Picklerific

The last day of RAGBRAI is always bitter sweet. You’re ready to be done riding and packing up your tent every day but you’re not ready to leave your friends, the fun of being on the bike, and the threat of returning to work and the real world!  

We were up earlier than normal because camp was a buzz of people leaving early. The earlier you leave, the earlier you get done and can catch that first bus!  We left about 30 min earlier than normal but weren’t really in a hurry. 

The route today went back the same way we came in yesterday so it seemed like it took forever to get out of town. The first 10 or so miles we had two guys just riding our tail the whole time. Every move we made they followed right along. Eventually we made a power move and they dropped...guys couldn’t hang with our speed!  We stopped for some eggs and bacon along the side of the road early because we had our sights set on lunch today!  Had to save room....and I’m glad we did. 

Remember yesterday I said we had a strong south wind but thankfully we didn’t have to go into it much? We today 75% of our ride was south and guess what?  The wind was still there!!  We had almost 20 of the first miles on the same route as yesterday.....so remember when I said I hit my top speed for the day yesterday?  Well today I had to go up that stinking hill. I kept a solid 7 mph all the way up. What a difference a day makes!!

We got to West Point and they had a cool freedom rock, a corn wagon and a big pile of bikes you could crawl up for your picture. We did some photo ops and reapplied the sunscreen and we were on our way!  

After West Point we had some more miles until we reached the meeting town. The meeting town we were targeting for our lunch. 

The meeting town was called Donnellson and they had a theme for the whole stop. They did an excellent job of welcoming us into town with people at every turn and people dressed up in costumes. They also have people with super soakers and that’s always a hit with me. Nothing better than getting a little refreshment from a sprinkler or water gun!

The theme for this town was “Small Town Big Dill”. Dill pickles for the win. Stacey would have loved this place because she loves pickles. They had their celebration right at the fairgrounds and used the grandstands to feed us. It was great because we had a covered shaded place to order food and eat. 

They were selling pickle popsicles, pickles, pickle boats, pickle sandwiches, pickle bacon cheeseburgers, and I think pickle flavor ice cream. I went with the pickle sandwich. It was a club sandwich on a pickle instead of a bun. Ray had the pickle boat which was chicken salad on a pickle. They were so good. I hope future Ragbrai towns take note because it was probably the best thing I ate all week!! 

After the pickle sandwich we headed to get an acai bowl. We’d seen them all week and had committed to having one today. I picked peaches and blueberries to top mine. It was delicious and just the way to cap off my RAGBRAI food adventures for the week!  

As we were in Donnellson we knew it was getting hot. We had about 23 miles to go so we decided we better finish it off. These last miles were all out in open road and into the wind. We definitely were struggling to keep a good pace, but we just kept moving forward. At one point I think both Ray and I were at a point of defeat but neither of us admitted it. Shortly after there was a group of high school boys along the side of the road handing out ice cold water bottles. Let me tell you....that was the BEST thing that could have happened. Even better than a sprinkler!! I drank most of the water but some was used for cooling on my arms, head, neck etc. It was what was needed to get me to the next town. 

We got to Montrose and we had a big nice shady downhill!  I thought maybe that was the end of the hills for the ride. My parents were in Montrose with Gabby and Bri. We stopped to talk to them for a few minutes but then went on for the last 10 miles. We were told there were only 2 hills left. Well that was very bad intel....there were about 7 hills left. But 2 of them were monsters. Most of the ride was along the river and it was beautiful, but the hills could have went away!!  Thankfully there were quite a few sprinklers and Ray dabbed me a pro at spotting them and making it to the correct side of the road every time. 

The last and final hill was unreal. The only saving grace was that it was right into town so there were people cheering and clapping as we came in. That was a good added motivation!  And when you reached the top of the hill they had misting fans! Thank you Keokuk!!!

When we got to that hill the signs for our team buses were right there, but we wanted to dip our tires so we kept riding on. Well we quickly realized we had to go back downhill to get to the river....which meant we’d be going back up to get to the bus. Oh well. What’s a couple more hills on a week like this?!?  

