Hills that Make you Swear

We need to revisit last night for a second before we continue on to our last day. We failed to mention that we were camping at the airport. Our tent was less than 5 ft away from the runway. There's a first!  We had tents the length of the runway on both sides. Crazy to see for sure. There were HUGE Xs at both ends of the runway to make sure planes knew they couldn't land. But still a little nerve wracking. 

Waukon was a pretty hopping place last night. The concert was awesome. We left early though so we could rest up for our last day. We said goodbye to Ray this morning, but didn't see the other two. We figured we'd see them at the bus before they left. 

As we pedaled out of Waukon there were tons of people cheering us on and handing out buttons to us. Kudos to Waukon and Stefanie for putting on a well organized overnight. It really was awesome. They definitely get the award for the best departure of the week!

We pedaled about 5 miles and then stopped at Stef and Steve's to get our free cookie from the boys. Jackson, Caleb, and Zack had cookies and Carmel brownies. It was just the sugar high we needed to start the day!  

We knew today was going to be a tough riding day with all of the hills that we had to conquer today. The sunrise this morning was breathtaking but also indicated that it was going to be a hot one! We made a quick detour to the Old East Paint church to see a memorial for my grandma. As we rode our next 10 miles into Waterville where we ended the week as we started it with pancakes and sausage (we threw in a cinnamon roll for good measure) for breakfast and a photo op with a Sasquatch. The view was fantastic and when in line for the portapots the one cyclist said that everyone should leave the door open since the view was so awesome but thankfully nobody did as the view from the other side wouldn't be so nice. The views on all of today's ride were incredible, but pictures can't even do it justice. 

Our next stop wasn't really a stop as it was the state forest. It afforded us some great riding and views along with a couple of jackass riders (even Dorice had a bit of Jersey swagger going on with some of the riders) cut me off and wear a Simpson jersey is glutton for punishment!  It's day 7 you made it so far don't be a jackass on your bike! The climbs were tough and there were many people walking their bikes up the hills but there was no way we weren't going to stay in the saddle as we tackled these hills! As we rode up the hills I encountered one lady that had an electric bike, think lady was just out for a "stroll" on her bike up these monsters I kept yelling on your left and she didn't budge. Lady the only thing getting me up this hill is my legs so move your motorized bike out of the way! 

As we got into our 2nd stop for today and our final one for this RAGBRAI we knew we were in for some more killer hills when the ladies in town were telling us we should really come back and drive the hills so we can appreciate the beauty of the ride (holy smokes not an easy ride ahead). Another lady said there was a nice little church before the hills that we could stop and say a prayer at. That's also not a good sign!  Somehow we wound up in jail again but were able to escape to have a bomb pop to fuel us for the final leg of the journey! Bomb pops are amazing and even more amazing when they are the ones made by Blue Bunny and basically double the size of a regular bomb pop! 

Those trees up in the background is where we came from and they were going to make us climb up that 2 more times. Ugh!  The third hill was by far the steepest and worst. It was here where the curse words came out as I slowly and methodically pedaled my way up. Still no walking!!  Thankfully some people had good tunes on their stereos so that helped a lot. Maybe we should have prayed a little more at the church too...next time!  On the fourth hill, it really wasn't too bad, but because you knew it was the last and final one the anticipation of the end of it was daunting!  When we got to the top of the last hill people were cheering and high fiving each other. We now hand 5 miles of downhill....5 miles of glorious speed and no pedaling!  It was amazing. We could have hit top speeds today for sure but it was more crowded and the turns were sharp so I used the break a little more. 

As we got closer to Lansing, Team Air Force was starting to assemble. They lined the roads and cheered and high fived everyone as they came in. It was a pretty cool sight!  

We made our way to the dip site to officially call our RAGBRAI 2017 over. For the week we did 427 miles!!  Don't worry Stacey didn't do the official over the head pose...not shoulder approved!

We then saw my parents along the route so we got off and waited to see Team Air Force ride in. A very cool sight to see for sure. Unfortunately because we waited almost an hour for them to ride in, we missed seeing all of our friends as the first bus had left by the time we got to the trucks. 

It was sad to not be able to say goodbye to Ray, Carlos, and Vince.  They're driving back to Philly today so they wanted to get going early. We definitely enjoyed our week with them. They made our week more enjoyable and I hope we did for them too.  We're already planning our team shirts for next year!!

