Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Chewey’s Salon Chair #2 – RAGBRAI Stories with Jeremy Williams

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Chewey’s Salon Chair #2 – RAGBRAI Stories with Jeremy Williams · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:00
  Go right. Okay. Yeah. Uh, this is podcast number two. Uh, this time we are back in the compound, um, in my backyard in, um, in Rochester. Um- You have the guard dogs... I, we have guard dogs.
• 0:14
  Uh, I have my buddy Jeremy Williams. Uh, he's from Rochester. He's a lifelong RAGBRAI guy, so we're gonna talk a little bit of RAGBRAI tonight. Um, probably talk about a few other things.
• 0:24
  He- I'm sure he's got an attitude about e-bikes. [laughs] Oh, god, bikes. And, and, and by the way, Greg, I, just so you guys know that... 'Cause Greg's the only one that'll listen to this podcast probably.
• 0:34
  Um, Jeremy also made us a... What'd you, what'd the beer did you bring tonight?
• 0:39
  It's a, it's a brown ale that I made and I, it kind of failed because I messed up the mash 'cause I was trying to hurry, but it didn't turn out too bad, so maybe you can call it a mild instead of a brown.
• 0:53
  Stand by, we'll judge this. All right. Give, let, let Ronald have a taste. A little taste. That's decent. That's good. It's- Yeah... it's kinda warm 'cause it's been on the back of my bike all night.
• 1:05
  We just, uh, we just finished doing about, I don't know, 15, 18 miles- Yeah... just riding around. We went to, uh, Little Thesis. We, we'd give them a shout-out. Little...
• 1:13
  You're, you're, you're combining breweries here... Oh, Jesus Christ, I just did, yeah.
• 1:16
  [laughs] Um, we went to Thesis, one of the microbreweries in Rochester, and they were so busy that we actually couldn't get a table so we grabbed a couple crowlers and went and sat in a park and had a couple beers and they didn't make them back here, so they get no- Yeah...
• 1:28
  they get no props tonight. It's- They were good... it's all about Jeremy's homemade beer tonight. So let's just get into it. Um, Jeremy has done how many RAGBRAIs? Well,
• 1:41
  my dad started going on RAGBRAI in 1979, so I witnessed, experienced my first RAGBRAI in '79, and I would've been four.
• 1:53
  And, uh, the first RAGBRAI I rode on was in 1984, and I would've been nine. I rode from Glenwood, Iowa, which is my hometown, to Shenandoah, Iowa,
• 2:08
  and I rode with my mom and my uncle, my Uncle John, who went with us that day. My dad didn't ride with us that day. I think he was... I think he rode with us for part of the day. So in '84 I think I rode that one day.
• 2:24
  I'm, you're testing my memory here. I was just a kid. So '84 I rode a day, and then '85 through '87 I think I rode two days. I ro- I generally would ride the first day and the last day, 'cause my dad was going.
• 2:39
  My mom and I would go drop him off at the start. I would ride the day, and then my mom and I would go home, and then we'd go out to pick him up at the end of RAGBRAI and then I would ride the last day.
• 2:50
  And did your dad do 'em from the start? Yeah, he always did- The first year? Yeah. Well, no, no, the first RAGBRAI was, oh, '73, '72 maybe.
• 2:59
  Okay, so he started a few years in, but he did- He started, he started like, oh, seven or eight or something was his first one. And he did, every one he did, he did all the miles until just recently. Yeah.
• 3:09
  When, I mean, he's, he's 72 now, so, I mean, he had some heart things a, a while back, but he still goes, I mean, and he rides. But yeah, he doesn't do the whole thing anymore. He had a pretty good claim to fame, though.
• 3:21
  That he had, oh, 35, 40 where he did, like, every mile. I mean, he went it all. I think that was, when I first met him, that's where he was still in that- Yeah... that hunt, yeah. So
• 3:32
  yeah, so '84 through '87 I, I did parts of the rides, but I rode on those ones. And then in '88 was when I did my first full RAGBRAI, so I'd have been 13.
• 3:45
  I did my first full RAGBRAI, and I've been doing the whole thing ever since. Well, until this year. So what are your thoughts on not having it at all? It, it stank. I mean, you know, it's, it's the time where
• 4:03
  I get to spend, like, a whole week without kids or wife or, I mean, w- kinda one on one with my dad. It's- So you understand that Megan's gonna hear this. Oh, she'll, she'll probably hear it.
• 4:16
  She'll be one of four people that'll listen to this, so you're in trouble now. [laughs] I'm in trouble now.
• 4:19
  But just getting that one-on-one time with my dad that I don't get anymore, and I, I really, really miss that, and I'm hoping sometime this year we can plan s- an alternate thing to get kind of a similar experience with intimate ti- It, it would still be intimate even if the kids and the wife were there, because you don't have the distraction of work or,
• 4:41
  I mean, all, all that other stuff that kinda just hangs over your head on a daily basis. But, uh, on top of not seeing my dad, our, our group is small. We're not... I mean, you see these RAGBRAI groups, like,
• 4:53
  oh, the, the pork- uh, the po- potbe- what are they called? Potbelly Pedalers or... They're huge groups. Or some of these huge teams that are out there, they're, they're 20, 30, 40 people.
