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 Rag Pry. Love you. Good job, partner.

This is the best piece of corn I've ever had.

This is probably the biggest perk to riding in tandem so far.

You can pay $8 for a shower, but she is currently shaving her legs with a fire hydra.

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 hop on the bus, let me back up and quickly explain how we got here. When we set our goal to visit all 50 states, we asked you what we should do in each state. And for Iowa, a lot of people recommended 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 want to test it out?

Here goes nothing.

I know we're doing it.

Why are you leaning that way?

Stop. Padaway.

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 Kara 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. Alright, I've got to finish packing because the bus leaves shortly.

This is the last time I'm going to 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, Jamie, butter.

We don't really know what we're getting ourselves into. All right, we gotta go.

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. Gara, 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.

Smile. Smile for the camera. 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 gonna provide a little shade.

Look at the eaves.

Whoa. He always looks like ours.

Hi. One of the coolest families we know is joining us on this adventure. Our great friends, Rick and Beck.

You're flying.

And their little. 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. Me and Durango. While the girls and I followed along in our vans. It was our greatest adventure of 2020.

I did it.

And it was no surprise that they were 100% on board when we invited them to join us on this ride across Iowa.

Morning.

Welcome. I am 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 was it.

Did you say that as well?

About to have my first shammy butter experience. It doesn't really have a smell, so I just.

Mm.

Rub it. This is weird.

I have a feeling you're doing this in public.

Isn't everybody doing it? Oh, it's cold.

It's our first day of riding and we have 84 miles from Lamars to Sac City. This is going to be our longest day of riding with the most elevation. They really throw you into the deep end here.

Freshening up.

You look 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 a tandem bike?

0. 13 miles on a regular bike. We rode like 0.25 miles yesterday on the tandem bike.

Probably 50 and tandem. I think we probably did about 0.3 yesterday. Rounding up. Here we go. All right, let's see if it passes. Yep. You're all good.

27.

Nobody told us they were going to be weighing the bag, so I just kind of like packed everything.

Good morning.

Good.

How are you?

Good.

I like the energy. That's a lot of bags. So every morning we have to have our luggage on that truck by 8am Based on the way I slept last night, that won't be an issue. Oh, what's up, guys? It's so big. That's as far as we've ever ridden it. 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 Ragbry experience. And that's what we're here for, the experience. So we went with it.

Here we go. Whoop. Oh, gosh. I almost fell off. We're doing it. We're rag frying.

Y' all look so good. Uh oh.

Uh oh.

We're half a mile in and the knobs have already lost the chain.

Go team. Woo. Woo.

Happy ragbry. Is that a thing?

Hey, Tandem. Hi, Tandem. How's it going? This is nuts. There are people everywhere.

Have you successfully survived a ragbry on a tandem?

Yes.

So we can do this and still be marri. We got them.

Oh, the energy this morning is so good.

Have a great day. Thank you.

Morning.

Morning.

Everyone is so nice in Iowa. They're gonna win.

We're two miles in. Getting to our first little hill.

We've created the gap. Yeah. Hey, Desti, look. Corey.

I love it.

Frankie is such a mood.

All right, we're coming up on our.

First town, first stop in poor decisions. Yes. Cheers to a week of poor decisions. Honestly, we thought we were stopping for coffee, and it just happened to be the beer tent. So it's 8:19, and I believe that.

Is the earliest margarita I have ever consumed. Happy Ragbrai.

Well, we did about 11 miles in the first hour, and no, 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, I meant soybeans, man.

This is fine.

I love rag rides. Wow.

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. Nate 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 throw. Right. One, two.

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 Chop's famous.

Oh, yeah.

Flipping.

This place is called Mr. Pork Chop, and it is the one place that has been recommended to each 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. 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? Call me.

No.

Are you the Mr. Porkchop?

Well, I'm the second one.

All right.

My dad was the Mr. Porch.

Oh, that's awesome.

Where are you guys from?

We're from Nashville.

Really?

What makes Mr. Pork Chops special? Do you have a secret?

We use corn cobs. Big square grills. The corn cobs is the big deal.

Oh, that's your horny.

