RAGBRAI Day 5 - 2nd Update

Hello Friends and Neighbors!

I am now in Ottumwa, Iowa, home of Radar O'Reilly. (Just had a little drinky-poo and can no longer spell - apologies in advance.)

Here I am over the Des Moines River. Yes, I have developed a "RAGbaby" here at RAGBRAI. Here's our friend from the XC08 tour - Bill (who introduced us to the Dogs) and our Janie-the-Great. Had the best cheeseburger ever at the 2nd Street Cafe. Bill and I are going to go dancing in the beer garden shortly. He can groove with the best of them!

Here's me and MAD. She charmed our server (one of the family) into diving us free drinks! Big tip!

Here's my nifty new temporary tattoo.. What do you think as a permanent body art??

Caught this tiger by the tail several times today!

We had a fantastic 77-mile ride today in great weather. Right up until the very end - we had to race to get to camp before the skies opened up. But alas, a heavy rain started during our last 2 miles. When we got to camp we had to find and rescue our bags from a complete drenching and we all (girls and bags) took shelter under a gazebo. I was worried we'd be pitching our tents in the deluge but MAD and the locals told me to give it a few minutes and would pass. I admit this California native girl did not believe them - until it came true! Then we set up camp under nice sunny skies. Now we are at Ottumwa Beach ready to party a bit.

Will post tomorrow. Another 70+ mile day...

One more thing - my Fuji bike is making the most awful creaking noises. I had it in the shop back home twice. Now it is getting worse. It is embarrassing. People are staring. It is driving MAD mad. What to do???

BUY A NEW ORBEA!!! Love to all!