• 5:06
  They're, they're, they're huge, and our team's eight. We try to keep it to less than 10. And you guys pretty much stay in houses. You don't really- Yep.
• 5:14
  We, we line up private housing and, and generally we've been doing it for so long that a lot of the housing we stay in, we've stayed in before.
• 5:23
  It's like when we go to a town, I've been to towns where it's like the third, fourth time we've stayed with the same people since we've been doing it for so many years.
• 5:32
  But yeah, so you're seeing people that you've seen before and it's, it's time to reconnect and, and then I have... Our family, our, our group's small and it's, it's really kind of a family group.
• 5:44
  I mean, last year we had... It was me, my dad, my wife's cousin, my wife's uncle, and then a father-son, so family. Uh, a friend of mine from college, Mikey, and very close friend.
• 6:01
  L- I mean, feels like family. I've, I've known him for 20, 25 years. I mean, it's, it's a very s- a close-knit, tight group. And you miss that, you know? It's, it's, it's... It was really hard not having it.
• 6:14
  You, you tried to adapt. I mean, I, I still took the week off work. I was still doing rides that week, like me, Megan, my wife, and my son, Dexter, did a, did the Plainview Trail.
• 6:27
  Another day I took, took my daughter, Ellie, and then Dexter again, we went down and rode down to Harmony on the, on the Red River Trail. Did you, did you join in with any of the, what were they calling it?
• 6:37
  The, um, R- River... There was a group of people from RAGBRAI. I don't remember how many teams or buses that went down and stayed in Lanesboro and went out and kind of did their own riding off of that. No, I didn't do...
• 6:48
  We're socially distanced, man. [laughs] Well, you still should be able to do that on a bike. Um, so your feelings on the fact that RAGBRAI split up after all that whole mess, what do you think about that?
• 7:00
  It's not- Since you've been involved with it for so long... them not having it this year? I mean, I- Well, no, no, no, not that so much that there was going to be two this year... Oh, the bike, the Iowa ride- Yeah...
• 7:09
  with, with the old RAGBRAI director. That was, that was very crazy. I mean, I didn't, I didn't really understand. It's...
• 7:18
  Honestly, in my opinion, it, it felt to me like he had kind of an, an idea of doing something ahead of time, and this is all speculation, I don't know.
• 7:29
  I don't, I don't have any secret connections or inside sources or anything, but just what I saw that was publicly available.
• 7:36
  I kind of felt like he had an idea that he wanted to, wanted to expand his brand beyond RAGBRAI, and then kind of butted heads with RAGBRAI and kind of viewed it as an opportunity, like- So the whole mess with the dude that was giving the Busch Beer, all that was just...
• 7:56
  And then his comments that he was supposed to say something because Des Moines Register's owned by... Oh, it's owned by the G- is it Gannett? It's the same company that owns USA Today. I mean, it's a- Right, yeah...
• 8:07
  it's a big group And they were, and they had... And so that whole thing is just, he just kind of blew that out of proportion, you think, just so he could blow it up and get out of there? I, I kind of got that feeling.
• 8:16
  I mean, I think he had a legitimate beef. I mean, but I have legitimate beefs with my employers every once in a while, but it, it's just kind of, it's my own thing.
• 8:27
  But he, he was in a position of power, you know, and, "I kind of want to start something different," and here was an opportunity to kind of make that separation. So what do you think's gonna happen next year? I'm...
• 8:39
  I would actually be surprised if he pulls off his... 'Cause he moved away. I mean, I think he moved to Arizona. He's running the Tour de Tucson now. He's running that?
• 8:49
  I, I'm 99% sure he's- So Damian's not running that anymore? I haven't talked to Damian in forever, but I thought Damian Alexander ran that.
• 8:55
  I thought the TJ guy that was running RAGBRAI moved to Tucson and is, is part of that organization now. Interesting. So I don't even think he lives in Iowa anymore.
• 9:05
  And now when we get done talking, I'm gonna search it online. [laughs] Go look it up. And it's like, I'm gonna- Because, because alls we're doing is sitting here shooting this shit. We have no facts at all. Yeah.
• 9:12
  We're not fact-checking. This is all speculation. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't work here, yeah. [laughs] So good. So now that we've got serious shit out of the way- Oh... um,
• 9:23
  we just went for a bike ride, went to, like we talked about earlier, I think... I don't know if we have this on here or not, but I'm gonna throw this again in.
• 9:29
  We went out and actually had a couple beers, sat in the park. The trails are busy. They were busy. Um- Saw a city councilman... talked to a city councilman. Well, you did. He's your city councilman.
• 9:37
  He is my city councilman. He's a bike guy. Yeah, he's a bike guy. To the, uh... Yeah, he is. He's a weird... Although I'm done talking to him 'cause he's on a fucking e-bike. Oh, yeah.
• 9:46
  He's, he's got his, he's got- He does have an e-bike...
• 9:48
  yeah, he's got his reason, and I get, and I'm getting- You admitted to him, though, that if he has an e-bike and actually uses it correctly, that you would let it go... but he's using it, he's a city council person.
