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 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!
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