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!!