THE ULTIMATE MARRIAGE TEST (450 miles on a tandem bicycle)

good morning it's a little after seven and today is the official start of ragbrai love you good job partner [Music] this is the best music porn i've ever had this is probably the biggest perk to riding tandem so far you can pay eight dollars for a shower but she is currently shaving her legs with a fire hydrant [Music] you ready for this yes as soon as i finish my coffee we are currently in clinton iowa and in about an hour we are getting on a bus that is going to take us somewhere on the western border of the state where we'll get dropped off so that we can spend the next seven days riding bicycles back to this exact location but before we open the bus let me back up and quickly explain how we got here when we set our goal to visit all 50 states we ask you what we should do in each state and for iowa a lot of people recommend it something i never heard of before called ragbrai it eventually came up enough that i googled it according to the website ragbrai is the oldest largest and longest multi-day recreational bike touring event in the world over the course of seven days riders attempt to ride over 400 miles across the entire state each night they camp in a new town and the town throws a big party there are thousands of people backed into this town literally after an hour of research we had signed up to participate in the event and we've been training every day since i'm just kidding neither one of us have been on a bicycle this year that's not something i'm proud of it just worked out that way we picked up the tandem bike that we're going to be riding for the entire event yesterday afternoon here it is oh it's hard it's so big you gonna test it out here goes nothing you're doing it why are you leaning that way stop paddling i've never been able to do this before so far those pedals in the parking lot are the extent of our tandem bicycle riding experience ever as i was loading the bike onto a truck last night to get it shipped across the state someone told me that this was the next step in karen and i's relationship first you date then you get engaged then you get married and then you see if your relationship can survive a tandem bicycle ride stop screaming all right i've got to finish packing because the bus leaves shortly this is the last time i'm gonna touch my computer for a whole week feels so weird all right what if i forgot that's super important fanny pack bike bag pillow bike shoes do you have tent sleeping bag sleeping pad clothes this bag right here is literally all the clothes i'm bringing for the next week most importantly even better we don't really know what we're getting ourselves into all right we gotta go i don't even know last time brushing my teeth in a sink okay i hope that's not my last good cup of coffee this week whoa oh my goodness cara what did you pack in here oh gosh go ride a bike for seven days bye van we'll see you in a week all right hopefully between this massive gray bag and the black backpack with all the electronics we have everything we need for the next week we also have dusty and sarah if you didn't watch our last videos we just completed six days in the boundary waters training for the bike ride i think the only real training we did was sleeping in a tent all right no turning back now right now i'm really excited there's our bikes following us over and this was pretty much our view for the next six hours any last minute tips for ragbrai lower your expectations and have fun all right well i think this is home for the night we decided to camp right next to this building we're hoping as the sun sets the building's going to provide a little shade [Music] [Applause] one of the coolest families we know is joining us on this adventure our great friends rick and beck you're flying and they're little girls my name is frank my name is evie last summer rick talked nate into mountain biking over 500 miles from denver to durango on the colorado trail while the girls and i followed along in our vans it was our greatest adventure of 2020. and it was no surprise that they were 100 on board when we invited them to join us on this ride across iowa real quick we want to say a big thank you to virb energy for fueling our adventures and for sponsoring this video this is upside down this is a verb energy bar and this little bar right here is what gave us the extra energy boost that we needed between all the corn pork and other iowa delicacies each verb energy bar is only 90 calories and they were specifically designed to be the perfect pick-me-up to keep you alert and focused they have as much caffeine as a shot of espresso but they're made with green tea so they don't give you the jitters plus they're gluten-free and vegan best of all though is that they actually taste delicious i've tried a lot of bars throughout our adventures and these are my favorite burp has an awesome offer that we get to share with you today and that's it you can try their trial pack which includes their four most popular flavors for just the cost of shipping which is only 95 cents so for less than a dollar you can try blueberry crisp pumpkin spice latte salted peanut butter and vanilla latte click the link in the description below to try the trial pack for free just pay 95 cents for shipping i'm currently questioning my life decisions it is 5 15 in the morning seems like everyone else in camp is up also it's not light outside yet there's a spotlight right above our tent and this is what it's looked like all night on a positive note i found coffee and