RAGBRAI DAY 3

Good wine and beer with some new friends!

Cast-offs from Team Captain Morgans..

Hello Friends and Neighbors!

Sorry to be out of touch for 2 days! On RAGBRAI Day 1 the internet bus was down. Yesterday it was raining and we did not want to venture out of the shelter of our campsite.

So I am way behind on news. I'll do my best to get caught up, but there are time limits so we will see.

First some snaps from the end of today...

My first Elvis sighting of RAGBRAI. This fellow was a bike. I cannot tell if he has helmet under all that hair.

And here is his cycling buddy. Vegas Elvis # 2! Note the dark and gloomy skies...

We rode through Madison County today, famous for its covered bridges. Here's me, Mary Ann, and Janie in front of a covered bridge? (Did you read the book?)

And as luck would have it - I met yet another Elvis today! Here' Vegas Elvis # 3! He was singing on stage in one of the meeting towns. Why are all the Elvis impersonators going with the Vegas vintage? How about a hot slim Elvis?

Here I am smooching on an igwana just moments ago, near the beer garden. We are in Indianola for the night.

Here's a quick summary so far. I will post more photos later.

Saturday: We met our "___Dog"charter group mid-day (I'm leaving the full name blank to protect the innocent) and our beloved friend Janie from New Jersey ("Jersey Dog"). We set up out tents and headed to the RAGBRAI expo and had dinner at a ribfest in the town of Council Bluffs. It was a weird set-up - not like our usual RAGBRAI starting town. I was a little disappointed.

Sunday: We rode 50 miles in the most beautiful weather you could ask for. Warm sunshine with cool breezes. Lots of hills, but truly the easiest 50 miles I have experienced. But RAGBRAI seemed lacking somehow. I'm calling it "RAGBRAI Lite." Not as much music and insanely happy people. Not nearly the number of people dressed up and being goofy. Then we waited 90 minutes (OMG) for a mediocre spaghetti dinner at a local church. We should never have gotten into that line, but after 30 minutes, we felt we were committed. Oh well. We came back to our tents - which were parked mere yards from a railroad track and that's when MAD introduced me to one of the best things in life: wax earplugs. They muffled the sounds and I slept well.

Monday (yesterday): We woke up to cloudy, cool weather. And 72 miles of climbing - over 5,000 feet of climbing. I felt like crap on Monday (the 2nd day of RAGBRAI is usually the hardest). All we did was climb tremendous hills and descend.. All day. And the sun did not make an appearance all day. I think we all had our crabby pants on on Monday. We were able to pitch our tents before the rain set in.

The one good thing about Monday was meeting a couple of the Dogs who drank Janie's favorite beer and Mary Ann's type of wine. I put their photos at the top.

Gotta run - getting kicked out! Will write tomorrow.

WE ARE HAVING A BLAST!

xx