450 MILES ON A TANDEM BICYCLE (this is how it ended)

if you missed our last video we are three days into this thing called ragbrai it's on the side of the road it's a seven day ride where 15 000 people bike 455 miles across the entire state of iowa through endless amounts of hey look at that corn and 100 degree heat a dangerous heat wave is making conditions sweltering across central iowa day three of ragbrai was the hottest one yet it was all about the let's just talk about how hot it has been 90s made a comeback and i'm not talking about the music it was the heat we decided to do the whole thing on a tandem bicycle that we rented and rode for the first time the day before the race started we thought how hard could it be stop screaming it turns out as non-bikers so far this week has been filled with highs and lows oh you're not helping at all is this what you're gonna be like on the back of the bike one minute we feel like we're dying and the next minute we're at a big party we're doing this crazy adventure with nate's brother dusty his wife sarah and our friends rick beck evie and frankie so my phone uh unfortunately the first 206 miles have taken a toll on our group and we're starting day four with two less teammates good morning oh it hurts so bad i've been pedaling on a bike for the last 30 minutes and i still haven't had coffee and i've been up since 5. [Music] just wanted to make that note [Applause] good morning it is 7 15 on day four and we are already 10 miles into the ride today is supposed to be the hottest day of the entire week 99 degrees and we still have to ride 67 miles so we put our tents up in the dark last night we woke up so early this morning we were taking our tents down in the dark also there was no coffee and cara managed to ride 10 miles uncaffeinated which may be the most impressive feat of the entire trip but we found coffee oh my gosh it's a real coffee and real food this acai bowl is so good this is without a doubt the best one coffee we've had all week this is the best day of my life all right we are fed we are caffeinated we have 57 more miles to go i had the most miserable person out of all 10 000 ragbrai riders on the back of my bike this morning and now i have the happiest i feel good good work i love it all right we made it to moontown this guy is riding over 300 miles with his parrot he might stand on your head hey mimi oh you want to ride on the table right there just like a little neck massage like i could use a little magnifier yeah you never know what you're gonna see at ragbrai have a good one we've come up with a new nickname for the team we're calling ourselves the java rockets because we are just flying by everybody and we're giving the coffee the credit class which we never get to say yeah yeah it is 10 15. we've made it to the lunch town everyone's in great spirits and um karen and evie are about to sing some karaoke you all ready for this does anyone know wagon wheel yeah [Music] you cleared everyone out why is everyone leaving do you know the next verse no idea no idea what the next verse is who tells you that first i don't think anybody knows that next verse the whole crowd was like evie good job that was the weirdest music dwight will have ever heard i was like is this black and white he was like i think so chocolate powder it's the first time i've seen chocolate pie all week i love this plate it is day four of ragbrai and this is only my second piece of pie i think that means i'm doing it wrong that was my best care impression nailed it i keep saying it but this is the best thing i've put in my mouth and all the money's going towards building a splash pad in the town so one win for everybody here thank you nice church ladies and gentlemen definitely not where are we all right fun is over the heat index today was supposed to be up to 112 degrees so we've been super thankful for these clouds i feel like this is the most ragbrai thing we've done yet there's this house that has a pond in front of it and they've just been a big inflatable in the middle of the pond and everybody is stopping for a swim one two three it feels amazing i know it does feel so good i was so sweaty how you doing it's hot people needed a break they needed a rest they needed to be able to you know rejuvenate so we didn't want to keep it for ourselves we wanted to share with everybody oh that's so sweet this is the perfect picture of iowa knights thank you so much for your hospitality welcome hey why don't you try to get lunch okay shift the weight to the hands thank you are you the one giving out the free beer yeah what for i wanted you to stop i want to talk to you people all right [Applause] i did it way to help roger give away his free beer i don't know why we're doing this but i'm having [Applause] thank you roger you're welcome i feel like this is the first day we've officially done ragbrai we've eaten pie swam in a stranger's pond and now we just got free beer [Music] all right we have made it to janesville which is the second to last town of the day we're only 15 miles away from waterloo and we've learned over our last four days at ragbrai that this is where the party happens because everyone's almost done with the day they feel like they've almost made it so they let themselves take a breather and just enjoy it before heading to the last town especially today the weather was supposed to be so hot i think everybody just blazed through the first half of the day as quickly as they could and now that we all made it here earlier than expected it's just a big party we're gonna walk you through one of these typical ragbrai towns that we stop in and kind of show you what's available we have the iconic velma's ice cream sandwiches some latin american cuisine all of your typical fried foods and bar snacks brazilian food mr sakula a lot of land hot dogs port-a-potties cute little trailers selling adult beverages this is a great welcomed change to beer for me sick of beer tractors flipping slides local honey cookie dough if we're really lucky there's a water fill up station these things are awesome they've also been surprisingly hard to find you would think with 10 000 people riding