Day 3 RAGBRAI Monday

Woke up this morning again to an empty campground. Only the support busses and us were left...it just cracked me up. I was sleeping with earplugs in my ears...heard you could sleep better that way so you don't hear the porta-potty doors slamming all night. Well I think I am sleeping better than I ever have in my life, I don't even wake up to hundreds of bikers taking down their tents! Might have to try them at home!

We finally got on the road by about 8:30, there were still many people riding out of town...they just weren't in our camping area. Luckily it was a little overcast because it was sweltering already. There was an evil headwind and the hills were not as steep as yesterday but they were long and gradual with very little downhill breaks. Nothing but farms and cornfields. We saw the sign for the pancake breakfast on the route....9 miles away, ugh. It was a long 9 miles but we made it just in time for the last pancakes on the griddle and the last 5 sausages. Good karma. They were absolutely delicious. We also ran into our new friend Barry from Hell's Kitchen, NY, always fun to talk to and he kept a banter with Gavin the entire trip about renaming our team. They just cracked each other up with new names like "Gavin and the sausageheads"....and "Barry and the cowheads." Barry also told Gavin that the cows would come steal his pancakes if he left them sitting too long....Gavin took that pretty seriously. :)
We got back on the road and it was another 15 or so miles before we found another place to stop for cold drinks and snacks. It was tough because we were so late that we were just barely making it to the stands along the route before they closed up. Normally there was almost zero car traffic on the route since we were kind of at the end of the pack there was much more traffic that totally stressed me out. I was ready to sag (have the sag wagon take us to the next town) but Sean kept us going....a few miles later I saw the sign "Mr. Porkchop, 11 miles" I soooo wanted one of those porkchops ( I bypassed his stand yesterday and regretted it). This guy is an institution on RAGBRAI...he parks at a different farm everyday on the route and yells out this long pig call...PooooooorkChooooooooooops! So you give him $6 and his granddaughter hands you this HUGE steaming porkchop in a papertowel. Seeing that sign was all I needed to get me motivated again. But it was a tough 11 miles. I was so incredibly happy to come over the hill and see that pink bus...and once again the good karma was there because we got 2 of the last 10 or so porkchops for the day. Yum. They also had some amazing fresh lemon slushie....cool and refreshing. Gavin still likes to do his own version of the porkchop call! Funny.