For the week we rode 514 miles in the seven days!  Overall I think this RAGBRAI was harder than previous, but it was still fun. Some of the towns didn’t have as much “entertainment” in them, but there were other spots that made up for it. The weather was almost perfect. If it wasn’t for that first rain day, we would have had a great week of weather. The sun was strong but not unbearable!  

This year was definitely different without Stacey riding along, but I know she had a great time in Ireland. Hopefully she can make a return experience next year. I know there are several people who thought her missing this year for a honeymoon was a terrible excuse. 

Thankfully Ray returned and he did a pretty good job of filling Stacey’s shoes. He did spot me money one night when I forgot mine. He did sing one line that centered around not wanting to go into the wind. And even though he wouldn’t do goat yoga with me, he did cave to my pressure of fun several times. He was good riding buddy and I’m glad he was there. 

Another year is in the books!  Thanks for reading and thanks for all the good vibes and well wishes. We were again extremely grateful to not have any mechanical or medical issues. Others were not so fortunate, so every year I am able to do this I am grateful. Until next year!!

Central College For the Win

Today is college jersey day so of course I was representing the Central Dutch. You see a lot of different jerseys out there but the Hawkeyes are by far the most prominent!  Ray wanted to wager to see who saw the most of jerseys of our respective schools. He kept changing all the rules though so I didn’t take the bet. He wanted to include all schools in Philly and then all schools in Pennsylvania....but of course he didn’t let me do all other Iowa conference schools. At the end of the day I saw two other Centeal jerseys and had conversation with Dave who graduated from Centeal “before electricity was invented” but he didn’t have a jersey. Ray saw one other Villanove jersey and it was Joe from our camp. They had met last year so I had to get in a picture with both of them. 
The first 25 miles were nice because we had cloud cover and no sun. It was really nice riding because it was mostly flat and the roads were nice. I guess we must have been out of Van Buren county!  It also rained last night so that helped keep the temps down a bit. 

After a breakfast stop where I had pancakes...but you already knew that...the sun started to come out. There was a stiff south wind today and for the most part we didn’t go straight into it but anytime we did it really stunk. In Houghton they had a “red neck pool” so we took a little dip. It’s just straw bales with liner in them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a sileage bag!! 

As the afternoon went on it got hot pretty warm. I hit my top speed for the week getting to 39.5 mph on this awesome downhill. We rode to Geode state park and I’m guess that this is a beautiful place and would be a cool but challenging ride in and out of the park. It was definitely challenging today but mostly because of how many people there were!  I waited in quite the long line for a brat but it was worth it. When I got back to meet up with Ray I found him asleep on the grass. I guess he needed a nap!  As I was leaving the park I found my favorite Air Force guy Steve!  We have seen each other every year for the past theee years. He’s official retirement is this coming Monday so congrats to him. 

I also have to give a shout out to the state troopers on the ride. They are out there every day and are always blaring good music. They seem like a fun group and they do a great job keeping us safe!

Again today we ran into towns that really didn’t have that much fun stuff to do. It makes the day less exciting when the towns don’t have good entertainment. With the sun being as hot as it was we pushed through the last 15 miles after the state park. When we got to Burlington they had a big welcome banner and people cheering for us. Now this typically means that you’re “done” for the day but we had to keep riding...a lot!!  It took us at least 5 more miles to get to our camp. We had 76 miles for the day when it was supposed to be only 69. Talk about bonus miles!

As we were riding this afternoon and it was hot I told Ray that all I wanted was for some people to put out sprinklers for us. Riding through a sprinkler on a hot day is the absolute best. Well we turned a corner and there it was....the best sprinkler ever. The fire department hung a huge hose from the ladder and it was dumping water on us. It was cold and it was awesome!!  I would have ridden through that thing a couple times. Well done West Burlington Fire Department!!