their bikes through 100 degree heat every day they would make those really obvious but some towns they either don't have them or they hide them somewhere real quick we want to say a big thank you to surfshark for continuing to support this channel whether we're flying around the world or riding bikes across iowa we know that we're protected with the best vpn on the internet if you don't know what a vpn is it stands for virtual private network and it encrypts all the data sent between our computer and the internet so that no one can steal our sensitive information if you spend a lot of time staring at screens like we do a vpn is a great way to improve your digital life because not only will it keep you safe online but it can also be used to unlock content that isn't available in your area it's super easy to change the virtual location of your computer and get access to a completely new content library better put on your ski boots if you don't already have a vpn we highly recommend surfshark it's been our go-to for over a year now and it's the only vpn to offer one account for unlimited devices you can use our code cara and nate to get 83 off plus three extra months for free and there's a 30 day money back guarantee so there is zero risk to try it out to get started just click the link in the description below this is probably my favorite part of every town which is where all the locals set up their own little tent and sell things that are homemade it just shows how big of a deal that it is that this many people are coming to their town it just makes me so happy this is what we call a scotch around it's like an iowa midwest tradition look at that icing oh my gosh it was amazing yeah they taste just like peanut butter balls but in a different form yeah chocolate peanut butter crunchiness it's like the most beautiful combo you guys need to like have the show on food network now because i feel like your food descriptions are like a 10 now when you first started you'd like never done it yeah she's been watching our early videos and we apologize for some of those this is pretty good obviously stop it just drop it just drop it it's about 100 degrees outside karen just ate a huge peanut butter scotch-a-roo and an ice cream and now i'm concerned that she's gonna throw up on my back on the way to waterloo we're almost there the last 15 miles has been tough we had the beating down sun in the headwind that i dreaded all day but i'm so grateful that it was just the last hour and not the entire tin like i thought it was gonna be we're rolling into camp and it's only 4 15. i'm so hot hey [Music] this is why you don't see much of us after we finish the bike ride we just collapsed that was a tough finish is home for the night pretty sure it's still 100 degrees outside right now though oh i'm pretty good at setting up the tent quick these days all right today was day four when i woke up this morning i questioned everything like why are we doing this why does anyone do this i slept on top of a bed with zero clothes on and zero covers so i woke up hot naked and afraid isn't that a show um so wow last night i was saying this is the hottest i've ever been going to sleep literally just laying in a puddle of sweat and before i could finish that thought i was asleep so today was my first full day on the struggle bus our guardian angels have taken me in under their wing as all oh a wi-fi iowans hawaiians this video is going so good right now today was actually the best day so far because we actually woke up early we timed our breaks perfectly had a nice swim at a pool it was like the funnest and almost easiest day we've done so far i went from thinking today was gonna be the worst day of ragbrai to it being the absolute best day except for missing back and forth so i spent the first two and a half days having people ride past and go oh the the one in the trailer you know sleeping or the one of the back's not pushing or that used to be the coming and now it's the one in the middle honestly it's like when you hear it 400 times a day you're tired being on a tandem brings people closer not farther apart and if it does bring you farther apart then you probably shouldn't be together anyways dusty that's so hard good morning it's day five i can't even make myself put on clothes it's so hot we have to go ride 84 miles which is tied for our longest day yet if we make it through today though it's all downhill from here not really there's little hills but you know how'd you sleep last night uh really bad good but then mom woke me up and now i'm super tired short and sweet i slept decent but it was so freaking hot it's so great so i was kind of joking this morning when i said i wasn't putting on clothes because i was so hot but then we all decided that it was the day the entire team rides in only chamois i'm wearing tights in public looking good dusty looking good rick thanks buddy i like it i go fast i'm so tired the first few minutes on the bed are always the worst i can't like get on my weight now all right it's been about five minutes and my butt already feels better this happens every morning once again been up since five haven't had a proper coffee but i learned from my mistakes yesterday and had a little bit of powdered coffee in a water bottle full of lukewarm water it at least is going to keep me from being a witch this morning yeah i like this morning energy when we wake up we don't really want to get going again because we're kind of tired and then you get in the slipstream with these hundreds thousands of other cyclists and it's just like this energy just pushes you along the road we're all suffering together this is what i get to look at every day been working as hard as he can to keep up with the peloton 15 miles in just got to the town of jessup they have gone all out they have flags lining the road all the way to downtown and they've drawn with chalk all over the road i have a good feeling about this one so we rode the first 17 miles without food or coffee this morning because we got a message on instagram from a place called reinhardt's that said they would give us a free breakfast sandwich if we made it here this better