S1 E1: Embarking on Ragbrai: A Father-Daughter Journey into Adventure

Hey, hey, funky fam.

Welcome to the very first episode of the outdoor welcome to Outdoor Funky Podcast.

I'm Nicholas Cleave, also known as Mr. Funky Teacher.

And this podcast is all about getting outside, creating meaningful connections and living life with movement, curiosity and funk.

Well, we're recording this episode during opening day of Ragbrai 52, the legendary bike ride across the state of Iowa.

Now you Yesterday was the big expo in town of Orange City with tons of music, food, gear and good energy.

And today we officially kicked off the ride with a 72 mile ride across the rolling Iowa roads.

And in true Funky fashion, we Forgot our phase 10 cards and a deck of cards.

So yep, we actually biked last night out to buy a new deck of phase 10 cards and a deck of regular cards just to have something fun extra to do.

And we're hanging around in the tent and hanging around the campsite because what's Ragbrai with a little bit of fun card games hanging around camp.

Now you might be sitting there saying what is Ragbright?

What is this thing that he's talking about?

Well, you know, Ragbrai is short for the Registers annual Great bicycle ride across Iowa.

It is the oldest, largest and longest recreational bike tour in the world.

This is, it's just amazing to have this in our backyard here in Iowa.

Now this week long ride is all about so much more than the miles we love our small town, pie stands, corn fields, campgrounds, kindness, got some music echoing through the fields now it's challenging of course, and a lot of joy, a lot of sweat, a lot of laughter.

It's not a race.

Well, some people might think it's a race, but it's certainly not a race.

But.

But it's a moving celebration of community, of adventure and the magic of being outside.

Now on this very first episode of Outdoor Funky, I have a very special guest because my daughter is here with me.

I'm joined by my amazing 16 year old daughter Maya Cleave who's riding the entire Ragbraai with me this year.

Now she's done Ragbrai before.

This is her third year at Ragbraai, not consecutive, but she's been out here three different years with me.

Third year where she's doing the whole week with me.

And we're back at it again together.

So, Maya, I do have some questions for you here.

Why don't you go ahead and say hi to the funky fam.

Hi, guys.

Now, why did you want to do Ragbrai with me in the first place?

And why did you want to come and do it again this year?

Because I thought it was a cool thing that my dad did and I wanted to be not cool like him, but I thought it was a fun thing to do with him.

Yeah.

Oh, thank you.

I appreciate that.

How did the 72 miles today compared to other days?

Unrighteous.

It was the first day this year.

But you've done days of Ragbrar in the past.

How did today's 72 Mile Day compare to days that you've done in the past?

I think today was not as hilly.

There was like only one big hill and I think that was nice.

It was pretty flat, but the headwind was really bad.

So that was not fun.

Yeah, it did.

It made it challenging the last 15 miles coming into town here.

We're not too far from.

We're kind of on the edge of Okoboji here and oh boy, it was a tough headwind indeed.

Now, today, think about, Maya, think about today.

What was your favorite stop or moment on the ride today?

Now, I think I know what the answer is, Maya, but I'm excited to hear you talk about your favorite moment of the day.

So this one place had mini Aussie Doodles and they were the cutest thing ever.

They had a whole bunch of them and we got to cuddle them.

It was really fun.

I really liked it.

So it was free cuddles of the puppies.

I mean, can you imagine that?

You're, you're out there biking.

We're like 50 miles.

Were we about 50 miles in?

Yeah.

Or like closer to 60?

Probably 60 miles in.

We see the stand.

They got Gatorade, they got water on the side and they got puppies to cuddle.

And what a treat that was.

And in fact, you hope someday to have a puppy like this.

So that was an extra treat.

Yeah.

I want a mini Aussie Doodle.

Yeah.

They are cute.

They had.

How many of them did they have?

Well, they had like, I don't even know.

They had a lot.

Like nine maybe, I don't know, eight.

Or nine of them out there.

They were seven weeks old.

They're, they're actually, it was really a great thing.

They're trying to kind of socialize them, to get them used to being around people.

I think Some of them, they've actually are, have already spoken for.

Only two of them are not.

So if you want to buy a puppy, let them know.

Yeah, they, they seem like a great hypoallergenic.

This is not a commercial for, for these puppies.

But it was, it was so, so much fun.

And the lady was really nice.

Yeah.

Oh, they were, they were so excited.

Just, it just kind of brought a smile to our faces being out there.

I've never done that before.

I've never had cuddles with puppies out on ragbrai out of third.

This is my 13th ragbrai experienced that.

I made him do a full 360.

When I saw the puppies, we spun around like crazy.