Our camp was in a great big park. Lots of shade and tons of space to spread out. We had a great spot close to a water fountain and under some trees. Burlington is known for “snake alley” which has been dubbed the world’s crookedest street. They were have a challenge to see if you could make it to the top. We had planned to do this but we realized we’d have to ride another 2+ miles just to get there. After setting up our tent we decided a shower was more important. We talked to Shaun and Kayla and they had done it. Kayla did it twice because wanted to make sure she could finish it before her dad video taped her. We watched her video and she killed it. Even passed a guy!  I guess that Colorado has benefits!  We did go down later and watch people ride up it. I think we would have been able to do it for sure!  

I had my first ice cream of the week outside of Thelma’s while listening to some of the bands.  Burlington is right on the river so we got to see where we were heading tomorrow!!  

Going to be an early night because tomorrow is the last day and we almost always get out earlier on the last day. Everyone is in a hurry to get home. 

Lucy is a Rockstar

It was a little slow going in the morning after the century. But because of our bad camp spot I was still awake at 5 am. I think the hardest part about Ragbrai isn’t the riding but the little sleep you get each night. As we got out of town we were greeted with more hills. Talk about a quad burner!  Thursday is also the day where your booty really gets tired of being in the saddle!!

Since yesterday was a less than stellar food day I was bound and determined to make up for it. I waited in the most ridiculous line for French toast, but look at it...so worth it!! 

I told Ray when we were leaving camp that my mission today (besides food) was to stop at a little kid lemonade stand. Well shortly after we got out of Bloomfield there were these three little girls...Mila, Lana, and Harper giving away lemonade. They were so cute and Lana was quite the hoola hopper. She put my skills to shame, but I still blame all the stuff I had in my back pockets. Who am I kidding...she was good. They had their stand set back in their driveway quite a ways. I told the girls they’d get more business if they went out by the street and yelled “free lemonade” while showing off their hoop skills!  The family was super nice and they had a beautiful home. It was definitely a great stop. And you never pass up free lemonade on RAGBRAI!  A little while later I high fived 3 cute kids along the side of the road so it was a good day!!

After lemonade I was on a mission for Mr. Pork chop. It was perfect timing and a great day to sit in the shade for a nice tasty Iowa Chop!  There was a guy singing and playing acoustic guitar, so we hung there for over an hour. We debated having a Thelma’s too, but I decided against it. I can’t do everything in one day but I was still making up for yesterday. 



When we got to Douds they had a Flintstone theme. We signed the wall and thought it would be funny to get in the Fred and Wilma cut out!  I had a piece of cherry pie and a smoothie here!  I mean told you I needed to catch up on food!!! There was more live music here and the guy sang some Jackson Brown for Ray so he was happy. 

We had some big long grinder hills today and when going up the hills you realized just how hot it was. When we got to the top of one of the hills I decided I needed some watermelon. So I camped right on the side of the road and had a big ol piece of watermelon!  It hit the spot!!

Remember how I said you get tired of being in the saddle on Thursday. Well I have a bone to pick with the Van Buren county highway department....my gosh their roads are bumpy. I thought I was going to impale myself on my saddle. We had some great downhills but you couldn’t enjoy them because I thought my teeth were going to fall out. Get your act together Van Buren!!

When I was riding I said to Ray....”I wonder how Lucy did yesterday”. Well when we got to our campsite we were camped across the street from the Dream Team!  I was going to go find her and see how she did. Not long after we saw her roll up. She made it through the whole century and had finished the ride for today. I’m so proud of her!!  We got a picture together!  She’s one tough little girl!!  Longest training ride 70 miles and then did 122 miles yesterday!  She can’t be any older than 14. 

We had lovely group shower tree shower at the middle school....nobody needs to see that much nakedness!

We headed into town and this town has some unique little restaurants so we went to a Vietanamese Pho restaurant. After we sat down, Ralph, Grant, Joe, and Vito joined us. There are two other guys with them but I don’t remember their names despite the fact that one graduated from Ball State!  We had a great time with them. Vito and Ray talked bands and Jackson Brown. Ralph bragged on his grandson and Joe realized they gave him a beer that was over a year old. Many laughs were had and the food was delicious!! 