We missed Ralph, Quincy, Michelle, and Derek too. Guess we'll just have to do RAGBRAI again to see them all. Ralph is a staple on RAGBRAI so now we just have to get the others to come back!!

We head back to Indiana tomorrow so when we got home we unpacked, did laundry, cleaned the tents, and repacked. The non glamorous side of RAGBRAI. Holy cow all of our stuff stunk!!!!

We capped the night off with pizza and blueberry pie...because you can't end RAGBRAI without a piece of pie!  

We have a few more blogs to post for you in the upcoming days. Like bonus miles you get bonus blogs!!

Burning Quads & Strawberry Pie

• It's day 6!  It's so hard to believe that we only have one night left to camp!  We slept in a little this morning but we were still on the road by 6:50. As we were rolling to our first town Dorice realized that she forgot to put her food money in her bike jersey so I made sure she was able to eat during today's ride as you need to feed the machine! We had 19 miles to Decorah so we thought it would take a little over an hour to get there because we thought it we'd be climbing. It took us about an hour because there was quite a few downhills. One of the best descents I've ever been on!  Cool weather, shade, smooth pavement, and a winding road around a bluff. It was amazing. It was here I got my top speed for the week!!  (Followers can you guess our top speed hint they were different for each of us) I love downhills and smooth pavement. When we got to Decorah we met up with a high school classmate of mine that teaches at Luther. We were able to find her pretty easily!  We chatted for a bit in the RAGBRAI chaos and then headed to her house to chat. It was good to catch up with her and her husband Ben. We also got to meet their daughter Alex!  Alex wasn't too sure about us but eventually warmed up to us. Stacey was hoping for some dirt on me from high school, but Dawn didn't give any up!! (Dorice was boring and followed the rules) After using their wifi to post yesterday's blog, and use their modern indoor plumbing we headed out. It was great to see her!!  
  
• We decided to have a snack before heading to the next town as we needed some fuel for the next stretch. Not only did RAGBRAI roll through Decorah today but it is also is their Nordic festival so we didn't go with our usual RAGBRAI breakfast choices and instead had rommegrot (aka butter pudding) and rosettes (thin cookie like deep fried pastry) both were delicious but the butter pudding stuff was outstanding! I was skeptical at first but man it was a solid purchase. We then headed out of Decorah and had hills and I mean hills. Many cyclists succumbed to the hills but we continued to pedal up them (walking up hills is not an option either one of us like). Although the hills were tough the views were absolutely incredible. Amazing some of the places your bicycle can take you! 




• Next we rolled into Ossian and had Maid Rites (sloppy  joes). Took a picture in the wooden cut out which the fine folks of Ossian put a block behind so the vertically challenged folks could participate in the photo op. (Dorice was glad she could get her picture taken). Today was college jersey day so Dorice met a few random Central Alumni along the route and yelled go Dutch a few times. One of the random Central guys came and talked to us while we were eating and another random dude told us how he wished his bike got stolen so he wouldn't have to finish the ride today! 
  
  
  






Next stop we had to have pie as rumor had it that it was the best pie of the day! Again church ladies for the win! And the best part...the pie was free will donation!!  Yes...dorice didn't put any money in!!!  Strawberry pie was the flavor of choice and we got to watch a pie eating contest between the Des Moines Register and National Public Radio...DMR for the win and now proud owners of a golden rolling pin but more importantly pride and bragging rights! 

• It was a pretty flat ride into Postville. In Postville we were greeted by lots of Orthodox Jews shouting Shalom...and then the kids were asking us "are you by any chance Jewish?"  They had a kosher food stand and didn't want people to miss out. We left Postville about the same time as Ray and Carlos so we rode with them for awhile. But shortly out of town the climbing really started. Holy cow...those hills were no joke. Stacey dropped me like a hot potato because I couldn't hang on the hills. She greeted me when we got into Waukon our ending town. 




• Once we found our camp...a longs ways out, we set up our tents. Good news the tent is still standing and Santa has contacted Stacey saying that if she's good the rest of the year she can get a new tent. This is going to be a challenge for her, but for her tent poles sake I hope she stays on the good train. 