i'm sure it'll be a great day how did you sleep whose idea was this why are we doing that did you say that felt about to have my first chamois butter it doesn't really have a smell so i just rub it this is weird i have a feeling you're doing this in public is it everybody doing it oh it's cold it's our first day of riding and we have 84 miles from lamar's to sac city this is gonna be our longest day of riding with the most elevation i um really throw you into the deep end here it's freshening up it looks very dreamy what's the most amount of miles you've ever ridden on a bike one time we rode 26 miles what's the most amount of miles you've ever ridden on tandem bike zero 13 miles on a regular bike we rode like .25 miles yesterday on the tandem bike probably 50 and tandem i think we probably did about point three yesterday rounding up here we go all right let's see if it passes yep you're all good go home 27. nobody told us they were going to be weighing the bag so i just kind of like packed everything good how are you doing good how are you i like the energy that's a lot of bags so every morning we have to have our luggage on that truck five eight a.m based on the way i slept last night that won't be an issue oh good what's up guys it's so big that's as far as we've ever ridden it just now so we were told by multiple people yesterday that if this was our first time riding ragbrai we had to write virgin on the back of our leg i'm not sure if this is some kind of joke but they told us it was so that people would make sure we had a great first ragbrai experience and that's we're here for the experience so we went with it here we go oh my gosh we're doing it we're rag crying you all look so good we're half of them all in and the knobs have already lost the chain go team [Applause] happy ragbrai is that a thing hey tanda this is nuts there are people everywhere have you successfully survived the ragbrai on tandem yes so we can do this and still be married absolutely oh the energy this morning is so good have a great day thank you good morning morning everyone is so nice we're gonna win we're two miles in getting to our first little hill we've created the gap yeah hey jesse look corn frankie is such a mood all right we're coming up on our first town first stop in poor decisions honestly we thought we were stopping for coffee and it just happened to be the beer tents so it's 8 19 and i believe that is the earliest margarita i've ever consumed happy ragbrai well we did about 11 miles in the first hour and i'm feeling surprisingly good i think the two things i'm most worried about today are the heat and my butt all right we're back on the road my favorite part about ragbrai so far is i don't have to worry about shifting gears i'm really hardly pedaling i'm just kind of back here enjoying the views talking to people hey look there's corn is that corn soybeans oh how do you do that i meant soybeans man this is fun i love ragbrai wow [Music] we just passed the 26.2 mile marker which is officially the longest bike ride we have ever done excuse me the longest bike ride i have ever done they did that every single day on the colorado trail it's sunday morning which also means that we have posted a video on youtube today and i've just been back here replying to comments looking at the stats just getting some work done while nate's in the front don't worry about it doing all the thinking for us all right i'll turn right one shoot we're getting so good at this lunchtime we made it half a day but not quite halfway that's not my watch so i hear mr pork chops famous oh yeah flip and flip this place is called mr pork chop and it is the one place that has been recommended to eat to us multiple times on the ride they have this big pink van and apparently they just move every day so if we want to eat a pork chop every single day we can do it i'm gonna do it right here in the top yeah it's our new life motto means why not in italian it's not spelled that way we just think that looks nice do you wanna go ride 400 miles across iowa on a tandem bike when you haven't trained at all come i know are you the mr porch well i'm the second one all right my dad was the master oh that's awesome where are you guys from we're from nashville what makes mr pork chop special do you have a secret we use corn cobs big square grills the corn cobs is the big deal welcome to iowa straight off the grill straight into the cooler any words of wisdom for the rest of ragbrai have as much fun as you can if you get tired have somebody give you a ride to the end thank you so much what's the verdict i just got a bite of fat that is something juicy the only other bike trip i have to compare this to is the colorado trail and man is this different we were living off protein bars and spam sandwiches and here i am eating a pork chop hey don't hit our spam sandwiches not you frankie i'm sorry i wasn't talking about you 2021 it's water i filled it up with water so we've been told that there is a group of policemen and throughout the week follow the race and they pushed the stragglers who were stuck in the beer gardens on to the next town and we just heard someone talking i think we're about 20 minutes ahead of those policemen that was our third stop of the day so our new goal is to not stop again until we're at least halfway the downhills are where the tandems thrive we are flying all right the first real i don't even know how to say this our bike is stuck in a high gear this is the first time that it's just been like hard you're supposed to know how to do this you