these communities for welcoming us. Oh my gosh this is tough. Oh wow this is a long hill. We are capable. We got this. Yes. That hill was freaking hard. Holy cow That may have been the toughest hill so far. I was barely moving. Welcome to Brita, the place to beta. That was a tough stretch. This is just a quick stop for us to get some water but then I found pickle pops which I've been wanting to try and we saw a slip and slide so we're gonna go do it. Tastes like pickles. I love pickles. It's like a seal. Here we go. Well the stop was supposed to just be for water but we did water. The pickle pops slip and slide and then we found Beekman's ice cream which we hear is a must along Ragpry and it's this homemade ice cream that's made in these crazy contraptions. I'm not even sure how to describe it but it was like churning it. It was super cool and we got peach and vanilla and root beer float. It is delicious. Super creamy ice cream. So so refreshing. That was an amazing stop and now we have around 13 miles until our home for the night. We made it. Good job Elliot. We knew Ragpry would have highs and lows and yesterday had a handful of lows. It was a very tough day but today was basically all just one high. It was so much fun minus that one very long hill. Connie had snagged us a campsite right by a rec center so the rest of the day was spent escaping the heat at the pool which was much needed. And tonight we're having a sleepover at Connie's Castle. Today is going to be our longest day yet at 83 miles and we do have the option later today to add a few extra miles to make it a century a full 100 miles. That option isn't until later in the day so we have some time to think about that but we're up early this morning with a beautiful sunrise because we're gonna need all the time we can get just to finish these 83 miles. To get out quicker this morning we decided to not have coffee until we got to the first town of Glidden so that was my first stop. I had to get some coffee and I went to a place called Coffee and Nosh and I also got this delicious looking steak bowl. For my breakfast I went to Chris Cakes which is an iconic Ragpry breakfast spot. You get unlimited pancakes and sausage for 10 bucks. They make the pancakes on this super cool contraption and then when you go up for seconds they throw them to you. You got to catch them on your plate. All right my friend here we go. And they are super solid pancakes. Typical Ragpry fashion we always have the intention to just keep going and not stop for a while but then you see a sign for goat selfies and you gotta get a selfie with a goat. This is the best ever. This is so freaking cute. So warm. Soft. That's so cute. I love it. That was probably the best stop of Ragpry so far. I wanted to take it with me. Can we put a trailer on the bike? Take one of the kids. Take one of the kids. After achieving one of our Ragpry bucket list items of seeing baby farm animals we still had lots of miles to make so we hit the road and kept on pedaling but things started to get a bit tough for us. These miles are really starting to catch up to us today. Got a strong headwind. It's warm. So we made frequent stops in the various towns to get lots of water, electrolytes, cold treats and food, quick naps, entertainment and see more goats. I'm dragging a bit and I'm not making it very far before I have to stop for some water but very conveniently the spot that we stopped at has more goats so enjoy a cute little goat montage. We're about to come up to the turnoff for the century loop and we have decided not to do that. We've been struggling and pushing all day long. I don't think a few extra miles is gonna be in the cards today. We're gonna save whatever energy we have left for just finishing Ragpry safely. That'll be a quite an accomplishment in itself. We are about to go down a crazy hill. The biggest of the day. I'm riding my brakes. That was a blast going down that hill. Now the hard part. This is hard. We said we wanted a challenge and we're getting it. Come on leg. This is a very long hill. Oh man. All right we are approaching Ames which is the end point of day three and also home to Iowa State and one thing that is super cool and something I've been looking forward to all day long is that we're gonna ride through the campus and through the football stadium. Go Cyclones. Cool. Check it out. We get to ride a bike into a football stadium. How cool The stadium has a dang hill. Just to see you. Out of here. It's me inside time. So this is where we are right now and right there is where we started. We have gone from there all the way to here on a bike using our own legs. That is just that is just crazy. So crazy and that is where we're ending. We are just a little bit under halfway there. I've been having these instant Vietnamese coffees that we found at Costco. It's by Copper Cow Coffee. It's a pour over and then you dump in the milk and sugar creamer here. Mix it all up. They are super good and as you can tell I need lots of them every morning. We all kind of look like we've been punched in the face this morning. The first thing Jen said to me was wow you look rough. We are strong. We are strong. We are capable. We are capable. We got this. We got this. Day four baby let's go. Today is the shortest day of rag ride. We are riding 50 miles to Des Moines which is the largest city in Iowa and also the state capital and it is predicted to be a record breaking day. They are estimating upwards of 100,000 riders so a bunch of locals hopping in for just this stretch of the ride and originally they were going for a Guinness World Record today but apparently the record they were going for is no longer recognized but we're going to still count the record in our hearts. We are going to be record holders today. All right the update that no one asked for but you're all probably secretly wondering how are our butts doing and