On the way back to camp we stopped at a convenience store. Ray wanted to grab a lemonade....like we hadn’t had enough already....and I waited outside. Well a local Fairfield resident was not pleased that Ragbrai delayed her getting her smokes and booze so she gave me a nice one finger salute as she drove off!  What a friendly little welcome!!

Our campsite had a lot of trees so we were serenaded by lots of locusts and then right before we called it a night there was this loud howling sound. I wish I could have captured Ray’s face!  We soon realized these trees were home to several owls!  They were talking up a storm to each other all night. That’s definitely a Ragbrai first!! 

Only two days left of riding!!  And I may get caught back up on the blog. This was written from the Friday morning pancake line....spoiler alert...I have pancakes for breakfast on Friday!

Powered by Eggs

This is your delayed Wednesday blog. Sorry it’s a day behind but yesterday really took it out of me and blogging wasn’t an option!  So now I’ll be a day behind!

Today was the century loop day. This is where you can add an extra loop to get in 100 miles for the day except this year the loop added on 32 miles to the routes scheduled 85. So for you mathematicians out there that is definitely more than a century!  Ray and I decided to do the loop. And when you decide you commit early so you can’t talk yourself out of it!!  

We started at our normal time and camp was like a ghost town. People always leave early on century day!  We stopped at a small little town and this family was serving breakfast burritos for a free will donation!  They were awesome and little did I know then how clutch that burrito would be later. About 12 miles into our predicted 117 mile day Ray dropped a bottle going down a big hill. He decided to leave it so now he’s down to one bottle for the day. That’s not good!!  After climbing up some good hills we got to the top of a hill and they were giving out free watermelon!!  Soooooo good. And lucky Ray they also were handing out free water bottles and free water. He was back in business and we were cruising. 

When we got to Chariton I was in the lookout for my friend Luke from college. He said he’d be welcoming in riders so I was on the look out. Well the town of Chariton was doing a great job welcoming us by handing out free lemonade. We tanked up on that and while standing there I thought hey I think that’s Luke’s wife and kids!  It was good to see them and meet the family!  Luke’s daughter got a t-shirt from a guy for being the loudest kid out there!  She was very proud of that T-shirt until she realized it has been stored in his back pocket and was a little sweaty!  

We also got to use the movie theatre for the bathrooms. Clean bathrooms, running water, soap....what a luxury!  

Neither Ray or I were hungry in Chariton so we decided to wait until the next town...and well....this is when I realized that today’s route was full of lots of “fake” towns. Meaning it was just a little blip on a map and they never really had “food”. They may have had chips or something but I wanted real food before embarking on this ride. Well we went about 30 more miles and didn’t get anything. I said I have to stop next place regardless.....so this little church I can’t remember saved me. I got 2 hard boiled eggs and a bag of chips and that powered me through. I’ve never had hard boiled eggs on ragbrai before and now I’ve had 3. 

We got to the turn off for the loop and had a smoothie and we’re on our way. The loop crosses over Rathbun lake a few times and it was really pretty. But we were tired so we didn’t really take it in. We also found that there were a lot of hills on the loop. I mean was that really necessary?  

As we were approaching the Resort where we could get out loop completion patch I saw a sign that said we were on the Historic Hills scenic highway....well thanks RAGBRAI that was so nice of you. Now we thought when we saw the resort sign we were home free but no....it was a 3 mile driveway down to the resort...with you guessed it...more hills!  We got our patch, hung it for a bit, and got some nice ice water for our bottles and we were back on the road. 
We still had at least 20 miles to go until we were done.  

Now while riding a long time like that sometimes you just need to break up the monotony by talking about random things. We had a great discussion from mike 85 to 105 on fruits and vegetables. We decided there is no room for cauliflower in our lives!  Ray told me about going crabbing as a kid and I told him about grandma’s chicken and noodles. Maybe it was the miles, or maybe we were just hungry but we talked a lot about food. It definitely helped time go by. 

