It was a cool night in the tent but thankfully no wind or rain. I had to go full sweatshirt and pants though to stay warm. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning over camp. Unfortunately the cool night meant everything was soaked with dew. Packing up a wet tent is never fun. But what is fun is college jersey day! Ray and I took our ceremonial jersey day photo before we headed out. I was hoping I’d be able to watch the siblings take down their massive tent, but we would have had to wait quite a bit so hopefully we’ll be able to see them again at our campsite tonight.
The towns and stops were much more frequent today. The breakfast options in the first town were a bit limited so I opted for a blueberry muffin before we hit up the next town. Before the first town I saw 3 Central jerseys. I met Micah and her dad Mike who were both wearing Central jerseys. Micah is going to be a freshman at Central this fall and is studying vocal education. She’ll be living in Graham Hall which is where I lived my sophomore year. We rode together for quite a while. This was her first RAGBRAI but she said she was loving it. Shortly after the first town I saw another Central jersey. I’m up to 4 so that’s already more than last year.
When I got the Schaller I opted for a tasty breakfast burrito from the youth football league. One of the boys really was trying to sell me a football T-shirt from 2016….but I took a pass. Especially since he didn’t know what position he played when I asked him. Sorry kid, you need to at least have your position down pat. Schaller is also the popcorn capital of Iowa…or something like that so they were giving out free popcorn. I think that’s a first on RAGBRAI, but it was good.
As we went on the Nemaha they kept advertising a donkey show. Their advertising was on point, so much so that the line was super long and in a barn that I decided to skip the show. I’ll never know what the donkeys did. Maybe they performed a song or something.
As soon as we rolled into Newell the Newell Fonda athletic boosters were doing a free will donation pie and ice cream. It was awesome! So pie #2 for the week was cherry! They had a watermelon theme here and even though I didn’t eat any watermelon I appreciated the effort to have some fun things to do around the theme.
As I got my watermelon picture I noticed an older woman sitting by herself. I figured she was a local person just taking in the sights. I went over to talk to her and come to find out she use to do RAGBRAI but was just waiting to meet her son who was doing the ride. I asked her where she was from and she said she grew up in Iowa but now lives in Indiana. Fishers, Indiana to be exact! Her property backs right up to Connor Prairie, so maybe I need to go see Jill next time I go to Symphony on the Prairie. She was a teacher at Carmel HS and her husband worked at Eli Lilly for 40 years, and her son graduated from Ball State. Small world! I tried to help her get a message to her son, but she wasn’t having luck. I hope she was able to find him eventually.
While riding I talked to a guy whose wife went to Central. He was riding with his grand daughter. She was wearing an Iowa State jersey and he was repping the Hawkeyes! I bet those family Thanksgivings are interesting. Anyway he is from Iowa but moved to Phoenix several years ago for work. Then he tells me he retired at 74 and this may be his last RAGBRAI. Now I don’t know how old he was, but he didn’t look even close to 70, so he’s kicking really well! He was enjoying the cooler temps of the day compared to Phoenix.
The ride was overcast and “cool” most of the day. I guess it was in the low 80s most of the day but it never felt that way because of the cloud cover.
I saw another Central jersey later in the day so we’re up to 5 which may be a record. I talked to a few others who went to Central but didn’t have a jersey. It was a great day to be Dutch and an even better day when I didn’t see ANY Simpson jerseys. Not a single one! I think those people finally came to their senses that they shouldn’t advertise that they went to school there! Lol. I saw jerseys from all the BIG10 schools…including the soon to be added UCL and USC.
In Fonda I opted for a pickle sandwich and then headed to the Backpocket beer stop. I forgot I stopped earlier in the day…not for a beer but for the Brewer breakfast brat. It is soooo good! We ended up staying at the beer stop for quite a while just relaxing and chatting with people. As we got up to leave it started sprinkling so that was probably a sign I needed to get going.
There was a decent tailwind and some smooth pavement so I time trialed the next 6 miles at a pretty good clip. When we turned to head north for the last 10 miles the sky in the west looked pretty dark. It wasn’t raining that hard but it looked like it could. I really did not want to be setting up my tent in the rain. Which meant I had to make a decision that I now somewhat regret. There was church on the way into town selling pie. They had been advertising a lot and even though I had pie today, I could have gone for another piece. Since it was raining and somewhat ominous looking I passed the pie. If it had been dry I would have stopped for sure. Turns out it never really rained and I should have gotten pie. Oh well!