honestly my butt doesn't hurt that bad. There's definitely some pain there but I thought it would be a lot worse. What's really getting me is a different area down there if you know what I mean. I didn't realize that would hurt so much but we're making it work. You kind of just get used to it. Sometimes it gets numb. My butt is pretty sore but the good thing is it's not any worse than what it was at the end of the first day and it's a manageable pain. You kind of forget about it throughout the day and the worst is when you get on the bike for the first time at the beginning of the day. That is a shock to the system. One thing I love about rag ride is that it's basically a big fundraiser for all of these small towns in Iowa. As you stop in them make sure to support local businesses. We're in Slater right now and they were doing a fundraiser to build a new library community center and they're selling stickers so we got two of them and it says biking is greater in Slater and I love me a rhyme so I had to get one or two. Thank you Slater! So a fear today was that it was just going to be like insane traffic and just too many bikes to be enjoyable and I think it is busier. It definitely feels busier but it's not. The etiquette doesn't seem as good today. A lot of people are creating like a wall where they take up a whole lane and no one can pass so that's been a little tricky but overall not too bad so far. Let's go! Oh my gosh! This is gonna be a super soaker right here. Oh we're going! We're going! We made it to the town that we're gonna have lunch in but before we eat we're getting in this! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! That is beautiful! One, two, three! Thank you to the Polk City Firefighters! We came to a local spot called Rising Sun Cafe. I got a burger, Catherine got a Cuban sandwich. We are just loving this town. It's one of my favorite towns along the ride so far. It's just super cute. It has this really nice square and just the vibe is amazing. There's a band playing as you can probably hear because they are very bombastic. One of the first things I noticed when we entered town was a super cute place called The Creamery and I was hoping that they had ice cream and they do! Not only that they have puppy chow ice cream. Looks so good! Oh my gosh that's delicious! I got the cookie monster! Now that is effing good! A cookie monster! We see the big buildings of Des Moines! It's pretty cool. We're never able to see any buildings coming up to towns but we can see these because they are huge. We made it to Des Moines! That's one of the prettiest capitals we've seen. After being in small towns for the last few days it is so crazy to see large buildings and be in a big city and see the capital. This is just so surreal. We can't resist any cold water today so before we get to camp we're going for the polar plunge. We made it! During RAGBRAI we've camped in a variety of different areas. We've camped in parks. We camped in a rec center parking lot and last night we got to camp just outside of the Iowa State Football Stadium which was so cool and tonight we're camping at this giant park called Waterworks Park here in Des Moines and we have a very big night ahead of us and first up we get to take a real shower. Check out my forehead. It is dripping. Glistening. Glistening, dripping down my moobs. You do have to pay for showers at RAGBRAI so to avoid that we've been taking lots of free showers. We've showered in a lake. We showered at a pool. We showered at a water hose. I've showered in the sink but it feels like 103 degrees out today and like we said we're all just completely dripping in sweat so I think we're gonna splurge on a shower. It's eight dollars per person and I think it's going to be a hundred percent worth it. I'd say I feel like a new woman but wearing the exact same clothes I had on earlier because I have zero clean clothes left and I'm pretty sure I just got sweaty again making the walk back from the showers but it did feel nice. It was nice and cold but showering is not the only adventure we're having tonight. There is a huge party here, tons of food and we're gonna rock out to Leonard Skinner. Riding on a tractor with 50 of our best friends, closest friends. Hold on tight and um the woman who's who's driving the tractor said if you can find room there's room for you you can get on so we found room. Ragbri is all about experiences and that was definitely an experience that we did not expect to have. I'm so nervous for today. Today and tomorrow are going to be the hardest days of Ragbri. Today is anywhere between 82 to 90 miles depending on where you read with about 3600 feet of elevation and to top it all off the heat index is going to be 106, 106. So our goal today is to hydrate often, make quick and efficient stops and get to the end safely. One of the coolest things about this experience for us is getting to meet a lot of you along the way. We've gotten to meet so many incredible people and we just came across some subscribers that had a sign for us and for Jen and Elliot and I've never had a sign made for me before and that just completely made my day. Gave me the energy to tackle this extremely hard day because I am struggling. I'm already struggling and we're not that far into it. It's been tough this morning. Very steep hills coming out of town. I think my legs have just reached their breaking point. Oh my gosh. Everything is just extra hard today. Oh we got this, we got this. It's very humid. Warm already. Still only seven o'clock. It's already pretty warm and humid. Absolutely soaked already. These legs have taken me over 250 miles and I can finish this. I just really want to nap. I got all of yesterday left. Oh my god. Oh this is a joke. It's gotta be a joke. Is it a nightmare or a joke? I'm hoping it's a joke. I forgot that today has a three mile stretch of gravel. There's a bridge out so they're routing around it. It's all gravel. We have road bikes not equipped for gravel. We're just gonna take our time. I am not a fan of the gravel. I've kind of skidded a few times already. Okay take it slow, take it slow. I know Katherine doesn't like it. Some sections are not smooth and sandy and rocky and very bumpy and washboarded and there was a hill. The vibration of this is making my hands and fingers turn completely numb. Oh my gosh. I survived the gravel. We are back on pavement. That was absolutely terrifying for me. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. That was pretty rough. That was so scary. They made it seem like it was going to be like really really smooth and I don't think it was really smooth. I need to like decompress. That was so stressful. I was like I was having like a panic attack. I just kept talking the whole time going like bad word bad word bad word. That was not fun. What'd you think? That was literally the worst like nightmarish. Jen, I was cursing the entire time. Like I I walked up some of that. That was so scary. We did it. We did it. No more gravel for us to ride. Or ever again. Ever again. No. All right Colfax you win for the steepest hill so far. Holy heck. I heard rumors of this hill earlier. Yeah. Steepest hill I've ever climbed in my life. Made it out alive. While we may have conquered quite possibly the worst hill of Ragbri, the hills were far from over. Today is really testing my mental strength. It's the day of hills and slight mental breakdowns. But after what felt like endless climbs, it was time for one of the best parts of the day. We have made it to the fourth town which is the meeting town. We have met up with Connie, Elliot's mom. I've never been so happy to see her. Here they go. This is our first time feeling AC in days and it feels so good. So good. If I could do it with my toes, I'd have three. Tastes even better sitting in the AC. This sandwich is heaven in a bite. I'm so happy right now. Also got a Scotch-A-Roo which is one of my favorite desserts. I already took a bite so I know how good it is. All right we are back on the road and my goal for the rest of the day is to just make it. We're gonna stop a lot. And that is exactly what we did. The rest of the day was a grind but we stopped often to rest and get lots of water and electrolytes. And we managed to have a little bit of fun too. We made it to our final town of the day but don't get it wrong we still have 25 miles left but we did find my favorite guy on the route. The guy with the cold plunge tubs and we're getting them. Yeah last night you're my favorite guy on the route. I don't know if we can all fit. Let's do it Adam. Okay all right. Oh my gosh it feels so good. Jin you gotta get down. Oh no. That's our first force lift. Oh my god. They said it wasn't possible. They said it wasn't possible. Jin sit down lower. Jelly whelling. We're gonna put our heads on three okay. Three two one go okay. Three two one. All right. I think we're stuck. Wait will you just pull us to the next town? Does this thing have wheels? This is the best thing. That was amazing. I gotta say I am so proud of Katherine. Today is really difficult. This week is really difficult. They go from basically no cycling experience on a rented bike going for seven days in a row of hard cycling. We've done difficult hikes that are as hard as these days but not seven days in a row like this. And she's crushing it. It's hard. It's difficult. It's hot. Lots of elevation. Lots of miles. She's just taking it all in stride. We made it only a bajillion hours later. Technically after the route closed and we started before sunrise. Oh my gosh. That was the quite possibly the most physically and mentally challenging day of my entire life. And we have to basically do it again tomorrow. I'm so tired. Oh baby. Oh my gosh. Connie you're the goat. Truly the goat. The best ever. The best ever. We would be lost without Connie. We'd be dead. We'd be dead without Connie. It is day six of rag ride. I cannot believe that I have been on this bike for six days now and today is very similar to yesterday. It is about 80 miles. There's a good amount of elevation but thankfully it is less than yesterday and it is super hot. And as you can probably tell the sun is fully out today so it feels even hotter. And our goal today is just to have mental fortitude to get through the day. We're all still really tired from yesterday so it just feels extra hard today. We're stopping a ton for water. We're actually halfway through the day already. We're about 40 miles in and we're stopping for lunch and to be honest we don't really plan to make any fun stops today. Our goal is just to get to camp as early as possible so we can relax. So we'll see you when we get there. I've never been so happy to see you. It's a journey. I'm glad it's done. Today was a day. It was a day. It was. There's a reason we didn't film today and it's because we knew it would be kind of a repeat of yesterday and all I basically did was complain. So we were trying to save you guys from that but and we just wanted to focus on getting here. Holy cow. It was a day. The morning was pretty good. Yeah it was. The morning was actually pretty great. I was in really good spirits. Again another nice sunrise. Pretty smooth ride. Started out with hills pretty quickly but then once that sun came in and just kept going the temperature kept climbing and climbing and climbing and it was just so hot and so muggy and it pushed us to our limits and way beyond. Way beyond. It felt like we were riding in an oven with a hairdryer blowing on us. That's the perfect expression right there. Some lady said the heat index was 112. I don't know if that's true but I am dripping. It had to be close. I have ice. I put ice down my shirt to cool me off right now because I am just dripping no amount of water. No amount of element. Yeah that's what I was about to say. No amount of like water we could splash on ourselves. Like electrolytes. This is my cooling rag I had. Like nothing would like quench your thirst or like cool you down. Yeah we got here way later than we hoped but towards the end. Yeah we got here. Had to take a lot of breaks to drink. 