Also on the century loop at around mile 90, we came across this girl Lucy from the Dream Team. The Dream Team is a team of kids from Des Moines that are probably considered “at risk”. They train as a group and the kids are given a bike and all the gear they need. If the kids complete all the training and do RAGBRAI they then get to keep the bike. It’s a great way to get kids into cycling.  Lucy looked like she was struggling a bit so I talked to her for awhile. I asked her what her longest training ride was and she said 70 miles....this girl was on 90 of a 117+ mile day!  She was doing so awesome but I still worried about her finishing as she seemed to be mostly by herself. I gave her some encouraging words and hoped she made it!  I’ll be looking out for her as the week goes on. 

We stopped at a house that had fans, misters and shade just to break up some of the trip back. I also got a pickle!!!  Yay for pickles!  Stacey would be so proud. Nothing it like a cold pickle on RAGBRAI. 

We finally made it to town and there was a cop directing traffic and he sent us one way and the route said we could go either. Unfortunately he sent us the wrong way and we didn’t see any of our signs for our camp. So we turned around and then went into the town square looking for our signs. We finally found them but it took awhile and of course our camp was way on the outskirts of town. Lucky us...bonus miles. We felt better though that when we got to camp several others had to do the same thing. We finished the day with 122 miles and 4800 feet of climb. It was a tough day but overall a great day of riding. I got to see some beautiful countryside and it was good weather despite the sun beating down on us all day. I’m glad I did it even though it was tiring!

We slowly and begrudgingly set up our tents. Since many people in our camp didn’t do the loop, tent space was at a premium. We ended up by a site by the porta johns and the truck....a terrible location because that means early morning noise!! I had two things that needed to happen that night....a shower and food. Because if you’re keeping track all I had to eat was a breakfast burrito, 2 eggs, chips, a smoothie, and a pickle. add in some Gatorade and water and that’s what fueled me for the day. This girl needs to eat!!!

We headed to the YMCA for a shower and it was a mostly enjoyable experience. The water pressure was awesome so it aeemed like a massage and after today that was well needed. As I walked out of the lockeroom I saw Magnificent Mullet/skippy walking out of the men’s room and I thought “oh my gosh Ray had to shower with him!”  Right then Ray walks out looking a bit traumatized by the experience. I only get small bits and pieces for sounds like it was an interesting expeirnce. As we all rode the shuttle back, Ray tried to engage in conversation with him by asking how his day was. He said he missed the loop for the century...poor guy!  Then he said something about being in Boy Scouts and not getting a patch. I tried to ask him a question and I got the biggest death glare ever. It was very weird. I’m sure more bits and pieces of Ray’s life changing shower experience will keep coming back!  

We then headed for food...it was 9:30 pm by now and I was HUNGRY!!!  Lol. I got a Amish fry pie and a pizza. Works for me!!  We then headed back to camp and I was asleep in about 3 minutes. 

Do you want to cuddle with a Goat??

All you need o know about today is that it was probably the best day yet on RAGBRAI. I’m super thankful for that because last night was probably the coldest night ever on RAGBRAI. I was freezing and I had in triple layers of everything. 

Today’s ride was a short one only 40 miles so we planned to take our time at stops and enjoy the day. We left a little later too because there was no need to rush out of camp. Our first stop was the best!  

 It was a place called Howell’s farm and they normally are a Christmas tree farm but today it was a place of fun for adults. They also called it an Ag Oasis where the soybean and pork producers used their stands to promote agriculture. There are a ton of people on this ride that don’t understand Iowa or farming!!  This place had a snow globe for us to be in. They had a pumpkin cannon that shot pumpkins further than I could even attempt to describe. 

They had some good food. Tacos breakfast bowls for the win!!  They had goat yoga....so fun!!!  They had a steer slide, a corn on the cob shooter, bath tub tractor rides, hay rides, and probably other stuff we didn’t do. We were at this place for 2 hours!!!  Thank goodness it was a short mileage day. Here are some pics!!