Yeah, that's.

Whoa.

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.

Done.

Thank you so much. What's the verdict? Gotta be careful with that.

I just gotta bite a fat. That is some juicy Hinda pork.

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 hate on our Spam sandwiches.

I'm not.

Not you, Frankie. I'm sorry. I wasn't talking about you.

Frag ride 20, 21.

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 push the stragglers who are stuck in the beer gardens on to the next town. And we just heard someone talking, and 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 hill. 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 500 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 trailer on 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.

Uhoh.

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 to.

That's the best. That was strategically placed. That's for sure. Town number three.

Corn. We gotta get it. I know we weren't supposed to stop, but there's free corn.

I'm down for corn. Courtesy of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Every time we say we're gonna ride through a town, there's always something that stops us.

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 hit a big time wall. I'm really hoping this ice cream sandwich me back. We still have 30 more miles to go. I'll just bend over there.

Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you. We are officially behind. The cops have caught up with us. They're kicking people out of town. They 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 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 good.

At least 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.

Wah, wah, wah. That's all I hear from you.

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.

9, 5 miles to go. Taking a little butt break. We can see 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.

Psych.

City just became my new favorite city in the whole world. I Love Sex City. 84 miles. We did it.

That is all the energy I can muster.

The town was, like, 10 times closer than the water tower, and it just appeared. I thought I was dreaming. All these people already have the tent set up.

Yeah.

We're a bit late. Day one. I'll tell her about complete.

I don't know.

That was just day one.

Triple the distance we've ever done on a boat.

Quit saying we. We made it. We did it. We made it. That one was harder than I think anyone expected. Like, I talked to a lot of people who 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. 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 are my arms this 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 six.

Maybe just the rhythm of how the Ragbrai sort of thing works. We just mistimed some stuff. I don't think anyone ate enough food or drank enough today because they were. They were pushing us along. Ice cream sandwiches 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 Are gonna sleep so well today. You'll never catch a hold of bubble. The girls still have energy.

It's a gener.

Where did you get this?

You need to go give Rick a hug.

Yay.

I didn't think people's gonna get any coffee.

He's alive.

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 the butt is a lot sore than it was at the start of yesterday.

On a scale of 1 to 10?

11.

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 very light. Starting with a little downhill. This is beautiful.

That's where the coffee was. Yeah. That's the problem with Ragbraai. You have to get on your bike and ride to coffee.

My only complaint so far.

Your only complaint.

We are cruising. We're in the fast lane. Flying by like legit bikers. The bumps hurt. We've joined a peloton. Giant group of really fast people were riding in their draft. I think that's what you say. Sup, guys? Could use some draft. We have arrived in Lytton. That ride was only six miles. I feel like we just got started. Today's goal. Eat as much pie as possible. Good morning. It's never.

Bluebird, but I think mine are gone. I think I've got to go. Apple.

I'm kind of into the rhubarb. It's almost gone. It's almost gone.

This is all that's left of the strawberry rhubarb. Do volunteers cook the pies?

Yeah.

How many pies did you cook?

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 my mouth. 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. Let me. This is awesome. It's such a change from yesterday afternoon. There are thousands of people packed into this town. Yesterday we got so far behind. It was like us and the other ten Drag wars rag ride. We need to keep up so we can keep this energy around us all day long.

Stopping to pee. And for pickles.

Woo. 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.

Their steepest hill 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 vent right above my head.

Hello. We'll take two, please.

Salt it up, baby.

Okay. I got in the habit of fighting. 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 the rest of the day.

I mean in my teeth. I can't use words today.

Yay. 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 when you have your feet off the pedal.

Hear that about 10 times.

So we've been told that you haven't been to Ragbrae if you haven't tried Beekman's ice cream. Apparently it's a staple on the ride. They show up at 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. Genie looks lit.

You said it looked lit. Like the kids say.

How is it?

Hilarious.

Not chocolatey enough.

I knew it as soon as I saw it. The truth hurts.

It is now 4pm 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.

Honestly, 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.

Corn. We're pulling up to Moreland, our second to last town 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. Oh, Moreland.