6 30. We started at like 5 45. But yeah it was a tough day. It's like 13 hours. Yeah it was a tough day but I'm proud of us for making it through. Yeah. And I'm really proud of us for listening to our bodies when we needed to because we easily could have passed out. Like no one should be outside doing what we're doing in this temperature. It's dangerous but we just listened to our bodies. Stopped often. We stopped a lot. Didn't worry about what time we got here. Just wanted to get here safe. Yeah. But man. We did it. I'm really glad it's over. Yeah I'm so glad. So glad to get off that bike. Yeah. Today. Tomorrow is gonna be a very very exciting day. We were trying to get our sleeping area set up for the night and kind of get all of our stuff organized and a siren started going off. There's a thunderstorm coming. Apparently if we hear this we have to go take cover and shelter inside a building. What a strange day. Shelter guys. 70 mile an hour wind. The wind was dead quiet and then all of a sudden there was a very very strong wind. The trees were going crazy. The tents were flipping and flopping. It got intense real fast. Two hours later we get to go back to camp to check out what it's like. So far some tents look totally fine and some are not looking so hot. The castle has seen better days but it's still standing. It's pretty dry I think. Your bed's nice and dry mom. Overall we fared okay. Yeah pretty good. Wowzers. I mean it looks like a tornado went through that's because that's how we threw it all in. This is a little sopping wet. All right tomorrow's a very very very big day so now that we've dried our tent out a little bit we should probably get some sleep. All right one more ride. Last day of brag ride day seven. I cannot believe that we are at the end of this. At the end of day one I honestly was not sure if both of us would make it to the end but I am just so proud of us and it is going to be the best feeling ever to get to the Mississippi River. The day was full of focus on the goal that we were so close to achieving. We pedaled through farmland and small towns and around 40 miles in we caught our first glimpse of the mighty Mississippi. The body of water that just under 30 miles east would mark the end of this adventure and where we dip our front tire to signify completing the journey. And as we approached the finish line it was hard to not reflect on our journey to visit all 50 states. During the last four years we have experienced so much of what makes the U.S. a beautiful country full of diverse scenery. We have visited its deserts and canyons, explored islands, slept with epic mountain views, watched glaciers calve, checked out big cities and small towns, found hidden gems and unexpected places, met amazing people and now we are riding across an entire state. Growing up I never had a desire to travel or be outdoors and if you would have told me seven years ago that I would be biking across Iowa or heck even living in a van I would have laughed and told you you were crazy. It's just amazing what can happen when you push yourself a little bit out of your comfort zone and we are so grateful for all the big, small, happy and tough moments over the years that led us here today. We just saw a sign that we have 10 miles to go and holy cow the emotions just hit me like a ton of bricks. I can't believe I did this. I can't believe it. We just rolled up to the Davenport sign. We are in Davenport. I think we just have like a mile and a half until we can dunk our tires in the Mississippi River. Oh my gosh. We did it. Bagpride was one of the most challenging and rewarding things that we have ever done. It pushed us beyond our limits at times and showed us that we are capable of more than we ever imagined. There were many moments of doubt, suffering and exhaustion but equally as many moments of joy, strength, pride and belly aching laughs and as we sit here one month later editing this video and reliving it all, the tough moments have faded away and those are the moments that we remember. A massive thank you to everyone that worked hard on the event and for all the towns for welcoming thousands of cyclists and a huge thank you to Connie for being the best support crew. We appreciate everything you did for us along the ride from finding us campsites, having snacks and cold drinks for us and just encouraging us along the way and to our amazing friends Jen and Elliot, thank you for being crazy enough to ride across an entire state with us and supporting us through the highs and lows. We love y'all and we can't imagine having this experience with anyone else. Tonight we're having a sleepover in Connie's castle. We're being forced to do this. No you're not. You're the one that wanted to, really? They won't let us go. But you are the one that wanted to minimize all activities in the morning. No, I didn't know that until two hours ago. So since our team name is Jake, not from State Farm, whenever we're trying to see if everyone's assembled we go Jake and then everyone else yells khakis. What are you wearing Jake? Jake from State Farm. We needed a little end of the ride pickle me up. I picked up this burger a couple towns ago just because you know I was thinking of my future self. Thank you past Adam. Stay nice and hot in his bag. Yep. What can I do for you? Throw my bike in the river. I'm done with it. I love the smell of manure in the morning. And then we're gonna do the parent track like shake or whatever. Yeah and like and then yeah. All right ready? Look at that booty. Look at those legs. Oh Catherine. Extra junk in the trunk today.