Now let me tell you!  Goat yoga is interesting. The goats just come start climbing on you!  Joe seemed to take a liking to me and he actually took a little nap at one point. Luis...really like chewing my hair!  Now that was cute at first...but it hurt when Luis pulled on a big chunk!!  

Lucky for all of you I got a picture of that exact moment!  It’s a RAGBRAI classic!!  

Seriously I’ve never seen thousands of adults who act like kids...it only happens on RAGBRAI!  I also tried my hand at pork chop flipping and I was terrible. They bounced off the grill every tame. I thought I was a better grill master than that!  Guess I need to practice!

We got back on the road and we’re greeted with some nice long slow climbs. We went to Cumming and I had some delicious COLD watermelon. Can’t pass up food watermelon. Then we headed to Norwalk the meeting town. There was a band there of 13-14 ish year old boys and they were really good. 

I had my first Thelma’s of the trip and it was a rare RAGBRAI find...Apple Pie which is one of my favorite. An apple crumb cookie with vanilla ice cream!!!  The best!  We then headed the last 12 miles to Indianola. 

About 3 miles from town we stopped at a road side stand that said they had free water. Well not only did they have free water but free cookies!  This woman made 150 dozen cookies in prep for RAGBRAI. That’s a lot of cookies!!! And there were at least 8 different kinds of cookies. The toffee almond cookie was the best!! And she had banana bread and brownies. She would not accept any donations so it was a high quality stop for sure and just the fuel we needed for the last 3 miles. 

Today we saw a lot of kids riding and they were having a blast. Aiden was pedaling away in his ninja turtle helmet. He was 7 and on his first RAGBRAI. This morning we were cruising along and there was a family with at least 2 kids...maybe 3 that were riding. The dad yells up to his daughter..probably 10 yrs old...don’t get caught going fast with that group...stay with us. She sighed and looked utterly defeated. I told her to rideon and go fast...they’d catch up. The dad promptly told me it was lent him I’d have to worry about it was her mother!  The poor girl just wanted to go on a nice bike ride!  I felt her pain and just wanted her to be able to enjoy the day!!!  Hopefully they let her cuddle some goats. 

Tonight I have to camp on the dreaded Simpson College campus. I’m abou as far off of it as I can get. The far outfield

Of the softball field. I can proudly say I did not buy and shower or food from this college....I would lose my Central alum card if I did. We got a pool today!!  Some fun waterslides and good tan line watching from all the biker tans!  The shower was ok, but when you have a pool do you really need a shower?!?  The pool definitely made up for having to be on Simpson’s campus. 

Tonight Stephanie, Eric and their kids came to visit. I love when RAGBRAI is close to Des Moines so I can see her!!  My friend Mark came too!  3 Central grads sitting together on Simpson property having a few beers together!  It was a great night. For the Ray followers...he went to the concert.  Sister Hazel is playing tonight and he’s been excited about that since the beginning of the week!  



That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow is a BIG day. Lots of miles to be ridden. Stay tuned!

Free Day!!

Before I catch you up on last night I have to add a clarification. Ray insisted a clarification be posted. Christopher Columbus is the only one who thought the world was round so therefore that’s why he eats around the corn. He says us non Italians believed the world was flat and that’s why we go typewriter style. I can tell you that typewriter is the prevailing method here on RAGBRAI. Guess there aren’t a lot of Italians on the ride. 

Last night after my freezing shower I decided I would let the Lutherans warm me up with some beef and noodles. They started serving at 4:00 and by 5:15 they had sold out. Of course I got there at 5:30. Lutherans....that is just poor planning!  Be better Lutherans. I got a grilled cheese from the Presbyterians to tide me over and then had a couple tacos from the taco truck!  

We ended up sitting in the park and met two new people. Lori is from the Florida and Brian is from Des Moines. After talking to them for awhile they must have thought we looked thirsty because they offered us  a beer. That one beer led to several stories and over 2 hours of chatting. We added a new guy Rich to our table. At the end of the night we made plans to meet up tomoorw as well because we had so much fun. Brian has ridden 31 RAGBRAI....he started when he was 12!

