The Toothless Wonder



Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel in Mason City

Last night we headed downtown to roam around a little and listen to the live music (this was a rare night that we couldn't hear it from our tents). The headliners of the night were Warrant & Bret Michaels (talk about some washed up 80's artists. As we were sitting in the park we made a new friend John he's an engineer who works on the navigation software for Garmin...how cool is that! He was a super cool dude.

Our camp site was at a playground & right next to train tracks...well RAGBRAI being in town doesn't mean that the trains stop rolling so we got to listen to the glorious roar of the train's horn....c'mon people tired cyclist are trying to sleep. Before we went to bed, Stacey comes to my tent and says, "uh dude, we have a problem". Now I'm thinking there is a huge spider or something in her tent, but nope...that would have been easy.  Instead she says, "I just lost the cap off my tooth when I was brushing my teeth."  Ok, that's a bit more serious than a spider.  We did a quick google search and decided it wasn't an emergency and that our ride must go on!  If your have any dental knowledge and don't think our course of treatment is correct, don't tell us until after Saturday!!  Stacey now is affectionately called the "toothless wonder" around camp!

Thursday's Route

The start to today's ride was a little rough, but in the grand scheme of things no big deal. While trying to air her tires, Stacey's stem on her tube bent and we couldn't get air in it, so we had to change here rear tire before ever got started.  Thankfully we were at camp still and it only set us back a few minutes.  Stacey was pretty ticked that this all went down, but as soon as we got on the road we were greeted by a man playing a harmonica while riding his bike.  I think that cheered Stacey up and we were well on our way to a good day!



Channeling her inner Spidy

Some may say that when biking up a lot of hills you may come face to face with Jesus...instead we were greeted with free watermelon it was fantastic & at a perfect point in our ride when we needed some fuel. This was an on the pedal swooping of a watermelon slice handed out by a coordinated man...grab & go style. Did you eat watermelon while riding your bike 20 mph down a hill today? I don't think so!

One of Stacey's new friends in Clear Lake

Today we biked 67 miles which had many glorious hills & fields of corn. Once we got our tents set up we realized that Andrew's kids were there so we got to meet his 3 little ones & his wife along with Toby's wife. Much to Dorice's dismay our showers were at Wartburg College (a rival college of Central's where Dorice attended) while she was bitter about giving these folks $5 for a shower they were the best of the week!

For dinner tonight we gave the Lutherans one last shot (mainly because we couldn't eat another pasta dinner) they served us cheesesteaks, German potato salad, PIE, & ice cream. They have redeemed their ranking some but we still are holding them on meal probation. Dinner was great tonight since we didn't have much food on the ride today. Not only do we plan dinner we also figure out where we are going to get our nightly snack since usually by 8 PM we are super hungry again.


One of the many interesting "bikes"

Tomorrow is another long day and it could have the element of rain & high winds to compete with. Rain is expected to roll in over night so here's hoping our tents stay dry! There are only 2 more days of riding left & the concern of post RAGBRAI depression is already setting in!