• After we set up our tent, we took our bikes into town so I could try to see if I could find any of my grandmother's relatives at their car dealership. It was the place I bought my first car. Unfortunately Pladsen's was closed because they used their lot for all the vendors. Maybe tomorrow in Waterville we can find them. 
• We then found my friend from Central. Stefanie is on the planning committee for Waukon and she was basically running the show. She did give us the inside scoop that tomorrow Steve and the boys will be handing out cookies by their house. We're totally stopping!!  We headed back to camp by my grandma's old house. It doesn't look like it has changed at all. Same mailbox and everything. We had a shower in the truck tonight so no awkward group shower. Wahooooooo!!

• We headed downtown after our shower to grab some dinner. We skipped our typical church stop and just had dinner from one of the vendors. After dinner we took a fun tractor ride to the dairy creamy for ice cream. It was phenomenal and well earned treat after all of our hill climbing today! 
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• We then hit up the medical tent to see Steve as he had the late night shift. Gotta love Central College friends in town!  We told him to be ready for us with the cookies in the morning. 
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• With any luck at all this blog will be posted by using the car dealerships wifi!  Thanks RW Pladsen motors!!  Sorry we missed you!  We ended the night with the Hairball concert!  


One more day left. Climbing worse than today!!!

Donuts and Duck Races

Last night after dinner we went downtown to listen to the concerts again. It was another good night since the rain had stopped. We ran into Ray, Vince, and Carlos. We probably laughed for a good two hours because all they do is just give each other crap. Apparently Vince is slacking in buying beer rounds and Carlos is not great at finding the "approved" fire stations!!  None of them did the swing....what a disappointment. Ray then says his niece just got her doctorate in athletic training. We said we may know her...after it took him a minute to remember her name we realized that she when to Indiana State and just graduated with her DAT this spring. Stacey actually knows her and has taught her. Small world.  The boys are now Facebook friends with us and they are reading the blog too. They're convinced Stacey is in the mafia. Oh and Carlos agrees that Stacey should not wear her helmet while eating!! (But I say why follow the crowd when you can stand out!) We walked back to camp with the boys. We still had to set up some camp stuff so it was a late night!!  

It was a cold damp night of sleep!!  Everything was WET this morning...packing up wet tent, clothes, etc. But it was a nice morning to ride. We stopped in Ionia for another breakfast burrito. And I got 2 bananas for $1. That's a steal on RAGBRAI. I ate one and shoved the other in my pocket for later. Then we headed to New Hampton. They welcomed us with a cool bike sculpture. This was by far the town we had the most fun in. Stacey took on the cutest little kid in a soccer water dump challenge (retirement has hurt her skills) as she got a nice bucket of water dumped on her head and both of us participated in a duck race which Dorice won by default since the little girl Emma from the preschool that was raising money took us to school on duck racing but Dorice was still awarded a prize! Rubber duck for the win! This was also the town where we learned from our mistake yesterday and got fresh mini donuts...solid choice! They did not disappoint! We will never pass up fresh donuts again! 

Then we went to Lawler and helped support these middle school kids trip to D.C. by getting a walking taco!  Can't pass up helping kids!!  

They also had a cool wall to sign!  We were through pretty early so I'd love to see the whole wall because this picture is only about half of it. 

It was at this point the climbing really started. No more flats and great we had headwind too. Awesome!  After the first hill we stopped for some popsicles from some girls on the side of the road. They had great signs and were super excited for us to stop. We kept on climbing and got to Protivin where there was a whole Czech theme. We ran into Carlos and Vince and we talked them into some Kolaches. They'd never heard of them. They were delicious!!  After some time in the shade and a cold water we headed out to Cresco our end town. Now this climbing included a hill, flat, a hill, flat, and repeat about 10 times. There was no downhill. When we finally got a big downhill the headwind was so strong that it wasn't even fun. 

We made it to camp and got a spot by the guys...entertainment ensued. We took a shower (yay shower boo group shower...the worst and most awkward group shower ever!) and promised yesterday to take the boys to dinner with us at a church. We gave them choice of what church dinner we would head out to. They chose the chicken parm and pasta dinner at a Lutheran church. Now for for east coasters that know what Italian food is this was far from what you can call chicken parm. Even for midwesterners it wasn't actual chicken parm. You know your in trouble when you ask them what type of cheese they used and they tell you they cheated and are using the sprinkle on kind. WTH Midwesterns have you never seen Peyton Manning sing about how Chicken Parm it tastes so good...didn't resemble that at all. I did warn the boys about the "quality" of Midwest Italian fare. But they had pie so in the end it was ok. The pie was delicious. We played the age guessing game and the boys were about 5-10 years off for us. I guess we still look young!  We would have guessed them to be about 10-15 years younger as well. I guess cycling keeps you young!!  We then headed down town to check out the festivities. 