It was a chilly night in the tent but the rain stopped so that was huge. I think it got down to 60 overnight but it wasn’t wet!! But there was a guy dry heaving all night...that was fun!

This morning I saw Kayla and Shaun from last year!  It was good to see them again. I also got to talk to Bob!  Bob doesn’t sleep under the stars anymore. He has his cot in a big tent now. My conversation with Bob was like nothing nice ever experienced on RAGBRAI and it all is because Stacey got married and isn’t here. Apparently “married” is the the same as dying because me saying she was on her honeymoon made him feel compelled to tell me that he had been planning his own funeral. He’s still trying to decide whether he wants to be creamated or buried...”but why do I care...I’ll be dead”. He then proceeds to tell me that he thinks if gets creamated he would want his ashes spread on RAGBRAI.....hope it’s not a windy day when that happens!!  He then proceeds to continue to tell me all the other things you can decide when you plan your own funerals...the music, the food you want, and who you want to speak...unless you’re Catholic...no choices there!!  This conversation lasted well over 10 minutes and spanned two different time points because he was “trying to keep it short”. I was afraid he was going to ask me to be the executor of his estate if it went much longer. Awkward! 

The ride this morning was beautiful!  We had sun!!!  

 We rode to Anita and I got to show Ray true small town Iowa. When I got into town I stopped at the first booth and asked if any of them new Nate and Terri Hansen. I went to college with them. Nate is the veterinarian in town so I figure they would know of him and maybe even knownif he was in town. While nobody knew where he was they did offer to call him. I said it was ok I’d keep looking. I made it a block and a half and there was a group of older people sitting and watching the bikes. I knew these people might be able to help me out too. Well I just happened to ask Nate’s “adoptive grandparents” so before I could even get my question out the guy was calling Nate!  Nate came to meet me and said I had another call about some girl looking for me. In the span of 5 minutes he got two calls and I never even asked anyone to call him!  Gotta love Iowa nice!  It was good to catch up with him!  Sounds like he and Terri are doing great!!

Today we deemed “free” day because we got lots of free goodies on the ride. We got several bottles of free water at different places. Ray got free coffee. We had free beef sticks, free hard boiled eggs on a stick!, free pickle juice slushies, free sunscreen, free pie and homemade ice cream from the Presbyterian and Methodists churches in Adair, free cooling towels, free honey stinger chews, free sweet corn, and a free popsicle!  It was an excellent free food day!!  But the most plentiful free thing we got was WIND!  Lots of head and cross winds today. We rode for 48 miles before we got a tailwind and that only lasted 1 mile. What a tease!!!  We did get about 11 miles towards the end of the ride with a tailwind but the constant rolling hills really put a damper on that!!  We ended the ride with 6 miles on a strong cross wind and im not afraid to say it but I was spent. Getting beat up by wind all day is tiring. We did a total of 72 miles today. 

Some free photos for all of you!!!  Our camp is in a nice open grass field...no real shade but it’s a good spot. There is a shower truck right across the street and while the line moves slow, it was totally worth it!  I had a warm private shower!  Almost made up for the ice bath last night!!

We also got to see a really cool veterans memorial wall!  The picture doesn’t do it justice because it was so big. It was a really cool thing to see. 
Farm Camp update...Gabby is having a great time!  She’s been checking cows and living the farm life. Today she may have lived it up a bit too much because the camp director sent me this photo. I’m not sure if she’ll be allowed in the truck anytime soon!! 

If You Don’t Like the Weather....

Well you’ve all heard the saying if you don’t like the weather...wait a day. Well...today was completely different from yesterday! We had thunderstorms during the night and didn’t get a ton of sleep!  Oh and the temperature dropped a good 20+ degrees. After more thunder and lightning I finally decided to get up at 5. This wasn’t your am I going to die type lightning but I probably was the type you shouldn’t stay in your tent for! Once I got up the rain stopped and so we decided we’d try to head out. Of course right as it got time to take down the tent the skies opened up and it started raining again. Nothing like packing up a newly wet tent!!

