Day 6 Continued

So this is road kill on RAGBRAI.

And this is what happens to road kill on RAGBRAI. This was by far the best one yet. I don't know how the tradition started but the roadkill on RAGBRAI gets decorated quite nicely...as a way of paying respect to the wildlife of Iowa I guess! Usually you see Team Road Kill stickers all over them but this little coon had the royal treatment!










We stopped a lot today...it was a good day. We stopped for yet another pulled pork sandwich...actually I had 2. Gavin took this picture! He was craking up at me!
We stopped for watermelon. Yum!

Day 6 RAGBRAI 2007

Manchester to Dyersville 18.6 miles.

Ahhhhh, only one more day after today! Today was a cake walk...18 miles is nothing now! So we totally took our time in the morning and planned to stop a little more along the route today. As we were packing up camp our kids played with the kids from Team RADPAN who we hung out with last year...Gavin was thrilled to get a few of their stickers! Gabby decided to spend the day with her little buddy Nicky from RADPAN....she was so excited just to get to ride in their bus all day.

We drove to he half-way town, Manchester. It was already bustling with bikes and food vendors. I found a little scrapbook/framing/cell phone store here too! After grabbing a quick lunch in Manchester we set off for our meager 18 mile ride. We elt kind of guilty meeting up in the half way town with all the other riders who just rode the first 45 miles of the day! But we got over it. Sean can go so much faster without Gabby behind him...so we were very evenly matched again today.









Okay, so there were these two dudes from Team Diego walking around in these shorts.......I had to get their picture and they were all too happy to let me and posed accordingly! I soooooooo want to post their FRONTs here, you can just imagine how interesting they were. But I worry that your kids might be looking over your shoulder reading this blog...and, well, even though these guys were walking around in public....well, I won't be responsible for any accidental viewings! :) OMGosh I just noticed the kid on the bike in the picture getting the full view!

Hee hee. ppppssssst if you want, I will email you the pic! LMK! :)

Another Take

Hmmmmm, this one is very different!

Owls

I have been so in love with all the cute owls everywhere. Julie has a super cute purse and I just found a really cute shirt for Gabby.... thought I would see if I could make my own...so meet Gabby Owl, Gavin Owl, and Owls in Trees. :)

Hmmmmm

Is this too strange?

Better?!

Or these?

Wouldn't these be cool 6x12 overlays? They are just weeds I took photos of alongside the road in Iowa.

Anyone know?

How can I turn this into a 12x12 screen print transparency...like the really cool kind that Hambly makes?
Wouldn't it be cool? :)

Day 5 continued

I just love this first picture....here we were at yet another farm. Stopped for ice cream, and cold water. And here are these three Iowa farmers sitting here in the shade...watching the crazy bikers go by. Sometimes we would stop and chat, Iowans are extremely friendly. I was really wondering what these guys were thinking. :) They had this 10 person bike here...apparently they really ride it in parades and such...super fun photo opp!

We stopped again today to see Mr. Pork Chooooooooop!! The kids did their best again to imitate his call.

Here's Barry from Hell's Kitchen in the last pic....this is his 20th year doing RAGBRAI! Amazing!

Finally at camp we hit the pool, Mom cooked a great sirloin steak meal. Big thunderstorms were expected tonight. It was comforting to know that we were just a few yards away fromt he high school in case we had to seek shelter. Turned out to be pretty mild. Phew! Only 2 more days of riding!

Day 5 RAGBRAI

Cedar Falls to Dunkerton,
35 miles.

Off again after a night of breathing RV generator fumes. EW. Most of the time the RVs will turn their generators off at night, a little courtsey for the 10,000 or so people in tents...not tonight. The noise doesn't bother me, in fact some people like the "white noise" of the generators humming...plus I had my handy dandy earplugs. It was just the fumes. We must have been in the direct line of one of them...I woke up kind of nauseated...but off we went. We tried to be really quiet and not wake up Gran and Gramps...and we forgot to have anything to eat, we usually grab something to start the ride, especially for the kids. Well, about 3 miles out of town Gavin started complaining about his stomach...poor guy was nauseated from an empty tummy! So he had to stop on the side of the road to try to throw-up. Nice. We had him eat a little Power Bar and Gatorade...luckily he made it to the first big pancake breakfast spot about 10 miles out.

Delicious pancakes, sausage, coffee and juice. Hits the spot. The pancake guy would let the kids try to catch a flipped pancake on a plate... that would have been fun except Gavin had a meltdow when his kept sliding onto the floor. Geeze! This is not turning out to be Gavin's best day! I was really able to keep a calm and open, even happy mood. There was a guy having breakfast here who really put it all into perspective. His buddies carried him from his modified bike to a chair and then got him his pancakes and juice. He was sitting there all happy, joking around, clearly so hapy to be there working his ARMs off in the sweltering Iowa heat. His had no use of his legs. He was doing RAGBRAI on a bike that he pedaled with his ARMS. Amazing, inspiring, wonderful. Seeing this guy, and people like him is, for me, what RAGBRAI is all about....the strong and wonderful Human spirit. Really, really cool.

Day 4 Continued again

Man, I wish Blogger would let me put more than 4 pics in a post. :)


You can see here that life isn't all happy and dandy on RAGBRAI. The monsters almost brawled over this silly little ball. I just love this look that Gavin is giving his sister...oooooo she was ornery!













What's a gathering of 10 thousand people without a political statement or two? The little piggies represented the National Budget....all lost on me but the kids thought it was sooooo cool!






Back at camp with Gran and Gramps. Mom was showing Gavin his picture...loving the way he was looking up at her. Melt my heart.








And last for today. This dude has 10 RAGBRAI patches on his shirt...that latest one dating back to the 1973...that's a lota RAGBRAIS!! I wondered if these 10 were the only ones he did....I would have asked but he was on his cell phone. :)

Day 4 Continued

At the Expo in Cedar Falls....Coooooooool Army dudes. Gavin was so impressed, especially when they let him sit in the truck and try on their hats! These guys were really, really cool. We love our soldiers!! :) The Marines were giving away a water bottle if you could do 10 pull ups....Sean made it to 8 and got the lanyard Gabby has on. Guess he's not tough enough for the Marines! :) hehe


















Sean was really really really hungry, especially after all those pull ups! Can you tell? Love this picture!

Gabby was all cute and smiley when she put on the Army hat so we told her to look tough...this is what she did...we both totally cracked up!

Day 4 RAGBRAI

Our day off! No riding today, it is water park day!

We settled into our campsite in Cedar Falls around noon ready to take it easy, we were freshly showered and a little less sore in the tush! :) We hit The Falls, by far one of the coolest city pools I have ever seen. It is more accuratly called a waterpark...I was having too much fun on the slides to take any pictures. The kids were in water heaven!

After hitting the pool we went back to camp and decided to head to the food expo for dinner. We split up and collectively had lemonade, smoothies, spaghetti, baked potato with broccoli, and tenderloin sandwiches. There is a reason most people GAIN weight on RAGBRAI! :)

Can I just comment on Sean's picture here....yowza! ;)

Happy 38th Anniversary

To my Mom and Dad! You are an inspiration to me...on what it takes to make a marriage work and endure the hard times and have fun along the way. Thank you for that and of course thank you for getting married in the first place...without you there wouldn't be ME!! Ha ha ha. Love you guys!

This is a little album I created for them with the July kit at Tally Scrappers....you can check out the rest of the album here :)