Oh and dad we have "supper" here too!  

Tomorrow is more climbing!  Looking forward to some hills without wind!!  

Update...Vince has bought a round!  He struggled trying to use his American Express, but he did pull through!  Thanks Vince! Oh and yesterday was Carlos' anniversary, so a belated happy anniversary to you! Oh and Stacey has now been nicknamed "little Italy"!

No Rules on Rain Days!

 After we posted last night we enjoyed the concerts in the park. It was such a great night to sit out and enjoy the music. Plus people watching is awesome! 

Since we thought it was going to rain we decided to set our bikes in Stacey's tent. I guess it pays to have a big tent!  No rain last night!!! Yay!!  It's never fun sleeping in the rain or packing up a wet tent.We headed out around 6:45 and we were the first bags on truck C....this proved to be a key factor later in the day. The day was overcast and no wind!!  It was glorious and we were moving!  

As we approached the first town we saw signs for homemade donuts...we thought we'd be stopping soon so we could go back. We totally missed our opportunity. Moral of the story...never pass up homemade donuts. Dang!!

We moved on to Swaledale and guess what...those Methodists were at it again. Serving breakfast burritos for $3!!  We also split a homemade cinnamon roll. It wasn't cinnamon bites on a stick, but it was still delicious. As we were eating we saw these girls!

 How can you pass up helping raise money for monkey bars?!?  

It is here that we also found an abandoned cell phone on the ground. We gave it to Carol at the Methodist church. I hope they found their phone. Good news is that the had 85% battery and was actually on...a rarity for Ragbrai phones!

We've seen a few dogs riding RAGBRAI. We've decided that Gabby would love to do RAGBRAI, but since she is probably a little too big for a back pack like this dog has, Stacey has agreed to pull her in a wagon behind her bike. Because safety is important, Gabs will wear a helmet!!

Since the beginning of today's route had a lot of quick trips ~6 miles between towns there wasn't much to do in some of the towns and since there was a chance for rain today we breezed through our next town as it was a beautiful morning to ride despite the humidity. As we went we were hopeful to lose the bullet cars as we like to call them since these things are straight up dangerous to be around! Pictures of bullet cars later!

Our next town was Cartersville.  As we turned towards town, the state trooper said..."there's a storm coming, be careful!"  Now when on RAGBRAI you hear lots of rain rumors and people claiming to know what's up... but when a state trooper says it.. you take notice!  Cartersville had this huge awesome looking swing into a pond! The RAGBRAI tan lines were on full display on the cyclists who were going on the swing. By this time breakfast had worn off and it was time to fuel up again...a burger and brat before 10 AM why not it's RAGBRAI! As we ate our food Dorice said let's go over and watch the swingers...might need a better choice of words next time! At this point the skies started to look angry and we knew at this point we were probably going to get rained on, it just wouldn't be a RAGBRAI for us if we didn't get rained on one day. So after "watching the swingers" we put on our rain jackets and headed out. Now a rain jacket on the bike when it's warm out is what I imagine a vegetable in a steamer bag feels like when it's cooking! Sure enough the few drops we started to feel turned into a straight up rain that made for slick roads, spotty sunglasses, and a stream of water spraying up from the back tire not fun for drafting or for trying to keep a dry bum! 

10 miles in the rain only means one thing...we need pie! The Methodist came through again in Rockford with pie! 3 for 3 in 2 days for the Methodists! They may just be slowly winning us back! We found a spot under a tent and ate our pie and just tried to wait to see what the rain was going to do. 

As we were sitting there Dorice commented to the people across from us how big their cookie was and then they said look at the size of this scotcharoo...she commented about the impressive size of it. Now this is where it gets weird again as this is the third time on RAGBRAI that Dorice has been offered a bit of a stranger's dessert. It all started with the clean side of a used toothpick and has just continued since...I mean people in the Midwest are nice but this behavior is crossing a line! No I don't want to eat the last half of your scotcharoo random stranger...that's gross and actually mildly inappropriate to offer a stranger your food. Why do people keep offering me their desserts?  Is it because I look hungry?  Is it because I am a fat kid who likes to eat a lot?  Make it stop people!  I won't take food from a stranger...my mom raised me better!