be good okay reinhardt's at the farm we grow all of our fresh produce and then my sister and her husband made our breakfast sandwiches i'm happy right now yes oh look at this burrito this is easily the best sandwich the best food i've had on this whole trip and we needed it today i feel like this is going to revive us i know you're not going to believe me it's the best breakfast burrito i've ever had i really needed a second dose of caffeine this morning so got a hot coffee to go it's really hot so it's hard to drink fast it's also hard to drink in general because i'm on the back of the bike give out the good work nate all right we made it to the town of rowley we are 35 miles in unfortunately the first 35 miles of the day felt like what i expected the last 35 miles of the day to feel like which is rough ride like this my neck doesn't hurt as bad i think my body's just not used to leaning forward like this for this many hours a day it's hard to shake it those are the little moments that make ragbrai what it is and i don't feel like we've done a great job of capturing it but there are so many people who are just standing at the end of their driveway spraying you with their sprinkler you're pretty much just riding by random acts of kindness all day and that's what makes it beautiful it's just so heartwarming it really does like give me energy also if you're wondering what the car situation is on ragbrai they pretty much have the roads completely shut down it's almost 100 bikers out here outside of just a few random cars and i think that's because the police will let people through that live on the road welcome thank you good morning good morning how's the team feeling feeling great the best we've felt all day i think 100 a grade water is it free yeah it's great wow there's plenty more and pulled torque up the legion there too thank you so much we got 20 000 bottles of water for you guys thank you i'll take it i'll take a four oh wow i'll take a splash thanks guys thank you all right we have made it to the halfway point which is the appropriately named town of center point we are about 53 miles into our 83 mile ride i don't know something happened but i feel like a new man right now i also feel like i'm walking around town naked not wearing shorts over my champion this feels so weird i even feel weird pointing the camera down there the energy in this town is so hot they have barbecue mac and cheese which i feel like i can eat guilt-free [Music] somehow the nine-year-old has more energy than all of us she's biked every single mile of this trip [Music] go man know they said it's been headwinds and hills ever since pulling out of the lunchtown even when it looks like we're going downhill it still feels like we're pedaling uphill this is crazy when we stand up and stop pedaling we like almost stop because of the headwind second half of the day has been a grind really the first half of the day was a grind we had a great middle the middle was good [Music] there were goats on the side of the road i wonder if that goat could pedal in the middle of our bike look little goats i have food it's working so sweet can we just cut them yeah i mean i'm not in charge but i think it's fine uh we've made it central city second to last town before we make it to the end what am i ordering pickles get your big pickle right here big pickle not an ordinary pickle it's a big pickle oh never had the symbol never thought a pickle is something i would eat while i was exercising but apparently they're hydrating and i've had one every day i think the salt just helps your body retain water we only have about 15 miles to go so we're gonna make it but if it's anything like the last 15 miles it's not gonna be easy so we've seen a bunch of people walking around with dorito bags and a fork and it turns out they're called walking tacos and they are an iowa staple we got crunch up doritos taco meat cheese lettuce sour cream and salsa i'm sitting down while eating a walking taco i feel like i'm breaking the rules last 15 you ready you can do it you can do it oh you're not helping at all is this what you're gonna be like on the back of the bike super cool keep up the good work we made animosa 4 55. 11 hours on bikes 84 miles and we have made it kind of feels like the desert out here there's no escape from the sun good work team hardest day yet i really think i had a solid hour where i like felt good and strong and fast but the other 10 hours it was like every single petal was a struggle i don't even think it's that we didn't feel good today the root was just especially hard [Applause] i think everyone probably went well this has become the daily routine set up the tents take a shower in the hose pipe this is better than a fire hydrant this is a lot less weird everybody else is over there like we have our own private shower tonight as much as i made fun of cara for showering in the fire hydrant the second night i've now lowered my standards and i'm showering in a hosepipe in front of everyone right brow do weird things to you [Music] no matter how early we wake up there are always people in front of us it's day six and today is already off to an awesome start this has to be the coolest morning of the entire trip which is a very welcome change from yesterday when it was so hot i didn't even want to put clothes on and best of all beck's knees feeling better so her and frankie are riding with us and we have the entire team back together what's the problem with it being cold in the morning nobody wants to get up setting up and taking down a tent is starting to feel all too normal the van is gonna feel super luxurious in a few days it's funny how everything is relative a few weeks ago we came back from europe got off a yacht in spain and then we moved back into the van and then it really felt like we were roughing it now we've done the boundary waters and ragbrai and slept in tents for two weeks straight and it's totally reset our mindset and now the van is like the most luxurious thing i can fathom right now how are you doing today frankie are you excited to be riding with us today yeah all right we're so excited to have you back what is that