• 9:56
  He's using it to get to and from work and doesn't wanna sweat. I don't have a problem with that. All right. But if he's out, like- I, I think you just lost ha- half your listenership because you gave in to an e-bike.
• 10:06
  [laughs] No, I haven't given in to e-bikes for shit. I understa- as long as you're using it to, as a car rather than actually just going out and riding a bicycle, I'm starting to get to the...
• 10:15
  I, I'm, I've always understood that there's a reason for 'em. Um, I don't agree with 90% of the reason that people are riding them, though. Yeah. My, my dad is a perfect candidate for an e-bike. He's 72.
• 10:26
  He has a heart problem. He's a little, little overweight, you know? And- I haven't seen your dad in a while, but that surprises me 'cause your dad is, like, even though he's a... And he's a big guy.
• 10:36
  I mean, I- He's a big guy... he, he's a big guy, but he's tall. I mean, he's a, he's a- Well, he's taller than me. Yeah, he's tall... yeah, he's a, he's a big guy and he's a good cyclist.
• 10:43
  And, and him giving into an e-bike would be... I don't know, maybe, maybe in, what would it be? Eight years I'll be in that boat and maybe- [laughs]...
• 10:51
  I, may- maybe then I'll, maybe then I'll be on his side, but I'm not right now. No. You don't have any heart conditions. You're fine. As far as I know.
• 10:58
  [laughs] Otherwise, uh, how much riding have you been doing this summer? You guys did a couple backpacking, bike packing trips, didn't you? Oh, yeah, yeah, so kind of back to, I mean, losing RAGBRAI.
• 11:09
  I mean, it would've been, it would've been really tough kind of in my, I guess, pre-moving to Rochester days. I mean, when...
• 11:18
  It, I, I used to be the kind of rider that I, I would ride to get in shape for RAGBRAI, and then when RAGBRAI was over, I'd, I'd kind of hang my bike up. Yeah, I know, because we used to do Tuesday...
• 11:29
  Well, so Jeremy and I have done Tuesday night rides together for- Two-... 15 years... yeah, since 2004 or '05. Something like that, yeah. Yeah. And, and it would be,
• 11:39
  we would ride hard all summer long, and then it would kind of tail off 'cause when it got hot or whatever, and, and it, it got slower and slower.
• 11:46
  But you could always tell when RAGBRAI was coming because Jeremy would all of a sudden wanna [laughs] fucking do a- [laughs] We'd, we're doing 10 miles of beer drinking, and he wants to do a 30-mile ride before we have our first beer.
• 11:56
  And it's like, "Oh, RAGBRAI's coming up. Jeremy wants to train again." I gotta get in shape. Yeah. But yeah, I, I definitely... I mean,
• 12:04
  it's tough to admit this, but in my younger days up through, I mean, college, I mean- I, I was a roadie. I, I, I hate to admit it, but I w- I- You're still a roadie.
• 12:13
  I don't give a shit if your kids ride off-road I'm not a roadie. [laughs] Bullshit. You... The closest, the closest you come to riding off-road is watching your kids ride off-road. I'm a mountain bike team coach now.
• 12:23
  That's just sad to think about, really. I know.
• 12:25
  I'm actually watching- I, I've seen your mountain bike skills and they're- Oh, they're terrible I know it I'm watching YouTube videos and learning how to do bunny hops and wheelies, 'cause I wanna teach my kids how to do those things.
• 12:36
  Your kids will be teaching you. They will. They're already better off-road riders than I am. Nice. My daughter could ride me into the ground out at Game Haven. But I'm trying, I'm, I'm learning.
• 12:45
  But yeah, I mean, I was... I mean, I was your... I, I, I was never a racer, so don't, don't think that I was a racer. I mean, I was... But I was a roadie. I mean, I wore the, the tight shorts and the jerseys and...
• 12:58
  I mean, I was that wave. You still do. I'm not... I'm wearing knickers- That's because-... and a T-shirt That's because you came out and rode with me and you didn't- Oh, yeah... wanna be embarrassed.
• 13:07
  Otherwise, you're in that shit all the time. [laughs] I am not. But yeah, I mean, I was, I was a roadie, like, high school, college. I mean, I just wanted to ride fast. I mean, I always had...
• 13:17
  I mean, my first nice bike was a nice Trek aluminum bike, a Trek 1200 I think I got when I was 14. And, and what did you pay for that bike? Oh, geez. Not... It wasn't that much.
• 13:30
  I mean, it's- And the only reason I'm asking this is because- Well, my dad bought it for me And that, and that, what- I didn't buy my bike Okay, so your dad bought you a bike and paid probably, what, 400 bucks?
• 13:39
  4 or 500 bucks for it. Yeah. So what did you just pay for your daughter's bike? Oh, that, her, her- Her racing bike... her Marin- Yeah... mountain biking bike? 1,100. Yeah. And that was, and that was a really good price.
• 13:50
  Yeah, no shit. And that was a steal. That was a great price, yeah. [laughs] I was gonna say, that, that was a really good deal. So you're...
