RAGBRAI 2009 - Day 5

This is going to have to be a short one - it's late and I'm exceedingly tired. Barney and I went to sleep under clear skies last night and didn't bother putting the fly on the tent, so at 3:30 when the thunderstorms moved in we had a mad scramble to get things in the dry. We made it just in time before the storms *really* moved in.

This morning started around 7:30 once Bill and Dave met us at the school - here's a shot of Barney donning his wrestler outfit for the day - I just love the clothes you get to wear as a cyclist:

Barney and I started the day strong, getting into a pack of riders that was moving right along and did our best to stick with them. We bumped out of the draft at about the 30-mile mark, having averaged slightly better than 19mph up to that point. From there we had to make a decision on the day's distance - there was an optional backtrack loop around a lake that made the day just over a hundred miles. Most of the morning I had been telling myself I wasn't into the idea, but once we got there and Barney started making disparaging remarks about my qualifications as a man I really didn't have much choice. This is a photo from the dam of the lake we were riding around to complete the extra loop:

The next shot was the result of me just being bored and taking random pictures - note the awesome mirrored-blue safety glasses that Dave got for all of us.
We completed the loop and then rolled on through several more little towns before stopping around mile 70, where we immediately tried to eat everything we could get our hands on. This little girl and her Amish clan helped me up my ice cream count by 2.

After two ice creams, some blueberry pie, a cinammon roll, a pork loin sandwich, and an ingenious thing called a walking taco (cut off one side of a bag of Doritos and pour in taco meat, lettuce, cheese, onions, and salsa and serve with a fork - these people are brilliant) we were back on the road. The next shot is only significant because it had one of the longest views of the trip. If you look really closely to the right of the sign you can see way off in the distance a hill we had to climb about a mile and a half later.

After climbing that hill we rolled into Blakesburg and decided it was time for more ice cream. Here we are sitting on the stage in the middle of their town square. A guy walked by wearing a placard indicating he was the mayor of Blakesburg, so we had him snap the photo for us. Their ice cream was the best I've had so far on the trip, so I had two servings here as well.

As we were nearing the end of the day there were some ominous looking clouds ahead:

I tried to snap a picture of my trip odometer right as it rolled over 100.00 miles for the day. The name 'century ride' has never been that appealing to me - I think I'm going to call what I did a 'hundy pedal'.
Back to the ominous looking clouds - about a mile from the end of our ride the skies opened and we got dumped on. Luckily Debbie and Tina were waiting for us, so we hurriedly threw everything into the cars and then jumped in.

Barney and I decided to wimp out for the evening and rode along to the hotel here in Burligton, Iowa instead of spending a soggy night in the tent. I'm now kicking back on a soft bed, self-medicating with ibuprofen and Bud Lite.

One other noteworthy pic - we drove into downtown Burlington for dinner and I got a shot of the very scenic bridge across the river where our ride will end in two days.

After dinner Barney and I did a vehicle shuffle to get his car closer to the end point, which was a treat for me because Barney had a banjo stashed in the car. I got to pick for a few minutes in the hotel parking lot before it got dark and he made me put it away.

Today's stats:

Total miles - 104.4

Average rolling speed - 17.2mph

Max speed - 39.8mph

American Legion halls visible from our route - 0

Ice creams consumed - 4 (1 chocolate, 2 vanilla, 1 strawberry)

Butt soreness, scale of 1 (aahhhhhh...) to 10 (AAHHHHHH!!!) - 7

Hope all is well out there in the real world,

Chuck