A gorgeous blue-eyed family.
Mt. Pleasant to Burlington
43.2 miles
Ahhhhh RAGBRAI roadkill...always gets the special treatment. Beads, stickers, beer...this poor guy was eviscerated too so I won't show a close up in case the kiddies are looking over your shoulder. Ew.
Hey look...it's Captain America!
We totally flew today. We had a fabulous tail wind the whole time so we hardly even stopped. It is always very motivating to know that the sooner we get to the Mississippi the sooner we can be heading home to our very own beds, showers, bathrooms....
In the home stretch!
And there's the river. It is also always a bit anti climatic at the end with everyone rushing to get to their shuttles or buses or people.
Another one down.
Of course we run into Barry on the way to the van...just so we can say goodbye.
He's wearing his RAGBRAI xvi shirt from, ummmmm, like um, 21 years ago, I think. Too tired to do the math. That must have been his first one and he has been doing them ever since. HE rocks.
Yay! 177.2 miles down. Time to go home! Look who is happy!
Brighton to Mt. Pleasant
26.5 miles
Good morning KYBOs. How I miss my motor home...
Gavin rode his butt off yesterday. He was the last to wake up this morning...in fact we had to drag him out of the tent so we could pack it & go.
Still sleepy but we found a memorial to The Babe in the baseball field we were camped next to...which was kind of cool. Gavin is obsessed with the Sandlot movie which is obsessed with The Babe. Who woulda thought we would find this in the middle of Iowa...maybe he was from this town?
Gab, happy as a clam watching movies in the RADPAN bus. :)
It's Barry from Hell's Kitchen. On his 20 somethingeth consecutive RAGBRAI. We love Barry.
It is the hottest day of the week this year...hitting 90 today. Big fans and whoopie pies in Brighton made for a good lunch before heading out today. We were sweating before we even got started! Phew!
A very cool stop this year. The PB Jam. A place where you get to design your own PB & J sandwich with fun things like chocolate ships and potato chips, bacon or candy sprinkles...you get the idea. Next year this will be a dedicated stop for us!
The second best part about PB Jam is the Jam part...they have a bunch of instruments and blankets to sit on under the pink tent for anyone to start up a jam session!
Gab did her best on a violin missing a string jammin' with the electric guitar. Gavin accompanied on the bongos. Pretty cool for the middle of Iowa!
More hills! Gavin rocked em!
These girls knew how to beat the heat enjoying the show of thousands of crazy riders. Cracked me up!
Mt. Pleasant welcomed us with rocket ships and a nice cool mist tunnel.
And then the pool. Only one more day!
The hills. Here is the hill, the ONE hill that got me this year. The one hill I had to walk. If I had been on that super duper Giant still I would have flown up this hill! Here is Uncle Robby posing in front of the hill. He's single girls...any takers? Hehe.
Sean had lots of help up the hill. Gabby is a powerhouse on the tag along! They made it up the hill without walking.
Smoothie stop. Yum!
Every day on the ride you come over a rise, or around a bend & hear the chug chug of a huge tractor like homemade ice cream maker. And then you see the line. Amazing, eh?
So this was the hottest day on RAGBRAI this year. It hot about 90 degrees today. We found a little cooling station...like a misty sprinkler under a tarp. As I was chatting with some people under the tent and Sean and Gabby went to get food, Gavin slipped away. I was a little frantic, found Sean and had him help me start looking. Finally I look over in the (adults only) beer garden...and there he is. Sitting on the bench watching the entertainment with his ice cream cone. Nice. Uncle Robby saw him & went to sit by him. Phew.
Pretty soon Gabby decided that she wanted in on it and became part of the entertainment with a tambourine. I was waiting for the Parent Police to come arrest me, too embarrassed to go in and retrieve them. So I made Sean do it. :)
Back on the road. So peaceful. Those clouds are so pretty.
Wait a minute, those are not nice, pretty clouds!
People in Iowa are so dang nice...they open up their barns & garages to hundreds of crazy bikers caught in a major thunder storm. They will often even feed them! It was funny being sardined in a garage with about 50 other bikers. You make lifelong friends doing things like that. Sean & the kids were behind me when the wors of it hit. They ended up having a blast in a barn, sitting on tractors and relaxing in the hay.
The sun was back, and the steam rising off the blacktop was really cool.
Made it to Ottumwa. They have the cooooolest pool of all of Iowa.
Ahhhhhhhhh.
Gab and her best buddy Nick on RAGBRAI.