what's that animal on you baby team drop rock gets a rag oh yeah and look at this day six okay six let's do this how's it feel good does my face say it's actually cold this morning always complaining it's hot it's cold what are these chill bumps on my skin all right the first town is 17 miles away we've learned that if you get up and ride in the morning while you're half asleep you just kind of don't even realize that you're doing it and it feels like you get a bunch of free miles in the morning there are a lot of riders out this morning pick up legs we got a giant hill to climb come on you can do it the first five miles of the morning have been nothing but hills and headwinds betsy and sarah found this new breakfast place yesterday ew breakfast yeah all right how was it it sounds like it's it's going fine so we stay like this that was hard frankie's exhilarated this is my new favorite truck they have mexican breakfast bowls this one's fine and giant hot cups of coffee dusty and sarah ated this food truck yesterday and they said it was the best thing that they've had all week so we had to try it it gave me so much energy yesterday i want to be just like sarah stephanie this whole thing i've been missing we're laughing about just how much things have changed since day one instead of getting up at 7 30 and being the last ones out of camp we were gone by 6 30 this morning we're eating healthy breakfast bowls and coffee on the first morning six miles in we were having margaritas and fried cheese we just got caught up in ragbrai the first day and made some mistakes but we've learned a lot so no one enjoyed this no it was awful this stream of bikes that's coming down the road right now we've probably been here for 30 minutes and it has not slowed down one bit every time i think wow thousands of people just came by there's no way there can be anyone left they just keep coming for hours and hours and what is it anytime you see a large gathering it's probably free beer tell me now last full day of ragbrai free beer what you got we got twisted vine brewery old crusty scottish ale thank you so remember when we were talking about our bad choices from day one cheers [Applause] i 8am hoping you would stop here all over my body biggest american flag in oklahoma iowa where are we i saw sign that said deal of the day buy two sandwiches and pay for them both all right we are 22 miles in to our 65 mile day and we have made it to oxford junction at 9 50 a.m going about as slow as you could possibly go but because it's fun not because we're struggling this is a good day today just feels different i think it's knowing it's our last full day the hard days are behind us and the clouds from what we've heard tomorrow is the last day it's 30 miles it ends early and then like everybody gets in their car and goes home so today's kind of like the last real day of ragbrai when everybody just has fun we're taking full advantage of every single stop cheers evie good work this morning we're back to making smarter decisions most people i've seen walking they're back up the all week oh man over there yeah oh tough yeah oh we made it to the next town for the first time ever we pulled a pellet time dusty and sarah pulled up time oh i like to like jello all right which one's the best i mean barb and it's all gone so okay so i can't offend you by picking a different one no this looks like a giant piece of apple pie ice cream on top thank you so much i'm not joking i almost killed myself boy that peloton it's a cookie icing sandwich for those of you who don't know a peloton is not only a hipster cycling thing that you get to put in your house it's also a group of bicycle riders so that's what we were pulling earlier when you have a group of bikers in a line somehow it's like you break the wind and you don't have to pedal as hard so if you're in the back it's super easy if you're in the front it's really hard because you're doing the hard work for the rest of the group all right i just ate four cookies and we're off to the next town what well that lasted about 15 seconds okay for real this time we're doing this unless there's another ginatonic booth around the floor still in corn nice outfits we started our own pelly y'all we got dusty and sarah in the front not fam in the back what was the inspiration for the barefoot ride oh i just i'm always barefooted i don't wear shoes even to work no i love it corn i haven't seen that one yet we've made it to dewitt and i think we're all a little sad this is like the last full day of ragbrai coming to an end there have been many many many times on this ride that i've been ready for ragbrai to be over but right now it's not one of them oh it looks beautiful best pizza i've ever had i almost died but it's delicious great call on casey's keep in mind that this pizza review is shortly after biking 65 miles we would have given a piece of cardboard with cheese on it at 10 10. today was such a good day the best day waking up to cool air was probably the best part of the trip so far yesterday we rode 84 miles in 10 hours today we rode 60 miles in 13 hours we just knew it was our last day and we were all together and we just wanted to take full advantage of the whole ragbrai experience it's funny how quick it can change to where like biking 65 miles in a day just seems like not that big of a deal we're gonna call this the ragbrai roller coaster because it's just a constant series of ups and downs they're like the highest of high moments where it's like this is the best thing we've ever done and the moments where i'm like get me out of here what did we sign up for i'm never doing this again was it enjoyable for you it wasn't didn't like it i loved it you loved it well said frank i think overall ragbrai maybe like 20 suffer 80 fast 30 suffer it really just depends on the person and the day overall it really is so hard but that's one of the things that makes it so great like if it wasn't hard the hour you lay in the grass with your friends it just wouldn't be as fun it's shared suffering for us as a family it's been a really really cool experience the girls they are shining we are just extremely proud some of my