• 13:54
  So in other words, you've doubled the price of your bike just for your kid to ride off-road. Yeah, I know. But yeah, I mean, I, I had that bike, which is a great bike. I still have it. I have the frame.
• 14:03
  The, the parts have been, been cannibalized for- Do you have the frame down in your basement? I do. I still have my old Trek 1200 frame. I was gonna say.
• 14:10
  It's, it's hard, it's hard to use for anything now because it's, it's... it was the old seven-speed with the 126. Isn't that right? 126 rear spacing. Mm-hmm. And everything now is, what, 130?
• 14:20
  Yeah, so you're totally screwed. Well, I still, I still have the hub. Well, do you, do you still have the wheel set? I... Well, I think the wheel set, I think the, the, the rim broke, but I still have the hub.
• 14:28
  So it's- Can't we just bend that fucker out so it fits? You... Eh, it's an aluminum frame, though. I thought you weren't supposed to bend them out. Flex anything.
• 14:35
  [laughs] But yeah, I g- I got that bike, which, which was a great bike. It was back when 105 components were... I mean, they were sta- I guess they are still. But it was a nice bike.
• 14:44
  I rode that for a couple years and outgrew it, and then I got a Trek 2300. You understand I hate everything about Trek. I thought you- And you keep bringing this shit up...
• 14:53
  you used to ride, you used to ride for Trek Shh, shh. We're not talking about that right now. [laughs] I rode for a Trek bicycle shop. Like, I did then ride- Oh, okay Technically I don't...
• 15:01
  Well, maybe I did for a little bit, but that, that was just on RAGBRAI we rode for Trek. But yeah, I got that, that Trek 2300. It was a carbon main frame with a chromoly rear triangle and an aluminum fork. W- Great bike.
• 15:14
  Yep. You're good. It was purple. Oh, you had the... I had the orange. You had the purple ones? I had the purple Trek 2300. So it was- I still have that frame in my basement, too. Really? Yep.
• 15:25
  I should dig these back out and build them back up and- You should I could probably still ride the 2300, but the, the 1200's too small for me. But I rode that until I got to college. I mean, I grew up in Glenwood, Iowa.
• 15:38
  I mean, it was a small, small town where I was... Well, not that small, 5,000 people. But I'm teaching myself how to work on bikes. Luckily, I had a...
• 15:47
  My dad had a friend that managed a bike shop in Council Bluffs that would show me things.
• 15:52
  When I bought my 2300, when I went up to pick it up, he actually made me help him put it together, which was an am- a cool thing when I, I think I got it when I was 16.
• 16:02
  It was- Pretty good experience for any kid, I think Yeah. It was, it was awesome. He's like, "You gotta come get your bike." And I go, "Okay."
• 16:07
  And he's like, "But plan to be here an hour or two 'cause you're gonna help me put it together." So I went up there and helped put it together.
• 16:12
  I rode that bike into college, and then in college I lucked out 'cause I actually made some bicycling friends, and that's where I picked up that... You've seen this, the...
• 16:22
  I still ride it, that Raleigh Technium Pro road bike. Oh, hell yeah. Yep. Oh, that bike's beautiful. So the, the comp- Let's not push it. [laughs] It's okay. It's a 531. It's a beautiful bike. But yeah.
• 16:33
  It is, it is actually pretty. I know a couple guys that would... that just drool over stuff like that. But yeah, so that's...
• 16:38
  So the components off that 2300 got moved over to that bike, and I still have that, that bike's on my trainer now. That's a... But yeah, I need to dig it back up.
• 16:48
  But you can't put very wide tires on it, and so many of our rides now usually involve gravel and... [dog barks] But yeah, so get back to there, but I'm, I'm straying from your original question.
• 16:59
  What I've been doing now since there wasn't any RAGBRAI this year- Oh, you did throw a question out there, didn't you? Yeah, you did throw a question. Yeah. I, I, I got sidetracked. Oh, that...
• 17:06
  So, so the best part is now I get to figure out how this is gonna work [dog barks] with dogs barking. Mm. And you can actually hear those little turds back there.
• 17:12
  [laughs] I think there's, there's probably a deer out in the backyard. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna shut my mic down. You go ahead and talk. I'm gonna shut my mic down and I'm gonna go yell at dogs. All right.
• 17:19
  But yeah, so we, we [dog barks] this year, back to the original part of the story, that I lucked out that when I came to Rochester, I kinda met Ron, which kinda helped getting me steered from being the RAGBRAI
• 17:35
  rider, where I, I train for RAGBRAI, RAGBRAI's over, I hang my bike up. And my wife used to actually ride quite a bit with me. Now she's gotten into running, but back then she was riding, and she would even tease me.
• 17:48
  It's like, "As soon as RAGBRAI gets over, you don't wanna ride anymore." And like, yeah. And that's true. I, I, I didn't notice that.
• 17:54
  Like, you missed Tuesday nights after RAGBRAI was- Yeah The week after RAGBRAI was over with, you can't find anybody to come out and do just a, a fun evening ride.