After we waiters out the rain a bit we decided to head on to our ending town. We only had 15 miles left and it wasn't raining. We didn't put our wet rain jackets back on!  About 7 miles to go it started raining AGAIN. It was at 3 miles to town and we were soaked that Stacey says do you want to put on your rain jacket?  Um....no I'm soaked and we're almost there. A nice gesture but a little late. Gotta love rain days!!

We got to camp...without getting lost!  And guess what?  It wasn't raining!!!! Wahooooo. So we didn't have to set up our tent in the rain. Now it's always a crap shoot on what happens to your bags on a rain day. Did they leave them on the truck as long as they could?  Did they cover them with a tarp?  Being on truck C we knew we'd be the last bags to be unloaded! BONUS!  All the bags were out and under a tarp. We found our bags right away!  They were soaked!  Boooo. But we got stuff set up and aired out...a little. Now Ray and Vince were in camp befor us. Carlos rode in with us. We had our tent set up before those two found their bags!!!  It helps to remember what truck you put your bag on!!  Oh.....tent pole update. Now three parts are held together by duct tape!  

After getting our tents set up we headed downtown for a little fun. We had seen some different river attractions in our daily town guide and decided to check it out. We got to go tubing in Iowa's only white water course complete with some fun rapids. On our first go around we went down the river together as a one armed swimmer can only go in circles when they try to paddle! On the second go around we went on our own. Now this is where Dorice almost floated straight back to camp as she was way off to the right when the exit point was on the left and the current was trying to take her downstream more. For Sarah, Cailee, and JG it was like the JG hamster ball incident in Pigeon Forge...no worries she didn't float down to camp but it gave us both a good laugh.  Don't worry mom, we had life jackets! Totally need to find a Tri where we swim with those type of currents it would improve our times immensely. We thought this was a good time now to shower up, the storms seemed to have passed for the time being and we were done with our river fun, we learned that the path next to the river lead right back to our campsite and that there was a shower on the way back. Well when we got to the shower truck the wait was super long so we decided for a wet wipe shower instead tonight. We got plenty of cleaning from Mother Nature today so we were just fine with it. 

Dinner tonight was at the First Bapist Church and they brought their A game...penne lasagna again we are in the Midwest they don't know how to correctly label Italian food but despite their name confusion it was freaking delicious and they had pie...honest homemade pie with love as the main ingredient type of good! Real apple pie with a real cinnamon sugar crust. Second piece of pie was needed remember it was a rainy day and those call for some extra power! Oh your legs are tired eat some pie, the sun is beating you up eat some pie, headwinds suck eat some pie, rain poured down on you eat some pie....bottom line pie fixes everything on RAGBRAI except for maybe tent poles. PS Santa if you're reading this Stacey needs a new tent for Christmas! 

We need to try to get this blog posted and we still have lots to do at camps since our stuff is scattered everywhere trying to dry. The hills start tomorrow!  Going to be good fun!

Methodists to the Rescue!

Good news!  Stacey's tent pole held last night and it was super windy in camp. No rain, but lots of wind!  Bad news...when we set up camp tonight, she had another pole splitting. We've duct taped that one too!!

We had to hike over a mountain today to get our bags on a truck. Ok..:maybe it wasn't a mountain but we did have to cross train tracks to get the bags on the truck. But good news we were on truck B. Yesterday we were on C and left later today. But there were lots of people sleeping in this morning. The wind from the night had not died down and we knew we were in for a heck of a ride today. Today was supposed to be the easy day as it was short and flat...it was not easy. Another day of us looking back to see guys drafting off of us and never sharing the work! Step it up guys! 

Our first stop was in Wesley were we had our usual morning fuel of pancakes and sausage, this time at the firehouse! Lots of life going on there as the guys cooking were all yelling different things! Stacey continues to wear her helmet everywhere...this is kind of like Jen Popp wearing her badge everywhere during NATA convention. It's kind of embarrassing!  After pancakes we went to the library where we tried to upload yesterday's blog. We didn't have success, but the librarian was hysterical. She kept us entertained for sure. 