We, we went crazy trying to get back to those puppies.

We spun around and spun around and got back to them.

And she, she wanted me to follow her back to these puppies.

She led the way, didn't you?

Yes.

And then we also saw a cow, a calf in the first town.

And he called that a puppy too.

But that wasn't as exciting.

I know.

Oh, man.

I went up this little calf.

I said, oh, look at the puppy.

And it's not a puppy, it's a calf.

So that was probably a silly thing that I said.

You said, that's a funny looking puppy.

Now, Maya.

Okay, so.

Okay, so let me ask you this, Maya.

What is it like being outside all day for a week?

I don't know.

I'm pretty used to it because we're very outdoor family and we did a lot of camping when I was little, so I'm used to outdoors.

And then also I currently work as a lifeguard at the pool.

So I'm outside for like hours upon hours.

So I'm used to being in the sun.

But.

Yeah.

So you like being outside in nature, in the sun, just enjoying the outdoors?

Yes.

Yeah, that's.

I do too.

It's just, you know, our kids have grown up being in the outdoors, so that's, that's an important thing for our family to do.

All right, so Mike, let me ask you this now.

What makes this kind of adventure different from a normal family trip?

You gotta work for it.

Oh, you gotta work for it indeed.

But what's kind of cool, I think about it, Maya, is that when you wake up and once you do get.

Because we're tent camping this week.

Tent camping with an, with a group, Siouxland Cyclists.

It's out of the Sioux City area.

I've gone with them before.

There's a lot of different groups in Ragbrar that you can go with.

There's some people that go in hotels, motels.

Sometimes those aren't available.

Sometimes you do RVs.

But most people.

I mean, there's over 20,000 people out here, and most people are actually tent camping and in yards and fields and school playgrounds.

It's crazy.

I mean, you just take over these towns in a good way, and it.

You definitely have to work for it.

But the thing I think about, Maya, is that, like, when you wake up and you pack up your tent, the only thing you got to do today or for that particular day is to bike to the next town.

So that's pretty exciting.

And then maybe, of course, find some food, but, you know, that's it.

So, Maya, think about this now.

What was the hardest part of today?

And how did you keep going?

I think the third leg was pretty hard.

My legs hurt, my knees hurt, and I was starting to get tired.

Yeah.

And what.

What kept you going?

What was it?

Was it knowing we were gonna get some food at the end, get some showers?

What.

What kept you going?

So I did have caffeine, and that did help.

And I took a. Ibuprofen, and then I also had these honey things with a lot of electrolytes in it.

It's extra.

It's just like salty honey.

But that helped, too.

It helped him a lot too.

Yeah, we definitely.

We were both.

We were both kind of hurting today.

We.

We of course, train.

You know, there's some people out here who train thousands of miles.

We.

We.

It's been a busy summer so far.

We.

So we didn't get quite the number of miles we wanted to, but we're.

We're still going for it.

And out here, even though we.

We did train.

So.

But like I said, different.

There's different levels of training.

And I think there's some people who didn't train even as much as we did, but, yeah, absolutely.

Maya, you know, some.

Once in a while you got to do maybe an ibuprofen if.

Or, you know, I'm not giving medical advice here.

This is not a medical advice show.

But, you know, we chose to do an ibuprofen and, you know, some of these honey packets that have electrolytes in them by Subi Honey.

Super interesting.

That.

And I've never had those before.

Have you ever had those?

No.

They're kind of tasty.

And so they kept.

Kept us going with a little bit of caffeine as well.

So what's something you've already learned about yourself here on Ragbrai.

I think just being able to do Ragbrai these past, like, I'm going to count this as a year, obviously, but these past three years is how hard I can push myself and, like, how much I'm capable of.

And it just gives me a really, really good feeling about myself, especially because a lot of kids my age can't do this or wouldn't even be able to.

Absolutely.

I appreciate that.

And you actually, I know last time you did this, you had, you had your soccer.

Diablo soccer team was sponsoring you, and you still have that jersey from Diablo's soccer, and you're going to sport that this week and showcase it, which is super cool that you're going to have that out here.

Then you also have another jersey.

Do you want to tell us about your other jersey you have out here that you're excited to showcase?

Yes.

So for Sergeant Bluff, they have.

I go to Sergeant Bluff.

We live in Sergeant Bluff.

They have a volunteer fire department and they have a high school program for the high schoolers, and I'm a part of that.

So I'm a firefighter and EMT, but I won't be certified till I'm 18.

But I do a lot of, like, scene support stuff, and I do a lot of stuff like kids my age would never be able to do.

And I don't know, I do a lot of stuff on the fire department and I learned so much, and it's just really going to help me in life.