biggest fears ended up not being that bad like i was so worried about butt pain and chafing and all the things that come with sitting on a bike seat for so long and really it hurt the worse i think the second morning and then it just kind of goes away it was just such a good way to see iowa all these little towns that we would have never seen otherwise it truly brought the best of iowa to the surface like i can't imagine coming to the state and doing anything else the locals went above and beyond and that was just so awesome to see the people of iowa have been absolutely best phenomenal like it makes the ride you would never do this without these people here i am super proud of you i was really uh yeah proud of beck for for getting back out there after she was injured i'm proud of my wife for making it for a wonderful week on a bike and he had such a good attitude the whole time except for that last guy who told me i wasn't pedaling if one more person drives past the tandem and says that i'm not pedaling he got the bird no dusty stop do not i found myself all week long being like oh next year we'll do this at ragbrai and then i'm like wait are we doing this again next year so uh we coming back to ragbrai we're doing it again yeah i want to yeah thumbs up absolutely we'll be back for sure hey frankie we biked across the entire state of rhode island ragbrai that's what we know iowa now has 30 more miles to clinton that's right we could do it without stopping if we needed to okay i think it's a pedal bike the heat's gotten to their brains it's a miracle day seven of ragbrai we got coffee at our campsite up to this point the campground has just been a big field no one's ever selling anything but rick found a lady selling coffee and donuts out of her car this morning so we don't have to get on our bikes foodless and caffeine-less great way to start the last day every morning we have to have our bags on the official ragbrai truck by 8 a.m so they can be transported to the next location so far that time hasn't been an issue because we've been getting up super early to try to avoid the heat of the day but today we only have 30 miles to ride and we found coffee and donuts and had a nice slow morning now we're throwing them on the truck with about two minutes to spare thanks for bringing the energy try also if you're curious about what the bathroom situation has been for the last week when we're out on the road we're usually peeing in corn fields because honestly that feels more sanitary than going in port-a-potties for the most part even though there are usually some available along the route but every night at camp you're definitely just using porta-potties exclusively for the week this time in this last town of dewitt there have been volunteers going in and cleaning every single one after someone uses it i don't know who volunteers for that job that they're a better person than me last day first pedals of the last day see jd baby [Music] it feels weird seeing the town that we're riding to on a sign i'm gonna miss this it's gonna be weird to not just show up to a 400 person keg party around there spirits are high this morning it's amazing how much of a difference it makes in just how your body feels knowing that you only have to pedal 31 miles good morning good morning good morning wow look at that corn wow morning frankie are you ready for ragbrai to be over [Music] my trend at ragbrai has been fanny packs that have like a belly button or a butt crack on him they give me every time go on friday night we've just gotten to the first town which means we are already a third of the way finished with the last day we found beautiful sausage omelet croissants stages going by way too fast the food just keeps getting better it's so crazy how normal this feels like what was my life before ragbrai all right last 15 miles i'm so bad it's 12 30 we've been going for four hours and we've made it a grand total of about 16 miles we're in no rush to finish this thing bring it hold your cheetos up [Applause] you thanks guys this is it all the way across iowa welcome to clinton we've done it good work i'm so proud of you oh my god they have pot you liked all the way across the state oh [Applause] what a journey oh my god before we eat pie a lot of people deserve a lot of credit cara it's your first huge bike trip i'm so proud of you you are the best tandem partner ever your first big bike trip thanks for coming back for another adventure and the people who deserve the most credit rick for pulling the whole family no matter if there were two or four god he was the best and back to coming back for the last two days through the knee pain i'm so glad i was able to come back to get this pie oh this apple crumble looks incredible best pie of the week oh my gosh oh wow i can't think of a better way to celebrate the finish oh so the official finish of ragbrai is the mississippi river and the tradition is to dip your will in the river to officially finish the race it's actually over now we take the bikes back to the rental shop and it's on to the next adventure that's my toe oh this is a good angle i think we're going to leave the rest of the story while the camera's laying on the ground we're looking at it who's your favorite mommy sarah mommy sarah and her all of us yeah good answer that's not really how favorites work i like sarah dad you need to go get some cats let's just keep riding in new york what's the next day let's turn around and ride back to colorado did you see what's the next state new york yeah what state is next are you so excited what is that frankie this really nice guy right up next to us and he was like hey i watch your videos [Music] and then proceeded to ask us about 21 questions all of which i answered and i'm pretty sure karen just had her head down and her eyes closed the whole time so sam if you're watching this sorry for the bad first impression we have as much fans as you guys do i think it's true ragbrai is over and i'm riding the tandem for the first time the jokes have started do you have pads in your speedos we do not oh we're on youtube yeah yeah we are we have more fans than karen nate on this ride yes

