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"!