This is our charter bus. Very nice!!
Hello All,
Today is Sunday, the 1st official day of RAGBRAI. Since I did not have a chance to post yesterday, I will try to report 2 days of RAGBRAI.
On Saturday, we took the charter bus (very luxurious) to our starting town, Missouri Valley (Mo Valley to the locals). The first order of the day when we arrived at our camp site (the town's soccer field) was tent pitching and bike assembly. This is the moment of truth: did we pack the right equipment (wouldn't you hate to unpack your bike and find out you forgot your pedals?); do you have all your camping gear? Last year I did not have my tent rain fly or stakes.
All went well, and except for the derailler (which I happen to be a dunce at for some reason), I was able to assemble my bike perfectly! Next, Brent, Cathy (I have confirmed the proper spelling of her name), and I biked over to the RAGBRAI expo to check out the vendors. The town was very pretty. Lots of greenery (that rain was good for something), and lovely rolling hills. One of the first sights I saw at the vendor fair was an Orbea Diva (officially my favorite bike in the world). I had to stop and take a picture of the Diva and her mama (who was surprisingly shy about showing off her gorgeous baby).
After the vendor expo, we biked back to our campsite and took the shuttle to the beer garden. There we met all sorts of interesting people who used a variety of different types of conversation starters. One guy had multi-colored painted toenails. He was a manly man, and not at all concerned about this fashionable feet. Another guy (very charming and good looking, but obviously quite the player) had a Barbie doll sticking out of his pocket. Then we encountered a group of 3 guys with all sorts of beads around there necks. I learned that one of them road a tandem with his blow-up doll on the back. Hmmmm. Good times were had, but by 9 PM, the skies were threatening, so we skeedaddled back to our campsite just in time to watch an amazing lightning storm in the distance. It lasted forever, but we only received a few drops of rain. We were camped by the train tracks, and I heard the whistles blowing a few times, then I was out like a light. My fellow campers said the trains blew all night long - I was oblivious.
I'll post today's story separately... (Just in case I get kicked off the internet bus.)''
Love to all!
Ah, the Orbea Diva. Bliss on a bike...
Next time you want to make friends at a party, go for the toes!
Here is Cathy and the owner of the rainbow toenails. He later gave us green "Team Bitch" wristbands, which we are proudly wearing. (It gives us an excuse when we get cranky.)
John (the Player) says this is his girlfriend. He obviously has relationship issues.
We found some of our fellow charter friends in the beer garden. This is Darren, Brent, Mike, me, Cathy, and Art.
Here are the scary guys who ride tandem with the blow-up doll... But they were fun in the relative safety of the beer garden.
The band was playing and the frisbees were flying and the skies were looking ominous. We left the beer garden not long after this shot (and after Brent got beaned on the back of the neck by a frisbee).
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