biked by more miles doing it it's just not happening there it is the official sag wagon of ragbrai the sag wagon is the wagon that rides i was gonna say behind the race but i guess we're going a little slow because it was in front of us it's the wagon that picks people up if they can't make it so they have a trail in the back they throw the bikes on and then you get in the van and ride your way to the next town we won't do it uh-oh the real goal for the week is not to get in that i think we're to the top yes yes that's the way that's the best that was strategically placed that's for sure town number three free corn we gotta get it i know we weren't supposed to stop there's free corn i'm down for guard courtesy of the iowa corn growers association every time we say we're going to ride through a town or always tell me to stop this we're approaching town number four i think i wasn't really into cycling when i first moved over here yeah it's just been this like gradual hill for the last like three miles it feels like we're in the next town they're all kind of starting to run together at this point i had a big-time wall i'm really hoping this ice cream sandwich brings me back we still have 30 more miles to go on this bend oh right there oh that's beautiful thank you we're officially behind the cops have caught up with us they're kicking people out of town they've shut down all the food vendors and the bad thing is this is where the group was planning on eating our big meal of the day or at least getting some substantial food but we're not really behind because we've been lollygagging and drinking all day like i feel like a lot of the people are we're just doing our best to make it we are 54 miles into our 84 mile ride and those last seven miles that we did before we got to town were tough how are you feeling i'm feeling at good one of us feels good all right we have about 25 miles to go today we're all really feeling it at this point especially since we couldn't get real food it's hot my butt hurts my legs hurt when when that's all i hear from my neck and back starting to hurt but my spirits are high i'm joking this is the first time she's complaining i'm not sure what that thing does but i feel like it's the most iowan thing that could have driven across the road 15 miles to go now we're slowing down 10 miles to go um five miles to go take a little butt break we can see the water tower of the next town so every single town that we've stopped in today has had a water tower so that's kind of how you know you're getting close the bad part is you can see a water tower from a really long ways away and you feel like you're almost there but you're not oh my neck is going ah to a cramp we're so close oh it's the most beautiful sign i've ever seen we're here sag city just became my new favorite city in the whole world [Applause] the town was like 10 times closer than the water tower and it just appeared i thought i was dreaming all these people i already have their tents set up yeah we're a bit late day one complete that was just day one we made it we did it and we made it that one was harder than i think anyone expected like i talked a lot of people have done this a bunch and they don't recall a harder day than today was i can't believe you carried that thing all the way over here good work good work i literally think i could fall asleep like this and wake up in the morning what time is it 7 30 7 30 we've been biking for 12 hours love you good job partner there's gonna be a big party in town every night we're gonna go have fun right now we can't even muster the energy to set up our tents okay i can't even hold this camera anymore how my arms is tired okay we're gonna see who has energy for confessionals tonight day one of ragbrai was super fun at the beginning way more fun than i expected my butt hurts the butt's the worst i mean i was hurting first 20 miles i was like man this is awesome we totally got this riding a tandem is no problem the tandem experience was 10 out of 10. not having to worry about steering or people or cars was so nice it's not hard we're crushing out the miles getting drinks getting food hanging out and then i got really exhausted around mile 60. maybe there's the rhythm of how the ragbrai sort of thing works we just mistimed some stuff i don't think anyone ate enough food or drink enough today because they were they were pushing us along ice cream sandwiches and uh and freezy pops isn't enough yeah not enough but overall it was pretty fun we made it to sac city finally 12 and a half hours later surprisingly i'm excited to get up and do it again tomorrow we'll see if we can start out a little bit faster tomorrow when it's still cool outside and tomorrow's last mile 67.7 miles that's right i still can't believe we didn't fight like especially when we're doing something that's hard i tend to have a short temper i think she held up better than i did today and she's a great tandem partner i can't think of better people to be doing this with we learned whether frankie can hang out in a trailer for 14 hours straight eating pretzels and survive and not get too fussy and it turns out she could probably do it for months yes we're gonna sleep so well today the girls still have energy [Music] it's a generator where did you get this you need to go get brick a hug yay i didn't think it was gonna get me caught why do people get up so early and they're just loud and cracking jokes and laughing having fun enjoying life it's day two we have 67 miles and about a third of the amount of elevation that we did yesterday