In less than 16 hours I will be embarking on the start of a 185-mile journey across the middle of Iowa on two wheels, powered only by my legs and sense of determination.   It is something I have been training for (368 miles down) and preparing for several months, finally culminating in actually being able to do it and succeed.   It’s RAGBRAI, The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, and it’s going on right now, and I’m joining in for 3 days of bicycling and fun.

I sure hope I’m ready.

The three days I’m doing are as follows:

Tuesday: Algona to Clear Lake, a distance of 51.3 miles total

Wednesday: Clear Lake to Charles City, a distance of 51.7 miles total

Thursday: Charles City to Waterloo, a distance  of 82.7 miles total

If you’re really curious, all Daily Maps can be found HERE.

As with all RAGBRAI days, each route passes through various small towns who set up food vendors, entertainment, and generally turn out to welcome all the riders.   It’s not a race but more of a tour, so stopping and smelling the roses (or the cow yards, as it might be) is encouraged.   I love stopping at the little homemade roadside stands, the ones manned by kids and their family, selling homemade rolls or cookies or lemonade.   They light up when you stop to buy something or sign their guestbook or just have a chat.   I love that.

Each night the overnight towns provide lots of entertainment and opportunities to party and have fun.   I’m looking forward to the Spin Doctors concert on Tuesday night in Clear Lake.

I will be live Tweeting my journey and encourage you to follow along if you don’t already — I tweet at @NathanPralle — and I’ll also be updating Facebook with pictures and status updates as I can (www.facebook.com/NathanPralle) so keep track of me there, too.

I’m ready to spin some wheels and grind out some miles!