We rolled onto our next stop of Britt which is home to the world's only Hobo museum! Britt provided us with the most entertainment of the day. We again visited the public library where we again had no luck on their wifi but did have a conversation with a local girl who was probably about 10 years old. She wanted to know if it was hard to walk in bike shoes and then told us how she can't ride her bike to the pool since her seat got wet and then her clothes get wet because of it...just wait kid become a cyclist and you will always have swampass! We had a snack in Britt a pickle from the firehouse for Stacey and a smoothie for Dorice. Britt also had a Mayberry theme going on so we got throw in jail for a photo op complete with some moonshine. Finally I had Dorice take a picture in one of the wooden cutouts that she likes to tell me that I should take a picture in so we were putting our farming skills on display. Not the first time I'm milking a cow on RAGBRAI! We also added our handprints to a big map of Iowa that the middle school art program was doing. After taking in all that Britt had to offer we again battled the wind to Garner. Did we mentioned that the wind sucked except for those brief stretches of tailwind they were glorious! You can hear angels singing as you ride. 

Garner was the meeting town for the day so we were treated to Elvis being on stage performing. This is where we decided to have lunch. At this point in the day it was starting to get hot! After lunch in the shade we decided to keep rolling. Again we faced the evil wind that not only tried to stop us from going forward but also tried to push us off of our bikes sideways. Damn you wind! 

It was only 7 miles to Ventura the next town but it was all crosswinds. We stopped briefly to use the restroom and apply more sunscreen. Somehow we are getting burnt with 50 and 30 spf applied multiple times. Ugh. It was another 6 miles on to Clear Lake our ending town. The ride from Ventura to Clear Lake is beautiful as it is right around the lake. Clear Lake also gets the medal for best welcoming into town. Several people were outside cheering us on and we got shot with lots of water guns and hoses. It felt so good after a hot windy ride. Typically when we roll into town there are signs clearly pointing us towards or camp site. Today was not the case. We saw a few signs and then the signs just stopped. We got to the RAGBRAI camp grounds and knew we couldn't be at the right place so we back tracked...YAY bonus miles!  The streets of Clear Lake leave a little to be desired and let's just say going over the cracks and bumps hurt worse the second time. We finally found the sign and then realized the wind had blown it and it was pointing the wrong direction hence why we missed it. Did we mention it was windy?

We get to camp and let's just call it what it is...our camp was in the Sahara desert. All that wind...gone...and now it's HOT. Like fry an egg on Stacey's helmet hot. Setting up a tent when it is hot is not fun at all. We decided to sit in the shade by one of our site's moving trucks to cool down before doing anything else as we were dripping. After some downtime and much needed cold water we headed over to find a shower. Tonight's shower was at one of the shower trucks so no awkward group shower tonight yay!!! The downside of all of the shower spots is how hot and humid it is when you get out of the shower but despite this it is still a glorious feeling especially after today! It was post shower that Stacey's cycling shorts went straight in the trash. Her chamois gave out and became shifty on the ride today and that is just no fun so instead of bringing home stinky broken shorts to just get thrown out they were putting to rest today. A moment of silence was had at the trash can. 

We were both pretty hungry (surprising right?!) so we got on the shuttle to head downtown for dinner. Dinner at 4:30 is an early one but it also meant no lines! Tonight we went to the Methodist church for a baked potato bar, pie, and ice cream. Finally the Methodist served us pie!!! We have been slacking on our RAGBRAI pie consumption and this is what we needed. We both went with cherry pie and it was a solid choice. After we finished our dinner we chatted with those who were running the dinner and again thanked them for having pie and wifi. They welcomed us to sit in the sanctuary so we could blog in the AC! Hats off all around to the Methodist! So yesterday and today's blog are brought to you by the Methodist. We won't bash them anymore. We hope to add some pictures of Clear Lake but may just post to make sure it gets done. 

We feel like we should share some jokes we've seen along the road. 

Why was the cow sick?

---it had hay fever

Where did the sheep go on vacation?

---the Baaaaahamas

Why did the pig get arrested for dangerous driving?

----it was a Road Hog

What do you call a strong cow?

----Beefy

55 miles in today...it's supposed to storm tonight and all day tomorrow. Here's hoping that doesn't happen but it always seems to happen for us to have at least one rainy day on RAGBRAI. No lightning please!  

Thank you for all of your comments. They definitely keep us entertained!!

Pickles and Porkchops

Today started out fairly early because we were camping by an early riser group!  We also weren't far from a train tracks and it went through town multiple times. Of course when Stacey woke up she said "there was a train?"  That girl sleeps through anything!!  As we were packing up we noticed that one of Stacey's tent poles was splitting. Trusty duck tape to the rescue and I think it will hold for the week. Sound good vibes for th tent pole!

