RAGBRAI Day 4 - 77 miles; temp 104; Night of Raging Storm

Holy shit - I am sitting in my tent at 9:38 p.m. The storm is raging like mad. Crazy winds! Tents blowing everywhere. Debbie's tent almost took off. She had to get out in the rain and reset her stakes. We were enjoying the free outdoor concert at 8:00, and were told the rain was expected by 9:30 or 10:00. I had a funny feeling, so I left Steve and Debbie at the concert to catch the shuttle bus back to camp. I kept thinking about my iPad in my tent with my rain fly not attached. Luckily, Brent was not with us and I phoned him (thank heavens we have phone reception here) to ask him to put our rain flies up. It began raining 5 minutes later. When I arrived at camp, almost everyone's tents were being secured by wonderful RAGBRAI good Samaritans.

Okay - back now. It is 10:00 now. We had a wicked crazy bout of rain, thunder, lightning, and wind. The authorities came through and announced a severe weather warning. Most people are staying. Except the ones with collapsing tents, like Brent. He bailed out. I am ready to bail. All of my stuff is zipped up in its waterproof bags. This is some crazy shit. Steve and Debbie are in their tents. I have no idea how they are doing. This has been such a tough RAGBRAI. I hope they won't hold this against me. They'll have stories to tell.

Now I am wondering if one should be using an electronic devise during a thunder storm.

Okay, back now. I actually got myself a little freaked out and powered down my iPad. Now the storm seems to be moving on, so I will plow ahead. No sleep will come anytime soon with this thunder.

Sights from earlier today


Here we are, starting our day off at about 6:00 am or so. We were all a bit toasted from yesterday's 110-mile day. No pace lines today!


Breakfast at Chris Cakes. These guys have got this production business down to a science.



Here's the flip! See the pancake in front of that guy's face?


And Debbie makes a clean catch! Cannot say the same for Steve. Brent ended up stepping on some dead Chris Cakes. Not good with his mountain bike shoe treads.


After a long lunch stop, we had a tough, hot haul in a lot of head wind. As usual, I hung on to Super-Brent's wheel, but we were all so hot and tired. Then a super fast tandem came speeding by. It was our friends Dwight and Mary. They slowed down and we hopped on their wheel. It was a nice pace, but I pooped out after a while. I hung back and Steve waited for me. We ultimately had to stop for cold water. My bike computer read 114. Someone reported the temperature on the pavement was 128. Steve and I took this water stop opportunity to get a photo with a massive John Deere.


We soon caught up with Brent and Debbie, who were also pouring water on their heads, down their shirts - anything to try to cool down.


At this point we were told there were 6 miles and 2 hills to go. Here were the hills. Little baby things. We also had a tailwind. It really didn't matter. This heat made everything so extremely hard.


I thought Brent's tent looked rather comical hours before the storm. Now you can see why he had to bail. Brent: Time for a new tent!


Here's Marshalltown's beautiful courthouse. Debbie and I were quite taken with it.






Okay it is now 10:30. Most of the storm has blown over. It is calm enough for me to holler over to Debbie to see how she rode out the storm. Debbie is okay now, but did say she was just about at her breaking point when things got crazy. Our tents were rocking and rolling like a freaking roller coaster. I have never experienced anything like it. Just checked in with Steve. He's fine too. We just learned that Brent took refuge in one of the trucks. I'm sure he'll have a good story to tell omorrow.

Now for some sleeping aids and an attempt to sleep after all this excitement. What in the hell will tomorrow bring????

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