 So last night got interesting we were out and about getting ready for sugar ray and then what then what happened why are you wearing sunglasses in the tent because I wear my sunglasses first thing in the morning I get migraines I've had migraines since I was a very young child and they come on quickly so we were just out and about cruising around all of a sudden I get auras and then I go completely numb and then I get a bad headache so I abruptly got a migraine last night and I thought it went away I think it did but for the first time ever I've gotten a rebound migraine so now it's seven o'clock in the morning and I'm struggling again and I am out of migraine medicine so hopefully I don't get any more but it's gonna be a really tough day. Amelia just went off to a gas station to get some caffeine apparently that helps her get through these times and I feel really bad for her she was a hurting unit last night and even into this morning and I can't relate I've never had a migraine but I know from my friends that they are debilitating so I wish I could make it better but I can't so no crashes no flaties no migraines but the sun is shining it's Thursday so Thursdays have a little magic to them happy Thursday everybody and we're gonna get through this how you doing I'll survive always you do you have teddy grams on your face it's a good luck I'm saving it for later you're the queen of pain right I am but I don't like this kind of pain neurological pain and it's bad but maybe once I get moving and the magic of rag-brie will help yeah you know all I can do is just be like well this is where I'm at I got to go forward don't really have an option just to stay good morning good morning yeah good morning good morning good vibes here in Iowa always good morning thank you Mason City good morning good morning good morning good morning yeah why is basin city so friendly there's a lot of friendly neighbors yeah especially in this place I don't know about like the north side of those other places over here over here for sure are you loving doing this is this really fun to do yeah you're giving people a smile that's a big deal how do you feel about that you like it it's a pretty short day not even 50 miles a nice break after the hundred mile ride which is good for everybody the sun is high in the sky it's gonna be another cool day we're lucky with the weather it's why the best weather I've ever experienced on rag-brie thank you you can always count on the state patrol to be blasting awesome music at rag-brie how's it going it's your birthday going fantastic thank you very much enjoying Iowa and how old are you today I am 70 years old whoa enjoying every minute of it right on the last five years I've been fighting cancer really yeah and if you beat cancer so far so good yeah I just had a car tea what they call it you did a happy birthday my friend and congrats on beating cancer we saw a sign for some goat kissing and we're thinking that might be migraine medicine what do you think exactly what I need if you don't have actual trip towns just kiss a goat there's your goat hey buddy you're gonna cure my migraine hey there hi hey buddy did the goats help the goats always help cute animals always help everything human kisses yeah girl you're doing better it seems like I'm gonna get there look a dear wildlife you don't see that often in Iowa he's cruising into the cornfield look at that cruiser bike pretty slick are you riding this the whole way that's impressive every day no okay that's still a big deal 50 miles on a cruiser is awesome good job little buddy way to go your idea it is yeah what inspired you to do this well I have a younger child then decided to do it for rag-brie because why not have a refreshing place before they do this it is jump swim at your own risk I am not responsible for nothing that was a close call we found some beans look at those black beans you know it works I did and you like beans now right I do so when I first met Ryan I didn't really eat beans and I knew that I love beans I was like I slowly built up by being tolerant so not because I didn't like them my stomach did not wasn't a big fan of them now I eat them every day and they're great yeah beans there goes the bacon look at that peanut butter jelly bacon so this guy right here just made my sandwich the Elvis what's on the Elvis banana banana bacon and peanut butter on bread and you put chocolate on yours so that's right and I didn't get bacon because I'm a bit there's a lot of smoothie vendors on rag-brie but the best one is this one right here smoothie revolution all natural fruit and they are so good how's it going buddy doing great are you rollerblading this whole thing that's the plan yeah right on what gets the most tired on your body the feet the feet really so put so yeah 100% everything else feels good the ass is fine yeah the ass is good yeah how's it going guys looking good taking Amelia out to the fields here sounds sketchy but this is something there's wildflowers I've been doing this since college and it's called a field lay where we just lay down in the ground and just feel connected and it's just a nice way to chill out it's quiet that's very long but we don't care oh we've just made it to Mason city we have crashed the pork belly party with our friends Brent