RAGBRAI DAY 2

July 21, 2008

82 Miles (officially) We logged a little over 84

The road goes on forever and the party never ends

Lyrics from a song by Robert Earl Keene

The day started off at 2:30 AM with a siren and an announcement by loud speaker of an upcoming storm with high winds and large hail. We all left out tents (did I mention the tents?) and were directed to a storm shelter near the campsite we were in. A couple thousand of us crowded into a Quonset Hut (spell?) for a half hour while the main part of the storm passed near but didn’t hit us. Back into the tent until about 6 AM when we broke camp and began cycling again.

I am doing this trip with my niece, Ave, from Mass who met me here. We contracted with a bike club to haul our gear and find a campsite each day. Ave is a teacher, pretty organized, very easy to get along with and an excellent traveling companion. We are both enjoying the trip so much we are talking about our next and who might or might not invite.

This day was rated as the 7th hardest day in the history of RAGBRAI. That would be 7th out of 252 by my calculation. Over 5,000 feet of climbing today and into headwinds made for a long day of cycling. We Went through a couple of Danish settlements today. One included a replica of the mermaid in Copenhagen and the other and actual imported Danish windmill.

Our butts are sore and we were really tired, but we have a since of accomplishment. We both were glad to see the day end. Great food at the festival afterward; always lots of pie. I saw a T Shirt that read “Crossing Iowa One Slice At A Time” and it had a picture a pie

Comments

Norma said…
A co-worker went to that area last year on vacation took pictures of all the tulips and windmill very pretty area
12:36 AM
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