• 18:03
  It was like everybody needs a, a, a week or so to, like, b- get back into real life again. Because you have to admit, when you go on RAGBRAI- We would, the joke always was with the group I rode with it, was that
• 18:16
  if RAGBRAI was two weeks long, I would just go ride my bike and never wind up back in the real world again. I would just become a, a bike bum. Mm. Because, because one week is bad.
• 18:27
  At the end of the week, it, it takes you days. You go back to work and you just literally sit and, and stare at the walls. Like, "I could be on a fucking bike right now-" [laughs] "... instead of doing this shit."
• 18:37
  And, and, and, and then so we used to have guys that wanted us to ride across to Illinois. So we get to the o- we get to the end of, we get to the so- east side of Iowa, and they'd say, "Hey, let's ride to Chicago." Mm.
• 18:48
  And I'm like, "No, I'm not gonna do that because I will never go back to work." [laughs] "I'll never go back to real life. I'm just gonna go ri- just keep riding until I can't ride anymore."
• 18:56
  And, um, so I think, yeah, you're right. Uh, when, when RAGBRAI's over with, we, you don't do any riding anymore.
• 19:04
  You just kinda have to, like, sit down and become a real, a n- a normal, a normal person, as normal as you can possibly be, but. Yeah.
• 19:11
  But, but yeah, I mean, honestly, you, you're the one that kinda got me into let's ride after RAGBRAI at night. Oh, by the way, you can ride in the winter. I'm like, "No, you can't." You're like, "Yeah, you can."
• 19:24
  And you got me. My first winter I'd ever did was with you. And, I mean, back then, like, I owned two bikes.
• 19:32
  I owned that, the Raleigh I already talked about, and I owned, like, a really shitty Giant Rincon bike I bought when I went to college as a commuter. You were, you were with us when we, the, but what I would...
• 19:45
  I don't remember. I think we've talked about this on a different podcast, but when Tuesday Night Rides start, what became Tuesday Night Rides started was
• 19:53
  I called out some people and said, I don't think we were doing Tuesday Night Rides yet, and I said, there was a blizzard. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I, and I'm like- The blizzard ride, yeah... "Fuck that.
• 20:01
  The weathermen are wrong. It's not gonna snow." And I t- we all met down, from my place it's literally two miles, and from your place it's probably three, right? It was you and I and Dave Weber, maybe.
• 20:13
  [sighs] There's the three, four of us that went down there. I know. And, and literally what we did, we rode down to the Eagles club and just sat there and drank and made fun that it wasn't gonna snow enough to ride.
• 20:21
  And I carried my bike two fucking miles- [laughs]... down the middle of the road in about 19 inches of snow. Oh, yeah, it was awful.
• 20:29
  And then, and then after that we started the, well, we, we switched it from Wed- that was a Wednesday I think Yeah, it was Wednesdays, yeah...
• 20:35
  and then, and we switched it to Tuesday nights 'cause that would have worked, and we did it for, I mean, I mean, there were guys, not myself, but other guys did it,
• 20:42
  James and a couple other guys did every Tuesday night for- Years, yeah... 10 years probably before they actually had to miss because of- Kids and... kids and children and- Yeah... whatever.
• 20:53
  So it, it's kinda, it's fizzled, but it'll, it's starting to come back. We've done it a little bit more with it, but it's, uh...
• 20:58
  Um, I mean, and back [laughs] and then, you know, you can tell our age now too because back then our rides were we're gonna ride 20, 30 miles in the dead of winter, and back then there was no fat bikes, so we were literally riding mountain bikes on gravel roads- Yeah...
• 21:10
  out to a bar. And, and Trev- Trevor. Trevor would kill us... Trev- well, Trevor Olsen was the one that actually wiped us out because Trevor's like, Trevor would say, "Okay, I got a route.
• 21:18
  It's, um, it's 15 miles long, and by, we'll do the whole loop and it'll be 20 miles long." 25 miles later we still haven't gotten to the bar.
• 21:25
  [laughs] And then when we finally get to the bar, everybody's frozen, our lights are dying, you know, 'cause the lights were bad back then, and we're- Mm-hmm...
• 21:32
  by the time we got back to, into town everybody's like, "Fuck you, we're never riding with you again." Thank God he moved to Colorado so we're safe without him.
• 21:39
  We can, our, our, our rides, and you have to admit, our rides have gotten a little bit weaker. Yeah, they have. It's, it's tough to keep...
• 21:46
  I got the idea from guys in Kansas City to do this, and, and they, and, and they, they all had admitted that good luck trying to keep things going, trying to keep it fresh.
• 21:55
  It's hard to do it, and you've been doing it for that many years. Like, I think it's been, it's probably 15 years we've been doing this now.
• 22:01
  I mean, so even the, even the Tuesday night ride is, is very similar as, like, our RAGBRAI group. And it's not even just riding Tuesdays, just our riding group in general. I mean, it's, you see people come and go.
• 22:13
  You have people for a while. They leave. You get new people that come, and then they leave. And our RAGBRAI group's the same way.
• 22:19
  I mean, the, the group I'm riding with now on RAGBRAI is, other than my dad, is not the same group I was riding with 10 years ago, which isn't the same group I was riding with the 10 years before that. Right. Yeah.