Lee and Barry Beth and pork belly is an example of a charter where people pay money and they bring your tents and all your stuff and they have these gigantic tent villages and parties and food and entertainment it's with it's like a rag-brie within rag-brie and we're just we're having a great time why do you guys use pork belly because we want to we want to focus on writing we want to just enjoy the experience we don't want to have to worry about where am I gonna set up my tent and where am I gonna eat and what am I gonna do and whatever so they set up your tit you come here you rent one of these tents your bags are in the tent when you get to town so after a long day of writing you just sort of have to blow up your air mattress and then you get some you get some food and it's awesome that's cool it's full service yeah I heard full speaking of full service I hear they actually shower you personally shower yeah yeah you get a personal shower a shower and a masseuse and a masseuse and it's all of course included for free and no it's no you don't really get a shower but you get a hot shower yeah and you get access if you want to pay you can get a massage they usually have night they have nightly entertainment they have live music so cool I will stop interviewing you so you can eat your yummy pork chop pork chop yeah rag-riding 5 way to go everybody oh and how's your migraine are you good I'm good I got some medication here in Charles City and so fingers crossed no more for the week we're done we're done no way no whammies no whammies and I got some sweet corn you came to say goodbye oh you're I'm on camera you're in camera oh wow now you're on camera it's camera on camera thank you guys so much for yeah thanks for coming over hanging out with us yeah absolutely that was super fun you two are my favorite cross-country cyclists in the world I wish you all the best thank you your journey across the United States you're gonna finish at the priority headquarters yes can't wait for that you should you should you should ride your bike out and meet us yeah I should good idea yeah just keep going these bikes look yeah they're fine those bikes I'll do it I mean what I mean take some time off work sure they won't mind another few months yeah no only one month oh okay another month oh I'm right master or just quit oh yeah you don't need a job do you I'll support you with my YouTube money right are you laughing all right happy trails no flat ease no crashes no way thank you flat soft green grass how you feeling great we have no migraines no migraines today thumbs crossed thumbs crossed just like the Swedes do yep and look at that blue skies let's go so if you're wondering where we get our water there's lots of these water station type operations in every town and you just come up and sit up the bottle with that good Iowan water it is a treasure hunt to find them sometimes and then you're like water good morning good morning good morning good morning me that you ready for another awesome day in Iowa where she's ready good morning early morning Nirvana to start the day thank you state troopers my shadows catching up to your shadow better start pedaling so after many rabbis now I've realized that the best way to avoid these crazy crowds is just to go through them skip all the long lines and then find a farm stand down the road there's plenty of farms that don't have big lines yo what's up buddy how you guys doing today so far so good yeah hills are a little bit long I bet we're hoping to go we started in Iowan you were hoping to go to Lauer right on that'll be enough for today yeah and who is Logan Logan is my son okay he's 25 we yeah every year in September we do a rollerblade 26.2 in Duluth so today is a getting shape practice run right on and you live in this area yeah about 20 miles away friend build the chair for me kind of my design he made it made it happen it works Logan loves seeing the world this way oh yeah we made the mistake of telling him last night we were gonna do this but he didn't hardly sleep but he's sleeping now I think yeah everybody's clapping and cheering for him can't get a bigger smile you're smiling big buddy nice man you and your dad are amazing you have a good one dad's gonna take a break that's gonna take a break all right have a good one guys did you make the lemonade oh very cool look at this cash register wow can we see how much money have in there you're doing well today whoa what are you gonna do with all that money probably split it probably split it buy some toys you're gonna donate it you're gonna donate to the school pool oh cool you guys are great you want to try it go take a photo of Amelia that's Amelia my girlfriend put it right up in her face little there she is good yeah you want to play you want to play yeah oh you're a friendly guy you want to be a bikepacking dog you want to travel the world with us yeah it was right that inspired you to make this sign I've been watching your videos for a couple years now I got really excited about biking because of you and the inspiration when we ran into you on Sunday it was really cool to see like the energy you have and how you know we all see that energy in the videos but to actually meet it and experience it it was amazing I mean we hear you coming before you get there