What goes hand-in-hand with Iowa breweries? State-wide treasure and national claim to fame: RAGBRAI.  RAGBRAI is this thing that I love that I never had any intention to. I never in a million years thought I would EVER want to be that person that rides 40-80 miles per day for seven days in a row. I didn’t even think I still wanted to ride a bike on a regular basis. I mean, I have a car! But when my other half wooed me into bike rides in the Des Moines area with promises of cool bars and breweries along the bike trail, I decided to give it a go. And then the rides got further and further.And the 2014 route was announced and it was going through northern Iowa and was practically in my back yard. The next thing I knew, I was committed to training for RAGBRAI.

Photo courtesy of Bike Tech, Cedar Falls

Photo courtesy of Bike Tech, Cedar Falls

As it turns out, I did not realize until I was already to the point of no return that biking is a cult. Continue reading