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 919,497

Rating: 4.9644136 out of 5

Keywords: ragbrai, ragbrai 2021, tandem bike, tandem bicycle, family friendly, tandem bike racing, ragbrai packing, ragbrai party, ragbrai tips, ragbrai camping, iowa, #vanlife, couple vlog, daily vlog, kara and nate, kara and nate vlog, off grid living, sprinter van, tiny home, tiny home on wheels, tiny house, travel, travel couple, travel couple vlog, travel vlog, usa travel, van life, van life couple, van life usa, van life vlog, van tour, vanlife, vlog, bike race, road riding

Id: iu9tDZ-pYC0

Length: 38min 0sec (2280 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Sounders1]

This was a fantastic series, I had no clue this bike ride even existed. Very entertaining...

[u/BenSoloGhost]

This looked amazing. Wife and I are now looking at doing it next year

[u/cattailmatt]

Great. Now I wanna go for a bike ride and eat pie and beer for breakfast for a week. What has this video done to me?

[u/foxmag86]

Am I the only one who is annoyed with Kara's coffee addiction? We get it, you need coffee in the morning. And if you don't get it you'll whine and pout like a 5 year old. Grow up.

[u/Albort]

makes me wonder who cut out the karaoke audio part... lol

[u/TalkativeRedPanda]

Another great video. I really enjoyed it.

​

But seriously Kara, you put the clip with your hands down your pants in again?

[u/VirtuallyHappy]

That looked like fun. Perfect late summer activity.

[u/bigsean1013]

Kara is just getting even more cringe and insufferable with each video. I’m sorry Kara stans but it’s too much.

[u/Jamie___May]

What’s with the pad comment? Why would that be her assumption?