And my dad custom made a jersey for me for the fire station that my chief, Anthony Gaul, sent the logo for.

And I was just so excited with how that it turned out so nicely.

And I know you could.

You were able to showcase your pride and your joy for being a volunteer firefighter.

And you have learned a lot through that program.

And that's another thing is giving back to the.

Not only do you love being outdoors, Maya, that I know about you, you also love to give back to your community.

And how important is that?

Right?

All right, so let me think here.

Oh, Besides our phase 10 deck of cards and our regular deck of cards, we had to get bicycle cards too, because, I mean, what other kind of cards, decks of cards would you get besides phase 10 cards and bicycle deck of cards?

Besides that mission yesterday, what's the funniest or most random thing you saw or experienced either yesterday or today?

This random lady just randomly asked my dad a very political question that you would never ask a stranger.

And it's like the first thing she said to him, too.

Yeah, it Was it was.

I don't navigate into politics out here, you know, because I'm out here to have fun.

I don't want to get into politics.

But oh boy, did she ask me a very pointed political question.

And I just kind of, I kind of laughed it off and you know, moved on with life.

Right.

Because I'm not gonna get snagged up in it or I'm not gonna get into a political debate.

We're out here to have fun here.

And it's, it's, that's what this is truly all about now.

Yeah.

Do you want to add.

And then she laughed at him.

Yeah, she laughed at me because I kind of agreed with her just to kind of put the conversation to a close and then she laughed at me.

So you know what though?

It didn't bother me one bit.

I just moved on with life.

And you know, that's, that's sometimes what you got to do.

Maya, if you could describe Ragbrai in three words.

Now think about this here.

If you could describe Ragbrai in three words, what would those three words be, do you think?

Hard work.

Gathering.

It like brings people together and fun.

Fun.

I like that.

Fun.

Gathering people and hard work.

Absolutely.

That's great.

Two, three things that represent Ragbright in your mind.

And then so Maya, what would you say to another teen or family thinking about doing something like this together on Ragbrae?

Definitely go for it.

This is the first year.

Rest of our family is also not going with us.

Usually they do.

My brother, my youngest brother started at 6 years old and he completed a full day that even some adults wouldn't be able to do.

That's really cool.

But just make sure you train beforehand because if you don't, you'll definitely notice the difference.

Yeah.

My youngest child, Maya's right, her youngest brother.

Yeah, he's 6 years old and he was out here and completed back to back years.

He completed the first day and one of the.

Well, both days were hard.

But even like two years ago when he was, well he's six years old, he rode on his own bicycle and completed that day.

And when he was 7 years old, he completed like a 70 some mile day.

I think it was like a 75 mile day.

Both very hilly days.

They are no joke days.

And maybe we'll have to talk reminisce about some of those ragbrides from the past and like what made those so successful.

We might have to reminisce and talk about what made those successful.

Like when we had to sleep in a bank and a tornado destroyed our tent.

Oh yeah.

Last time Maya and I were out here two years ago, we did have our tent destroyed by tornado force winds.

Had to sleep in a bank until it got cleared up and then they booted us out and then we were our tentless and so we, we had to figure that out.

We.

There's just lots of funny stories that we can think about when it comes to doing ragbry and things that we've had to, had to figure out on the spot.

One of his best friends brought a bag of peanuts last time and then we joked that the squirrels are gonna get to him.

Yeah, yeah.

He kept a bag of peanuts.

Could you imagine that bag of peanuts?

A big bag.

And, and we said, you're going to have like squirrels chewing their way into your tent and you're going to wake up with a whole family of squirrels sitting on your chest.

Are you sure you want to have these things in your tent?

And we've just.

Two years have passed and we still joke with them about that.

So that's where Mya when she talks about, hey, this is gathering here.

This is an opportunity.

One of my best friend from college does this.

His name is Still.

And his name is Still.

He is, he introduced me to road biking.

Just love having, being out here biking with him.

I love having another best friend from high school, Paul.

He is into bicycling too.

He's not able to go this year, but he's gone.

In many prior years we've biked together and he has gotten to know my, my daughter here and gotten to know my family and they're a big part of our lives too as friends.

His son did a day last time he went too.

Oh yeah.

You know, they're getting their families involved in something like this too, so.

And you know, I'm not saying that if you're listening to this somewhere in the world that you have to come here to Iowa.

There's different rides that are happening in your area, I bet.

Now I, I will tell you this.

There is nothing quite like Ragbrai.

I did a ride back in June at 200 people in South Dakota.

Razdak was the name of that ride.

And that was pretty cool to 200 people.

But it's 2,000 people is way different.