When I was about 4 miles from the last town I here a woman behind me say, “hey Central I’m trying to keep up with you. I need some motivation so I’m challenging my self to stay with you”. Jen is from New Jersey and this is her first RAGBRAI. She came out with someone she knew but they aren’t riding together so she needed a little pick me up. We talked about her riding, NJ, and other things. She said her favorite part so far was all the people and how Iowa was so welcoming and nice. She kept right up and before she knew it she was making the turn for her camp. Congrats on your furthest ride ever today Jen. And for my friends, Stacey, from Jersey…she is from North Jersey in a town I thought she said was Goda….but I doubt that is it. Near Teaneck. Her Jersey accent was thick, so who knows what she said.
Our campsite is kind of far from the main part of town so we just stayed at camp tonight. Now here is a fun fact. The town we are staying at tonight is a town of 1900 people…we are 18,000+ riders plus all the support drivers, etc. What these towns do to pull off an event like this is absolutely unreal. Our campsite is a conservation park that has a huge fire pit and lots of trees. It’s a really nice site even if it is far away.
When I got into camp I saw the siblings getting their bags, so of course I had to get a spot next to them just to keep up with the entertainment they provided last night. Gary was already in camp and he wasn’t too far either. When Ray got to camp he pulled up a front row seat too! We were all joking around about this. They are taking this all in good stride for sure.
Well as they were setting up their tent, Ray snuck over and stole one of their tent poles. It was pretty funny to watch him go all stealth mode. Well as they continued to set up the tent they were ready for the pole for their rain fly. That’s when the panic and sibling arguments started in…”I left the pole right here”….”no I handed it to you I don’t have it”….etc etc. imagine sibling bickering at its best…with a little bit of panic that a key tent piece was missing. Ray let it go on for 5 minutes or so and then revealed the pole to them. It’s probably good he stepped in when he did because it was starting to get heated! The sister, who I now know is named Kate didn’t seem all that amused but Steve and Phil thought it was great! We were all laughing and cracking up. They were good sports about it…but Ray may want to watch his back this week. I’m going to guess that they try to camp as far away from him as possible tomorrow!
Yesterday when I put my name on the shower list I was 94 and I thought that was pretty good. Well today I was 154…yikes. That’s a long time to wait for a shower. Guess you can tell I stopped a few more times today. Don’t worry…I did shower even if I waited a while for it.
Since we all had quite a bit of time to wait for the showers we started making friends with the siblings. it was then that I found out Steve went to Ball State. Phil teaches and coaches volleyball. Kate also teaches in California. We sat around and talked to them for a long time tonight and it was a fun time. So fun that I didn’t even start writing this blog until 9:30 pm. Usually I write throughout the day. Oh well…these are the fun nights of RAGBRAI. Honestly last night I think they were kind of weirded out by us watching them, but it was just the way we needed to face to not have the sun in our eyes. Tonight I think they may be less creeped out and maybe even think we’re cool. We’ll see tomorrow!!
As we were sitting there we saw that this group of guys sitting next to us was grilling on a Coleman camp stove. They had burgers, salad, green beans. We were all so confused on how they brought all this stuff to cook. Well when they tried to take the picnic table by the sibling tent we said we’d bargain for it and they could have it if we were invited to the cook out. No dice…we kept the picnic table. But we did ask the guy how they planned this. Turns out of of them was supposed to be riding this week, but he had a heart attack a few weeks ago on a ride so he decided to come out anyway and just drive support. So he got all the food and gear. This group is funny. There are 4 guys who all graduated in 1973 from Syracuse and they played lacrosse together. It’s their first RAGBRAI as well. I’m not sure they have fully bought into the RAGBRAI experience yet. BUT later they came over and said hey we do have extra burgers if you want any so I got a nice cheeseburger from the lacrosse guys!
At camp tonight the charter bought stuff to do s’mores since we had a fire pit. They had peanut butter and Reese’s and all the traditional s’mores items. The charter staff took your order and then roasted the marshmallow for you. It was awesome. It was a fun night all around.
The only potential downside to our camp is that we are right next to the hospital and the medical helicopter has already landed there twice. You want to talk about wind…when that goes over your tent it is quite breezy. Hopefully there aren’t any during the middle of the night because it is also loud! It’s going to be a cold chilly night tonight, but my C26 tights are coming handy. Alright I must sleep.
For the day 71.7 miles and 1900 feet of climb. Most of the climb was in the first 20 miles then it was fairly flat. Until tomorrow!!
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