so theoretically today should be quite a bit easier but um the butt is a lot sore than it was at the start of yesterday on a scale of one to ten eleven [Music] oh it's gotta get better i can't do this for 67 miles please go numb please go numb is the course to the right thank you yesterday we were riding with a big group it was very obvious where to go and now um we're very late starting with a little downhill this is beautiful that's where the coffee was yeah that's the problem with ragbrai you have to get on your bike and ride the coffee i shouldn't complain so far your only complaint we are cruising we're in the fast lane flying by like legit bikers ah the bumps hurt we've joined a peloton giant group of really fast people who were riding in their draft i think that's what you say so guys we could use some drafts we have arrived in litton that ride was only six miles i feel like we just got started today's goal eat as much pie as possible good morning this is all that's left of the strawberry rhubarb do volunteers cook the pies how many pies did you cut 1900 pieces wow we went an entire day with no pie if it's half as good as it looks it's gonna be the best thing i've ever put on now wow and they're giving them all out for free you just give a donation for the fire department and how's it going great how's the ride is your butt as sore as mine i don't know this is awesome it's such a change from yesterday afternoon there are thousands of people backed into this town yesterday we got so far behind it was like us and the other 10 stragglers ragbrai we need to keep up so we can keep this energy around us all day long stop into piggy and for pickles [Applause] they say that the salt from the pickles and the pickle juice help you retain water so i'm hoping since we're having this early in the day i won't have to pee a million times like i did yesterday they're safe as hell yet hot pickle is good timing how long does it take to rotate before they're cooked about 30-35 minutes she really loves corn i'm gonna stand right here and read every single sign because there's a beautiful air conditioner there right above my head oh salted up baby okay this is the best piece of corn i've ever had oh my gosh it really is i meant to get my floss out of my toiletry bag so i didn't have corn in my mouth i mean in my teeth i can't use words today [Music] hey what's up gang i miss you so much this is the best moment of the day so far i have an ice cream sandwich we've been reunited with the team and we just learned that we are actually in the third city we thought we were in the second city which means instead of being 18 miles into our 67 mile day we are 29 miles in we are pretty much halfway and it's 10 30 in the morning heard that about 10 times so we've been told that you haven't been to ragbrai if you haven't tried beekman's ice cream apparently it's a staple on the rise they show up in a different location each day and they make their ice cream using the old churners and super old engines to actually move the churners around the oldest one is the red one and it's from 1913. wow that is so much ice cream dead to me looks like not chocolatey enough [Music] i knew it as soon as i saw it the truth hurts it is now 4 p.m we have 12 miles till the end and we've given ourselves a goal of getting there by five i think we can do it our motivation is getting a shower before the sun goes down and happy hour i felt great all day i never hit a wall it got a little hot after mile 50 but i was still feeling good let's do this team hey look at all that corn wow we're pulling up to moreland our second to last down of the day and they have a sprinkler oh my gosh it was so cold it was slightly out of the way so we get to go one more time thank you [Music] i love moreland that's probably the most fun town we've driven through [Music] we're here what time is it 4 49. [Applause] we made it to camp with 11 minutes to spare we've been biking for two days and kara has lost all shame you can pay eight dollars for a shower but she was currently shaving her legs with a fire hydrant i'm too embarrassed to even stay around and film that look how many people are here i know she is here thank you she's lost all of it in the last two days is this the weirdest thing you've seen all day oh somebody recognizes you while you're doing this how was that great i feel so much better i don't know why everybody does it because literally this is the check-in booth so everyone comes past this fire hydrant and you just shaved your legs in it welcome to ragbrai [Music] we uh slept by a train track last night it's 5 40. this could be the biggest challenge so far i have been unable to find coffee this morning and i have to get cara out of the tent good morning we're all witnessing a miracle this morning we only have to pedal 12 miles to the first down today we only have 54 miles and 1 000 feet of climbing which means it is the second shortest day of the week so in comparison to what we've done before and what's coming after this should be a relatively easy day we didn't do confessionals last night so how are you feeling going into day three if one more person drives past the tandem and says that i'm not pedaling they're getting the middle finger bye thanks for letting me bathe in your fire hydrant we are leaving camp in search of coffee out of 15 000 people we cannot be the only ones who need coffee in the morning thank you we found someone selling coffee on the side of the road there's one cup made thank you sorry team the amount of energy that i have knowing i