• 22:32
  It just turns over. And, and, and there's nothing wrong with that. No, it's fine. The, the, the better part of it is is that there's a person like you, or in our Tuesday night group it was James, that was the consistent.
• 22:43
  Mm-hmm. That, that's kinda cool. All right, so we're almost out of beer. So, um, the other guys that we do these with, um, have top of the hill and they ring a bell. Uh, we just do this.
• 22:52
  [bottles clinking] Oh, that sounds good. Oh, there's a little bit of a splasher, but we're okay. [laughs] So bring your glass over. I can't, I can't walk that far. He's tied down.
• 23:10
  This is- What are we, what are we drinking here? This, this is LTS. This is the stuff that we were drinking, uh, the other night when you and I were there. Oh, Tuesday.
• 23:17
  We've seen you more often recently on Tuesday nights than we used to. Well, I think my coaching career has ended. Oh, that's too bad. No, it's not [laughs] actually.
• 23:26
  It's- I'm, I'm actually, someday, someday there's gonna be a podcast that I don't even know if it'll ever get published at all, and I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna let people have it about coaching.
• 23:37
  So we're out of time, you telling me? Oh, no, we got, like, seven minutes. Oh, so what, I'm trying to get back.
• 23:44
  So to, to wrap it up, in the, in the seven-minute wrap-up, you asked kinda what was it like not having a- But I actually asked you a question...
• 23:51
  you did, and I k- I keep sidetracking us, and then when I- Yeah, this, so-... when I try to bring us back, then you sidetrack us... I, okay, stand by.
• 23:58
  Before you finish your RAGBRAI story, I have one more story to tell before you tell your RAGBRAI story. All right.
• 24:02
  Because this is where this goes, because if you ever talk to people from RAGBRAI, that's all they have is a million RAGBRAI stories. Oh, everybody has a million RAGBRAI stories.
• 24:10
  And, and we've had bonfires outside here, and we start talking RAGBRAI stories, and my wife will come out, and she's never been to them. She's like, "I can't fucking stand listening to you guys."
• 24:19
  [laughs] Because, because, because if you're not there, they're not that, they're- They're kind of interesting, but they're really not Mm-hmm 'Cause if you don't participate, if you've never experienced it, it, it gets to be that way.
• 24:29
  The only thing I'll tell you about that night was, um, and this is, there's a... Um, uh, we're gonna go over it because I have to tell the story. So my wife doesn't drink beer,
• 24:40
  but whenever she goes on her trips, lighthouses, whatever she's doing, she always brings me back microbreweries. Oh, and whiskey. And whiskey. Well, and, and the one day she was...
• 24:49
  I can't remember where she was at, Outer Banks or something. She was looking for a microbrewery. Um, there was a lady planting flowers. She asked her for directions. The lady goes, "Well, does he like moonshine?"
• 25:00
  Ooh, I think I'd drink- Yeah... some of that moonshine. Yeah, yeah. So, so I'm... She's like, "Well, probably," so she brought us back some moonshine from this lady.
• 25:09
  And Jeremy and his dad were out here, and I think this was probably the second time we met your dad, and we were having a bonfire and there were some other people out here, and I had to fucking hide the moonshine because- [laughs]...
• 25:18
  you and your dad were gonna drink it all. They're like, "Oh, this is the greatest ever." And it was really, it was smooth, it was fantastic tasting.
• 25:24
  It was everything you would want in a moonshine, and you clowns were telling old stories about RAGBRAI's that nobody else had even understood, and drinking all my moonshine. So literally, we cut you off.
• 25:36
  I think the only reason we came out here, well, we wanted to see you of course, but my dad was having, like, bike problems, and all of, like, the bike mechanics he took to in his hometown couldn't figure it out, and you figured it out.
• 25:48
  It's like having a brake, brake problem or something. Hmm. And you finally figured out what the issue was. [coughs] Luckily. Yeah. No, that wasn't... That was just, that was a beer cough. Yeah. So- Oh... finish. No, no.
• 26:02
  So it's not actually a RAGBRAI story. You were asking about, like, so what did I do this year since there wasn't a RAGBRAI? And it's like, I'm trying to give you credit.
• 26:10
  We're saying I've, I met you, and then by starting rides with you, and then with James, and George, and all these other people.
• 26:19
  Now, we have, like, Paul and Brad, that luckily we have a great community, so having something like RAGBRAI not happen, which in the old days before I moved here, I mean, it would've sucked. I would've hated it.
• 26:34
  It would, it would've been awful. But now, today, like, okay, there's no RAGBRAI. Let's do something. So we've been, we've been kinda planning.
• 26:44
  So me and then, and then a few guys went to Chequamegon and did, like, a four-day bike packing trip, and it, it was a, it was amazing. It was an experience that- Chequamegon is, you know, central part of Wisconsin.
• 26:58
  Well, Nor- North Central. North Central. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Wisconsin.
• 27:01
  So we did a, we did, like, a four-day bike packing trip that was just- See, the reason I had to mention that there's this one lady named Lynn, I don't know if she'll ever listen to this one, but she listens to the, uh, Full Spectrum one and got a little upset with me and my e-bike bitching, so- Oh...