The first town today was 24 miles away which by RAGBRAI standards is long especially for the first town. We had said we'd try to make it through until then to eat, but we failed!  We stopped at a farm that had a local fireman serving pancakes!  But what really got us to stop was the huge dinosaur out front!  As soon as I said dinosaur, stacey was over to the side of the road in a flash!  As we waited to take a picture of the dinosaur, a guy said "everyone has a kid or grandchild that loves dinosaurs!"  I chimed in, or a friend!!

 Since we knew Mr. Porkchop was early in the day, we decided to split the pancakes!  Now only on RAGBRAI can you eat pancakes in the shop of a porta potty business!  His slogan "#1 in the #2 business!"

Next stop from the first town of the day where we encountered Jan who was an absolute spitfire! The population of Ayrshire is 145 people! Jan has worked as the town clerk for the past 45 years but also used to run the city water and work at the post office and she is still working at 81 years old. We dubbed her the mayor as she was drinking wine and dressed as a pancake pointing the way with her foam finger. This was a small table of treats set up by Jan, her daughter, and a friend. They had all types of treats; pickles, rice crispy treats, snowballs, wine and vodka lemonade ice pops! We opted for a delicious pickle at 8 AM, chatted with the ladies, signed their sign and headed back out on the road. As we made our way out of town Dorice was in search of some fruit. On our way to the next town we found a roadside stop that was serving a bag of mixed fresh fruit (on occasion we eat something healthy) so we stopped there for a little break and met a couple of guys from NYC who were doing their first RAGBRAI and needed a picture with the corn! 

The next mission was to find Mr. Porkchop and we could see the billowing smoke as we approached. Today was Mr. Porkchop day so we were prepared to wait for a Porkchop but really these things are amazing so even if it wasn't Mr. Porkchop day we would've waited. We chatted with the two guys behind us and one was a triathlete as well and his friend said he just watches triathlons (which can be fun too). We got our glorious chops and ate them in the shade. After we were done we took a lap around as this was the second stopping town and I'm glad we did since as we we're getting ready to roll out we found Roger and his lady friend! We don't know Roger's lady friend's name because that is all he refers to her as. Yay we found Roger on day 2! We missed seeing our buddy Larry (hope you're healing well) and it was nice to meet Roger's lady friend. We love Roger and Larry! 

Our next stop was Mallard and as we rolled along the cornfields Dorice was lucky enough for her second song. So far this one was here favorite! Song items included cornfields, beans, hay, and Miles Iowa! As we were getting settled in Mallard we ran into one of our new friends and first timer Quincy who lives in California. He was having a great ride and RAGBRAI experience! We didn't spend much time in Mallard since we had planned to roll onto West Bend  for Thelma's ice cream sandwiches-carbs and sugar keep you going on RAGBRAI! Plus who doesn't love cookies and ice cream! We ran into one of my coworkers at BSU on the ride!  We didn't know each other were riding, but it was great to run into Scott!! 

In West Bend we also stopped to see the Grotto. It was really cool. Basically a religious shrine made of geods, shells, and stones. It was huge and pictures don't do it justice!  

We then headed out of town and had a good pace going. Gary from St. Louis chatted us up a bit and told us we had a good pace...so we must have. We didn't really stop in the second to last town because it was only 10 miles to the end and we were ready to be done.  This was when we encountered some decent headwinds and some more hills. It was a tough finish, but we got in 73 miles today. We got into Algona and set up camp. 

Stacey's tent appears to be holding up!  Yay!!  We got our first group shower today at the high school and then we caught the shuttle to the Methodist church for spaghetti!  It was really good, but no pie!!  This isn't the first time the Methodists have let us down!!!

When we got to camp today, Ray came up to us and said "I'm not going to hug you because that would be weird, but thank you!"  He had gone on his own and stopped more in the towns and got a Porkchop and he had 4 pieces of pie!!  He's starting to really get the RAGBRAI experience!  He's also calling us 411 because we have had all the answers to his questions!

While we're pedaling across Iowa, Gabby is at Farm Camp!  The camp director has even incorporated trips to the city!!  Looks like she is having fun!  

Word on the street is that it may rain tonight. Guess we need to investigate this a bit more to see if we need to batten down the hatches!!