It was fun.

It was super, super fun.

Super hard biking around, you know, Needles highway in South Dakota and some really beautiful area.

It was fun, it was hard.

But it still wasn't like experiencing Ragbright where we got 20,000 people out here biking.

So mind you have any closing comments here?

As we wrap up this interview, pray.

That our tent doesn't get destroyed.

Hey, it's supposed to snow.

Not snow.

It's supposed to rain tonight.

Oh, we were.

We were out here.

My.

That might be one of the things I'm thinking about here.

We.

I brought an old tent with us here.

It was a tent that.

We were out in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

We.

I flooded our tent.

I thought it was just because I didn't flap or I didn't tuck the, like the.

The tarp underneath properly.

And I thought it flooded it.

And I thought, hey, the tent's good.

Still.

I haven't used it in a few years.

Decided to bring this tent out and it rained last night or early, early evening.

It rained.

Went in our tent.

It had water in it.

And it's like if it rains all night.

So now my wife and I, we saw this and we went and actually bought an emergency tent in one of our containers.

We each get a couple of containers here for packing.

I threw an extra emergency tent in our stuff here, and guess what?

I threw their tent away because it just can't be trusted.

I can't have a tent that we're going to get water in it like that.

And so we have another tent.

He throw it away.

He threw it away at the.

The last overnight town when we started in Orange City.

And he put it by the toilet to throw away.

And it's.

They brought it along and now it's sitting by the toilet again.

And, you know, I was thinking about that.

You know why I think it made its way here?

Because we were on like, some private property yesterday that they set us up on, and they didn't want to leave any trash.

So I think we're in, like, a private park area tonight where there's actually a designated garbage area now.

And.

And I think that they brought all of the garbage that was left there because usually that's not a problem.

But yeah, when we rolled in the.

In the camp tonight and my.

My old tent that leaked was sitting there, I thought I had gotten rid of it in Orange City.

And here it is in this next overnight town, Bizarro.

I did.

It was just kind of kind of cracked me up and it was funny.

You know, this is, you know, this first day here.

I want to look at the list of places we went because we of course, started out in Orange City here.

It was a great day.

Orange City, man.

They.

They.

You.

You leaving Orange City.

Maya, how.

How much did you love all of those.

Those tulips that those kids made.

They were so cute.

I loved it.

You know, you can tell, like the school's kids, the community kids came out, they had made these.

These like tulip flowers that were.

I think they.

It.

It honestly felt like it went for miles leaving Orange City.

Would you say so?

Yes.

They just went on and on and on and we.

But it was, it was really neat.

And each one was kind of unique.

Like you can do it, keep going, or just drew a neat picture on it.

I really enjoyed that.

And then from there, looking here, we went to Greenville, we went to Grainville, and then Primgar, and then went to Hartley May City.

And right.

Right now we're in Milford.

Now.

Milford is right next to Okoboji the Great.

You know, the, the Great Lakes of the Midwest, they say, or the great Lakes of Iowa, rather.

They're kind of famous lakes or famous recreation area.

Maya, what was.

Did you have a favorite town today that we went through?

No.

You just love the puppies, didn't you?

Yeah, you just love the puppies.

So I tell you, you know, as a dad, this experience.

This experience means the world to me because Maya came to me last winter and had asked me to do a ragbrai with her this year.

And what a treat it is to be out here with her.

You know, she's got two years of high school left and she's on to college.

And I know her life is only going to get busier when you look at the last few years of high school and then getting into college.

And so I need to take the opportunities like this when we can, to make memories together.

And I'm so thankful.

We had, we had lots of time.

We, of course, we played some music out there.

We also had some time to talk, just to talk as father and daughter.

We.

We had time to talk as father, daughter out on the bikes.

What's that?

Very deep discussions.

Oh, we had really great conversations.

We talked about faith, you know, we talked about life's experiences, about her growing up, about me growing up.

We just had some great conversation about our family.

We had deep conversations.

That was really nice.

We, we talked about the power of shared outdoor adventure and, and just reflected on just even this experience, how it's strengthening our father daughter relationship, how it's building grit together.

Because we're out here kind of going through this resilience of, you know, if it's a tough day or if one of us is having a tough time encouraging each other to keep going, kind of sparking some joy just being out here together, so it doesn't get much better than that.

So we'll come with some more episodes in the future with Outdoor Funky Now.

I want to encourage you, this is the final.

This is the very first episode.

And what a better way to kick off the very first episode.

But with my daughter out here talking about the kickoff to Ragbrai 52.

So I want to encourage you, as you're listening there, to go explore, be yourself, get outside, get funky, bye now.