don't have to wait 12 hours i mean 12 miles for this cup of coffee is so great this is probably the biggest perk to riding tandem so far i have an extra hand good morning me before coffee when people say good morning me [Applause] [Music] they were so cute it's just so sweet they call it iowa nice and it is good morning there would be no reason to spend seven days biking across iowa in 100 degree heat if it weren't for the people they just make this ride hey look at that corn oh wow beautiful rare sightings coffee wow that is a hefty serving thank you oh i cannot think of something better to eat right now and i'm pretty sure that all the money that we're paying for breakfast is going to support the fire station which is pretty cool it couldn't be any better who came to visit you last night i lost my breath too whoa what did she bring you 31 bucks 31 bucks well unfortunately i have to make a very sad announcement all right oh yeah very intense bow out of the writing we are officially down one team member to the sag wagon all i can say is i know for a fact that there's no way becca quit and she didn't have to i started getting some pain yesterday and i just thought i needed to adjust my seat higher so throughout the day i was like oh i've got to adjust my seat i've got to adjust my seat by the afternoon it wasn't too late then i was like well once i get on the bike maybe it'll flush through once i woke up and it just didn't all right we're shuffling the teams around so that we can get back 15 more miles because there's a group of really cool guys who have offered to take her in and help her get to the end town today and we're trying not to wear rick out all right this is my new teammate kara's swapping to the second seat on the trandom have fun see you there okay team trandom you ready i'm ready one two three first random takeoff no problem oh this is so weird it's like there's no one behind me except a little engine with no weight wow i got the better end of the deal here [Music] look at them fly by faster you're crushing it back there do you have anything you want to say to the to the gopro no i won't rat you out don't worry [Applause] all right we just got to our next stop and guess what there is it's pretty good oh it's so good it's so good i cannot describe the satisfaction of a cold sprinkler [Music] [Applause] [Music] what are you doing are you about to ride the bus yes are you excited good yes [Laughter] because without you we wouldn't be able to do this see dave thank you all right adios all right we've just dropped beck off on this blue bus which we've nicknamed the struggle bus it's really just an awesome family that rick met the first day this is the bus i ended up on they're here doing ragbrai out of this bus which seems like the way to do it and now they they've saved the day they're going to take back to the next town and we're all going to continue on all right from this point in the ride we're down back in frankie the last thing that i ever thought would happen was that beck would be injured this is a lady who hiked the entire appalachian trail 2200 miles pregnant with a little luck if we can get the knee under control so you can join us at the end for a little bit to finish it off [Music] fall asleep did you feel me in the dude take a selfie with you twelve more miles [Music] definitely it feels sad they're gonna have a lot of fun yes hey guy let's sell his chicken alfredo using his cute puppy we've made it to the in town of iowa falls i love it here i like your hat thank you idaho falls has a lot of energy i love it we started today at 7 30 and finished at 6 00 pm which is quite a bit slower than i thought we were going to be for 55 miles it took all of the energy that we had left in our bodies to pick up this camera this is probably the most pooped i've been the whole trip but i also think this is the highlight of the trip so far the bus has a portable shower that we've hooked up to the house so we just had a shower in a stranger's yard first shower yeah eight dollars five days i was starting to get chafing in weird places and i think it was because of poor hygiene i had to put body butter on my nipple so there is a positive spin to beck's injury and that's the the blue bust that she got picked up on they're like pro rag briars and also the nicest people ever it's a family that's been doing this for like 12 years they've built out this awesome van and it's just their rag primo bill so we are currently sitting in a complete stranger's yard we have taken over their entire lawn they're not even home anymore this family's entire strategy is to take their bus drive to the town where the ride ends and then just start knocking on doors and ask if they can camp in people's hearts but the people of iowa are so great and so happy to have people here and they're all for ragbrai then it's just no problem to find a family that will let us do this i can't hold it anymore okay i think mom and i are both very very proud of the girls today do i have beets in my teeth oh i'm just trying to like bottle up this feeling of what are you doing i'm shaming how'd you sleep i slept good i underestimated how early these midwesterners would be waking up it was like at five o'clock they're like oh here chicken roasting or whatever they do chicken's rooster pork wine dinner if you're only right here at dinnertime that's gonna be a long day balanced breakfast cheers are you tired yeah i'm really tired he has been so polite he has not passed wind once wow [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 985,426