• 27:13
  just, just in case anybody from outside of the Midwest here or would ever to happen to listen to this, we just need to let everybody know where it's at. All right. It's b- beautiful. If you can get there, go.
• 27:23
  Even if you don't bicycle, just go. It's, it's, it's absolutely gorgeous. But if you can bicycle it, even better. But it's, it's all gravel. I mean, it's, it's not just gravel, it's, it's loose-ass gravel.
• 27:34
  They're, they're, they're logging roads is what they are. The, they're... So, like, Iowa B roads? I don't... They might be even be worse. I mean, they're, they were- Oh, really?... they were really loose.
• 27:45
  But yeah, we did that trip, and then we've... Like, so, and then since RAGBRAI didn't happen, I'm into biking. My wife's into biking. She's more into running now, but she's a good s- good, strong cyclist.
• 27:57
  And the kids, I mean, Ellie and Dex are into biking. We went up to Bemidji, and we rode around Bemidji on the Paul Bunyan trail. Nice. Beautiful. So I mean,
• 28:08
  losing RAGBRAI, while it sucked, I mean, I'm, I, I live with Rochester being, it's a small city, but I, I'm really part of an awesome bicycling community.
• 28:21
  So losing something, while bad, but it can be filled in with other great bicycling experiences which also generate great stories.
• 28:33
  I mean, I know I have Chequamegon bike trip stories, and went to Walker, Minnesota- Are you, are you saying you're having a bonfire at my house and you're gonna bring, you're bringing the moonshine this time?
• 28:43
  I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll try to make some moonshine. Oh, should we? Oh, I, I... It might... We don't wanna say anything. It's kind of illegal. No, it's not. [laughs] We can make so much. You can buy a whole kit now.
• 28:54
  Oh, make moonshine? Haven't you ever seen that? Uh, go, go to eBay.
• 28:56
  Now, remember, so you and I were looking at this, like, years ago, like maybe when Moonshiners TV show first came out, and you could buy bits and pieces. Now, you can- And assemble it yourself? Yeah, yeah.
• 29:06
  But you could buy, you could buy, like, the coil, or you could buy the bottom of the tank, whatever. You know, you couldn't buy everything together.
• 29:11
  But now you can buy kits, and they're like a s- and it's, like, legal to do. Hmm. So it's like we could literally go and make m- no, we should probably not be talking about this now- Yeah... if you're at...
• 29:21
  [laughs] We'll just ta- we'll just go down to Harmony Spirits and buy- Yeah, yeah... some of their stuff. Ooh. We need to go down there and do a podcast. Oh, a podcast from Harmony Spirits- Yeah... would be a ton of fun.
• 29:33
  We'll just, we can... I wonder if you're allowed to sleep in the back by the kegs. That'd be awesome. We'll just go down there for the weekend. You can always ask. I will. I'll ask James. I'll get him on here.
• 29:42
  We'll do it the one time. That'd be fun. It'd be... So Harmony Spirits is a, is a guy that we, we actually met him through cycling. Yeah, uh, uh- He just comes- Again, he's, he's part of the cycling community- Yeah...
• 29:53
  we've met around Rochester And he was kind of doing... Well, we'll get the whole story from him.
• 29:58
  But our side of the story is, is that he was, he had been dabbling in making his own whiskey for quite a few years before that. Him, him and a couple friends. Yeah. Yeah.
• 30:06
  And now they actually have a, uh, they actually have a distillery in Harmony, which is about 45 miles south of Rochester, and, uh, uh, I actually had... I, I bought one of his,
• 30:18
  uh, signature bottles when they first opened up, and we haven't touched it yet. Hmm. It's down at the cabin on the lake, and-... someday when we get a bunch of cyclists down there, we'll open that puppy up. Yeah.
• 30:27
  It'll be awesome. Yeah, their stuff's... What I've had of their product, it's, it's quite tasty. I, I really enjoy. And, and th- their facility's beautiful. It is. It's a cool place. It's a really cool place.
• 30:37
  Harmony's a cool little town, actually. There's a great Estelle's. Have you been to Estelle's Restaurant down there? Is that the one way at the far south end of town? It's, it's like... No, no, no.
• 30:46
  It's like a block or two north from the distillery, right on Main Street. Oh, right on Main Street? Yeah. No, I've been there. I've... The only one we've ever been to was, um, we call it the Crusty Corner.
• 30:57
  I don't know what the hell [laughs] its name is, really is of it. It's actually a cool little...
• 31:00
  They got really good pizza, and a good selection of beer, and they're kinda like a good spot to park your car and then go jump on the trail. Uh, there's a, a r- river trail.
• 31:09
  There's a paved trail that we can go ride too, and, and, uh, w- we've hung out there a couple times. It's the, uh...
• 31:14
  The guys from Decorah will come up there and w- It's, like, halfway between us, and we'll meet there- Oh, yeah... and then go, uh, do a day on the paved trails out there. It's, it's a lot of fun.