I love Moreland. That's probably the most fun town we've driven through.

We're here.

What time is it?

4:49.

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 $8 for a shower, but she is 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.

No shame here. Thank you.

She's lost all of it in the last two days. That is nice.

Is this the weirdest thing you've seen all day?

We love it.

Oh, somebody recognizes you while you're doing this. How was that?

Great. I feel so much better. Don't know why everybody doesn't do this.

Because literally this is the check in booth. So everyone comes in, passed this fire hydrant and you just shaved your legs in it.

Welcome to Rag Fry.

We slept by a train track last night. It's 5:40.

Okay. This could be the biggest challenge so far. I have been unable to find coffee this morning and I have to get Kara out of the tent. Good morning. We are all witnessing a miracle this morning. We only have to pedal 12 miles to the first step.

Today we only have 54 miles and 1,000ft of climbing, which means that 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 giving the middle finger Goodbye. 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 in tandem so far. I have an extra hand.

Good morning, me before coffee. When people say good morning me after coffee.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

They were so cute. It's just so sweet. They call it Iowa. Nice. And it is real. Woo.

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. Corn. Beautiful.

Rare sighting.

Wow, that is a hefty serving. Thank you.

Oh, I cannot think of something better to eat right now.

I'm pretty sure that all the money that we're paying for our 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?

Hillary.

I lost my friends too.

What did you she bring you? 31 bucks. 31 bucks?

Well, unfortunately, I have to make a very sad announcement. All right.

Going to have to bow out of the riding.

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 would quit if she didn't have to.

I started getting some pain yesterday. I got a sore leg 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 was too late. Then I was like, well, once I get on the bike, maybe it'll flush through once I warm up. But 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 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 trandom 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.

Look at you. You got pounds of weight.

Look at them fly by faster. You're crashing it back there.

Do you have anything you want to say to the. To the gopro?

No.

Strategy. I won't rat you out. Don't worry.

We made it.

All right.

We just got to our next stop, and guess what? There is a sprinkler. Hot sprinkler. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. I Cannot describe the satisfaction of a cold sprinkler.

Bravo.

Oh, perfect.

What are you doing?

Are you about to ride on the bus?

Yes.

Are you excited?

Yes. Good. Yes. Okay, everybody.

So my phone.

Hi, darling. Good job. Because without you, we wouldn't be able to do this.

See you, Dave. Thank you. All right. Adios. All right. We've just dropped back 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.

Ragbry 2021. 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 Beck to the next town and we're all going to continue on.

All right.

From this point in the ride, we're down Beck and Frankie. The last thing that I ever thought would happen is 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, she can join us at the end for a little bit to finish it off.

Fall asleep. Did you film me and the dude take a selfie with you?

12 more miles.

Now we're on tandem.

Having half the family. This thing definitely feels sad. They're gonna have a lot of fun.

Yes.

Hey. Guy was selling his chicken Alfredo Using his cute puppy.

We have made it to the in town of Iowa Falls.

I love it here.

I like your hat. Say thank you.

Say hi, baby.

Idaho falls has a lot of energy.

I love it.

We started today at 7:30 and finished at 6pm 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, $8. 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 nipples. So there is a positive spin to Beck's injury. And that's the blue bus that she got picked up on. They're like pro ragbriers and also the nicest people ever. It's a family that's been doing this for like 12 years. They built out this awesome van, and it's just their ragbry mobile.

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 yard.

The people of Iowa are so great and just so happy to have people here, and they're all for ragbry that 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.

They're tiny. Do I have beets in my teeth? Oh, I'm just trying to, like, bottle up this feeling of chocolates. I'm shammy.

How'd you sleep? I slept good. I underestimated how early these Midwesterners would be waking up. It was like at 5 o'. Clock. They're like, oh, here. Chicken roosting or whatever they do.

Chickens roosting.

Pork loin. Dinner. If you're only right here at dinner time, it's gonna be a long day. Balance.

Breakfast.

Cheers. Yeah. You're tired.

Are you tired? Yeah, I'm really tired.

Really?

I'm really tired. He has been so polite. He has not passed wind once.

Wow.