RAGBRAI 2016 Day # 3 Creston to Leon - 58.5 miles, 3,318' of climb

Day 3 and I am finally getting in the RAGBRAI rhythm. I'm able to pack up my belongings efficiently and am no longer forgetting some essential item to bring with me for the day (such as money, bike bottles, sunscreen...).

Here's another favorite jersey. If it came in orange, I would have brought one home for Jettie!

And awesomeness, we are now entering into Amish territory. I love the seeing the Amish farmers and their buggies. It is fascinating to be so close to such a different lifestyle. And that black sign in the background is for the "United Baptist Presbyterian Church." We were told the Sunday school class was too small in each church, so they decided to combine them. Words fail me - what if we all took this approach to unite instead of fight over scarce resources???

We rode through the town of Diagonal (Tom was tickled with this name), then spent some time in Mount Ayr (not sure where the mountains were, but okay). At the Princess Theater (delightful old fashioned movie house), they had a display honoring their hometown hero, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. Her story is remarkable! She is going up into space again (she's been many times) this November and will again be the flight commander. The sweet ladies in theater were so happy and proud to share information about this remarkable Iowan.

And I learned some nuggets of information about my friend, Tom. He likes to visit both dive bars and Catholic churches. We began to create a pattern of looking out for both. After a quick visit to the church (where Tom was able to "bend the knee"), we happened upon Lefty's. It was just the right kind of bar. Roomy, but not too large. All sorts of things on the walls (including deer heads), but not dirty and dusty. The gal behind the bar was awesome and the daughter of Lefty, who had passed away. Tom enjoyed his beer, and I had my first ever Sex on the Beach cocktail. In a word, yum.

Post-Sex on the Beach photo. I'm looking a little (a lot) wrung out, while Tom is fresh as a daisy. Grrr.

Another super favorite new RAGBRAI thing - the distribution of milkweed balls. The Iowan conservationists are trying to repopulate the Monarch butterfly population, which is being decimated by pesticides (all those farms...). They gave out thousands of milkweed balls during RAGBRAI, asking the cyclists to distribute these along the route. Brilliant! And really fun.

I do not know this plant to be a milkweed, but I decided to designate it as such. I saw these all along the route.

And here is Tom's first close encounter with the Amish. Note the girls in the background wearing the dresses and white bonnets. They were selling homemade pie. At this point, Tom and I agreed to always order food that we never tried before - in this case Tom went for the gooseberry pie. The girls were very sweet and had a lilting, pretty accent. I found out later that these Amish speak German at home.

And here we are in the meeting town that evening, stopping at the local market, which turned out to be owned by an Amish family. It was totally like going back in time! Deer heads on the wall and Fuji film for sale - real film that must have been decades old... I am at this point hitting all the shops I can find as I cannot find my ear plugs, which help me sleep at night. No ear plugs here unfortunately, but we had some soft serve ice cream.

Here are some shots of the local entertainment that evening. Tom, who is musical (played? plays? in a band), was uninspired so we moved along.

The cycling on this day was very nice. Although we had 3,300' of climb over less than 60 miles, the hills were nice rollers. Pleasant climbing, not rude like the day before. I am finally getting really happy and joyful to be in Iowa and enjoying this amazing weather and gorgeous route. And thrilled to be experiencing RAGBRAI through Tom's fresh eyes. It is super fun to introduce someone to this unique experience, and Tom's just the right kind of sport - very positive and very enthusiastic. I still miss Debbie, but am now having a ball. And thus ends Day # 3.