• 31:21
  So s- so just quick, talking about meeting a cycling community here, when you and I were training for that, the, the first year we rode the Almanzo together- That fucking thing...
• 31:34
  remember we, you and I were training together- Yes... and we rode from Rochester down to Fountain on gravel roads. Yep. And then we hopped on the trail and rode over to the camping pla- the old... Old barn... old barn.
• 31:48
  Yep. You, you took me to the old... Just you and I rode down. We, we were gone all day. Oh, we... Yeah, and we spent all night, we spent all night in the bar down there when we got done. Yeah.
• 31:56
  W- well, we went, we went down to the old barn and had f- uh, the fried pickles. That's right. And then we rode back, and then we stopped in Chatfield at the bar there. Um, did we stop at what is now Jax?
• 32:11
  Did we stop at Jax's? No, it was across the street from Jax. Oh, it w- w- where... It's where the microbrewery is now. Oh. Yeah, it might be. It was, it was, uh, Coyotes or whatever the hell it was called back then.
• 32:20
  Yeah, yeah. That's right. So yeah, you and I did that ride down there and back, and it was pushing... Well, it wasn't quite a century, but it was like- It was-... a good 80, 90 miles... pretty, yeah. It was pretty far.
• 32:28
  It was good. Yeah, it was a g- it w- and it's not, it w- I, I can't believe I could tolerate you for that long of a ride, just one-on-one. I was behind you the whole time yelling at you. You were r- "Go faster."
• 32:36
  I think you were r- back then you were riding a single speed, uh, Salsa F- Fa- Fargo. Oh, was that when I rode that green Fa- the, the original Salsa Fargos? Yeah, that's what you were...
• 32:47
  You rode that on your first Almanzo. You rode that- I did... Salsa Fargo- Yeah... with the... You had to get the g- the wood chipper bars on it, or- Yep, yep. I love the wood chipper bars. I...
• 32:55
  That's, that's as close as I'll ever come to a g- You don't have that Fargo anymore, do you? Or is it in the- Um, uh... is it in the, is it in the storage? No, no, no. That, that frame,
• 33:04
  there was problems with that frame. I don't remember what happened to mine, but a lot of them had problems with, um... No, I shouldn't say a lot of them.
• 33:11
  A few of them had problems with, um, the rear wheel hangers breaking. Mm-hmm. I know somebody was... I know there was somebody that was on, um,
• 33:18
  Tour Divide, and they had to get them another one right away because it, it snapped off. I think there was a few of them that just had a, a problem with the hanger. I think, I think it was the hanger was the problem.
• 33:25
  Yeah. So, like, you, me, James... Again, back to the cycling community. You, me, James, other people. Matt. Remember Matt Hertz? He moved away. Oh, I forgot about Matt. Yeah.
• 33:36
  Yeah, so, like, me, you, those group, we did the Almanzo two years in a row, and then we also did the Gentlemen's Ride. We got DNF on two straight Gentlemen's Rides. [laughs] Oh, that's a great story for another podcast.
• 33:49
  Yeah, yeah. So, so of the Almanzo i- was started by Chris Goguen, and, um, um, we didn't, we didn't do the first few 'cause the first few were, were in essence riding, um, the route from Rochester to Mankato.
• 34:05
  Like, over to, or Owat- O- or was it Owatonna? No, it was Mankato. Yeah, it was Mankato I think where it ended up.
• 34:09
  And then eventually became a loop through Rochester, and we started riding it- When it moved to Spring Valley... when it moved to Spring Valley, and we started in Spring Valley, and we did... And it was kinda cool.
• 34:18
  So they, it was... Almanzo was 100 miles. Um, there was- The gentleman- What was the- Well, the Gentlemen's Ride was the same route, but it was in the fall. Yeah, the w- but, but then that was early. Then they...
• 34:28
  But eventually he, before Chris gave it up, there was the Almanzo. There was three of them. One was, one was 100 miles. One was a h- a century. A metric century. And a metric, so it was 162 miles.
• 34:41
  And then the other one was- Oh, gosh... you went into Wisconsin and came back. That one was- And, and you did everything else. So you did, like, three... It was like a two-day. Yeah, it was, like, three h- 300 and...
• 34:53
  I can't remember. 300 and some miles. Was that, like, the Wilder or something like that? That's what it was, yeah. And that was... And, and those guys that did that were insane.
• 35:00
  I think he told me once, like, one of the guys that did it one year was, like, one of the guys that did the Race Across America, that did the really long one. Yeah, the long...
• 35:09
  It was, it w- the, the, the, the gist of it was you went through three states- Yeah... 'cause you went Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Yeah, it was super long. Yeah. But anyway, we'll talk about that another time.
• 35:19
  So, um, we're once again over our limit. God, Greg's gonna hate me. I don't care. [laughs] Um, thanks Jeremy for coming. Hey, no problem. We w- Thanks for having me...
• 35:28
  we will do this again another time, or we'll, we'll, we'll go out and do something stupid so we have better stories to tell. We always have great stories to tell. That we can... [laughs] That we remember anyway.
• 35:36
  All right. Uh, end of podcast number two. We will talk to y'all later. Thank you. Bye.