people have been stopping by I think we've had 20 30 40 50 people possibly just take selfies with the science I'm sure Instagram's blown up man sorry about that we've had people walking by no whammy's no crashes the whole day so that's awesome thanks for stopping by my friend nice to meet you my friend nice to meet you let's graffiti the wall I was here I've lost 215 pounds and I started with a weight loss surgery and then I ended up losing about 140 pounds to that and then picked up biking with my brother and my brother's also lost 215 pounds we both have and we both contribute a lot of our weight loss to biking so we started biking lost another 70 pounds plus to that fell in love with it then our first ragbrite last year actually my mom wants to do it next year my fiance's out here with me this year so like we're getting a whole bunch of people into it which is cool what do you love most about cycling I just the road like being out there like the views like I think I had cancer and lost my arm I slowed down and I appreciate things different now you know like I look at the beauty of Iowa you know a lot of people ride just pass right on by it and get to the destination where they're going where I'm like enjoying the ride so I think a lot of people do but that's I relax slow down and so what happened here arm so I had a cancer called a sarcoma epithelioid sarcoma 10 years ago very rare cancer less than 150 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with it a year and of that half of them die in the first five years so I'm very blessed to be alive and I'm 10 years out seven years cancer-free my doctor always said you know because I was overweight he said you're gonna be you're gonna look funny you're gonna die of a stroke or a heart attack and and you beat cancer you know like so that kind of helped wake me things up for me you know so yeah and riding with this arm is no problem no none at all it's actually a shotgun made for a shotgun hunting and I when you lose in Atlanta you kind of got to engineer things you know you got to like find a way to adapt and that's more or less what I did I was sitting there thinking one day I was like hey that almost fits like a handlebar and thickened up my tape on my handlebar and made it work and I've rode a couple thousand miles with it now it just kind of clips right on like clamps and that's made for shotguns huh yeah and like I say just picking up the bar tape and sticks on there almost too well sometimes right on my big fan of you though you know I gotta put some plugs in there for you I'm impressed man yeah I'm really proud of you I don't know you are proud of you that's a big deal yeah I mean like I say my brother I'm just as proud of him you know like yeah we've done it together yeah I mean three years ago we would have thought people ragged Ryan was crazy you know now look at this so we've changed our lifestyle got healthy don't love it right bikes now you're one of the crazy ones I'm one of the crazy ones I like being crazy you're the man Aaron thank you it's a lot of fun out here yeah it is I don't ever climb up out of the saddle because I'm scared of oh yeah hold on and I don't reach over and go out of my yeah I don't ever shift to the small ring I've always say in the digger it becomes a chore so my legs get to work out oh that's right you can't use the gears over I just have my back break and I mean I'm sure you know bike shop can help me adjust but I just make it work so it works yep right on congrats you too thank you have fun in your wedding one one one two two two you ever want to come back to Iowa you're more invited I am loving these rag bride clouds today how about you Amelia little puffy clouds like out of a painting little Bob Ross action happy happy little clouds it's good to have a little cheering section on a hill feels good all right we bailed off the rag bride route we saw a sign for a bash a big party with a slip and slide so of course we're gonna check it out all right this is what we really came for the slip and slide time to cool off you gonna do this here goes Amelia Boone ladies and gentlemen oh yeah oh yeah oh that's some good good so thank you yeah oh that's pretty good oh I was a good slip and slide are you doing doc slip and slide angels feel so good this is the human washer machine we scored here at this farm party I'm drinking some rowdy minima lemonade what do you have some type of canned cocktail and cocktail but what I'm most excited about is this coconut cream hi West Union here's the town pool there's Amelia there's some flat ground I like it high five high five last camping spot of the trip oh are you a little sad we're not gonna be able to come into a close but we can camp in your backyard the rest of summer totally let's go to the pool here we go whoo my legs are a little tired going up these stairs there she goes oh yeah so Amelia we've done six days of rag brian we have this is the eve of the seventh day our final day yeah we have a beautiful picnic of junk food here overlooking the pool what did you what do you what do you think about all this I don't want to end seriously I kind of came into this being like don't really know if this is for me never ridden this long not used to this many people and then now I'm like so every day is dragged by