Rating: 4.9581237 out of 5

Keywords: tandem bike, tandem bicycle, tandem bike racing, ragbrai 2021, ragbrai packing, ragbrai party, ragbrai tips, ragbrai camping, ragbrai, ragbrai tandem, iowa, #vanlife, couple vlog, full time travel, kara and nate, kara and nate vlog, morning routine, off grid living, sprinter van, sprinter van conversion, tiny home on wheels, 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

Id: FMsOu6XCTQs

Length: 34min 49sec (2089 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/foxmag86]

Their friend Rick and his family have got to be one of the coolest, most unique families out there. They’re pretty much down for anything. I would love to see a YouTube channel following them on all their adventures.

And the wife hiked 2200 miles while pregnant?? Amazing.

[u/Snoo6099]

I really enjoyed this video. I think the idea of biking across Iowa (any state, really) sounds like a lot of fun. Sure, the biking sometimes was hard, but they showed how kind and generous the people of Iowa are! Seems like a lot of small, friendly towns happy to support a group of bikers!

[u/LilahLibrarian]

Is the point of doing this on a tandem bike?

[u/PriorAd7865]

Definitely one of my favorite videos of the year. I have wanted to do RAGBRAI so this one hit the spot. I also feel like when their videos have an end goal they are always better.

Can't wait till part 2.

[u/pizzaeater1991]

Her shaving her legs in the fire hydrant where people were using to fill up water bottles was disgusting.

[u/AManHasAJob]

RAGBRAI looks fun. In 2021, it also looks like a massive super spreader event. Downvote if you'd like, but 15,000 people riding and sweating together during a pandemic is a bad idea.

[u/MyGirlFridayRed]

It would be an entertaining video if Nate didn't $hit on his wife every five minutes. How many times can this guy rag on her then play it off like he's "teasing". It drives me nuts!

No doubt she's used to it but if my friend's husband spoke to her like that I'd take her aside and have a chat. Not cool. Not cute.

[u/tyleet87]

I’m tired of watching them ride bicycles.

I would LOVE to see more of what cities and towns are known for. I was so excited they reached California, only to discover they went to an abandoned town in Death Valley and then left.

Hoping they might get to Salem, Ma sometime in October for spooky season? Because my favorite thing is watching Kara tease Nate about ghosts.

[u/Silly_Fall_9075]

Screaming, shouting, yelling, so loud, no surprise Kara's mouth is enormous, just calm down!!