Ray’s choice of campsites proved to be even better this morning. After all the rain over night the hay field was now a mud bog. Everyone’s shoes were caked with mud and their bikes were a mess. Score one point for Ray that we avoided all of that!!

We made the trek to Missouri River to dip our rear tire. This is a RAGBRAI tradition but I’ve never actually gotten my tires in the Missouri. Now maybe today doesn’t count but we actually were in the Missouri at a Casino parking lot because the river is so flooded. You can see the bank in the background and can see just how much the water is up!  

Now it would have been really cool if we got the lightening in the background. But we couldn’t time it right!!

It rained practically all day!!  I stopped for pancakes about 20 miles into the day and what was right next to the pancake vendor but the mini donut ladies. If you remember last year...you never pass up

Mini donuts and you definitely never do that on a rain day in Ragbrai!! Mini donuts are the best!!!


Now after the mini donuts it started raining harder. Ray had been looking for out for pie but not having good luck. The. We were coming up to me pork chop and he had a pie last with him. I was excited and Ray decided to stop too. This lady advertised her place as the place for berry pies. I was hopeful to see if she had the holy grail of pies....and she did...gooseberry pie!!!  This is a rarity in Ragbrai!  So the girl  said you can have one of these pieces or if you want to eat this last piece of  the pie tin...it’s yours!!!  Of course I chose the pie tin!!! Joke was on me though....that piece wasn’t gooseberry but rhubarb instead. It was still good but I felt a bit cheated. Rain and not getting my sacred pie...not cool Ragbrai. 

As we left Underwood about 30 miles into the day...ray says “man we haven’t had many hills”. Well in the next 30 miles we had plenty. Way more than necessary actually!  My Indiana flat land training did not prepare me. While Ray and his “new” bike and his PA hill training did just fine. Rain and hills....what a way to be demoralized and speaking of rain!  The temps were about 72....hard presss to find the 95 from yesterday. Actually it wasn’t that bad riding. But when we stopped for pancakes...or pie...or pie....or pie...it got cold until we got going again!

We got our picture taken with Uncle Sam in Avoca and we got some great Iowa seeet corn. I love the corn tent because it is free corn dipped in glorious butter!!

Th corn was really good!  I can’t wait for the next few corn stops!  Yes that’s a roaster full of melted butter!!!
Oh and we need a poll. How do you eat corn on the cob?  Do you eat it typewriter

Style with a row the length of the ear....or do you eat it circumference style by eating around th ear and the working your way down?  Ray and I need to settle a bet!  He says that because he’s Italian he has to eat it circumference style because Columbus was Italian and he believed the world was flat therefore he has to eat circumference....this logic does not make sense to me but hey...never argue with the Italian!

 After we ate corn...and maybe some more pie we headed into the last 15 miles of the day. It “sort of” stopped raining which was a huge bonus....but we got some cross winds and other pleasantries....like more hills!!

We got to Atlantic and it wasn’t raining. I think the only worse than packing up a tent in the rain would be setting up a tent in the rain!!!  Of course our campsite was further into Atlantic than some and it included this lovely, steep, want to fall over hill. I’ve heard some people say it was a 10% grade and I don’t think their exaggerating!!

Our campsite was nice and grassy so no mud bog!!  Victory!  And we were right next to the showers!  AWESOME. And the showers were free will donation, they gave you a towel and a bottle of water....what nice people!!  I was excited....and then they dropped the bomb. The women’s was “a little cold”. The men’s was warm but ours “a little cold”. I decided that despite all day wanting a warm shower that I’d try it out. Well this was an ice bath coming from the faucet. It was not fun at all. Actually most women washed their hair in the sinks because that water was warm....but that’s not an option for this mop of hair!!!  Plus side to a cold shower....not sweating to death as you got dressed!

We’re going to head up to the main area so this may be all for tonight. Hopefully no rain and some sun Greer is tomorrow. More later!!!