right yeah just wake up ride your bike stop for some food meet some cool people ride some more jump in water and just have a lot of fun this is my fifth time now and I love it as much my fifth time as I did my first time and it's been really special to share it with you and I'm so psyched that you like it but yeah reintegrating into the real world is difficult because you're like where's the first breakfast stop why are cute little kids cheering me on everywhere I go why is my cell phone working and I can get emails yeah that is that is one thing about ragbri cell phones barely work because all these little towns just get overloaded so we're just gonna sit here and enjoy the evening watch the sunset over the cornfields eat our snacks and tomorrow we ride what 65 ish miles 65 ish miles the hilliest day at 3000 feet of climbing into Lansing so yeah we have a day ahead of us we ride a dawn baby that's right we have to boogie because we're catching a shuttle at 2 p.m. across the state back to her car so we can drive nine hours back to Boulder so tomorrow is gonna be all mostly business not as much stopping and goofing around but that's okay man we're up early it's our final Casey's party of the week thanks Casey's and as you can see there's a lot of people here checking out the beautiful sunrise hey buddy how you doing hi there you've been riding with mama week how long do you how long you've been riding with your dog one week oh I got my bike in last August almost a year yeah and you ride everywhere yeah that's so cute and he's been here the whole week are you good cutie guy you ready Amelia all right no flatties no crashes no whammies final day it's cruise thank you thank you I love you one final day how you feeling fantastic fantastic 65 miles to the Mississippi River as we pedaled out of Charles City I was struck by an overwhelming sense of gratitude for Iowa for this event for all the people who put on this event for all the vendors who feed us food for all the neighbors who came out and wished as well for all the smiles ah it was overwhelming to be outside on this beautiful morning pedaling our final day of rag ride I always have a hard time with goodbyes it's difficult for me to say goodbye to something so fun and so beautiful so I made sure to savor every last moment of this morning the interesting area there's a lot of bluffs as you can see it's not fully cultivated like most of Iowa we have some nature and trees and rivers first big hill of the day really the week maybe we got this little Saturday morning wake-up call nice job nice job nice job everybody we're getting there we're getting there nice job Brent you got it buddy good work good work we're getting there we did it we did it yes good job everybody only 17 more hills to go want to know what else was going through my mind the fact that I wasn't even supposed to be here I was supposed to be in Sweden but for reasons out of my control that trip was canceled and instead of throwing a pity party I called Amelia and said hey can you get a week off work can you do this can you go to rag brie with me I know it sounds crazy but I bet you'll love it and I'm so glad that this was our first adventure together it was so incredibly special to share this with Amelia to share my love of this event in this state and bikes and camping with the woman I love Amelia slow down rag rise almost over don't go fast so we have a couple miles left yeah what do you think of all this amazing exceeded all my expectations yep I love Iowa and I love Iowa because of rag bride I really haven't spent any time in Iowa other than being on rag bride so when I think of Iowa this is it friendly people in every town welcoming us in making pie people from all over the country and all over the world I love it hey Amelia we did it there's the Mississippi right there thank you thank you oh I love you rag bra I love you Iowa I love you bicycle I love you lamp I love lamp I love lamp I don't want it to be over I want rag ride to be a transcontinental event how cool would that be pie across America life in general yeah I'm gonna bring some rag brie the rag brie spirit back to everyday life there she is Amelia's here are you excited to get your spoke bracelet super excited what's up my friend what's your name so we are riding 48 states over four years for addiction recovery awareness what do you love most about riding bikes connects you to people all the time you get to meet all kinds of great people you know you might think the country's divided and it is and there's all of this stuff goes on but when you're on your bike and you're meeting people at little towns across America it basically it rebuilds your faith that America's gonna be okay because the people of America are the best I love it buddy yeah Renee how you doing buddy yeah what's up how's it going you're making friends Amelia good morning so I attempted suicide three times I was planning a fourth and a friend said it's one pedal at a time to me to change my life I used to be 270 pounds I was mentally unhealthy and the cyclin saved it changed it all yeah buddy look at that we got the dream teamers what's up how you feeling all right cool aid for a dollar thank you so much my friend love connective with people like you and I'm proud of you got this yep we got it