July 25th- Sheldon to Estherville

84.7 miles with 1195 feet of climb

Headwinds all day- About 82 degrees

Skies were overcast

Monday's ride began with a bit of a bad gift from Mother nature. During the night and very early morning, a storm swept through the overnight town of Sheldon with tornadic winds. Most of the tents in the Hawgs' campground were overturned or rolled, some with the campers inside. Many of the Hawgs abandoned the tent for a seat in the Hawg bus. In another part of town, a Ragbrai rider lost his life when a tree fell on his tent, so we began our day on a very somber note, and not everyone was able to ride since there was a great need to dry everything.
	Hawg Aaron, who by the way took today's pictures, was unable to ride since he everything he had was totally soaked. He had to ride the bus on this day and it gives us a picture of what our support team does for us every day. I believe the pic on the left speaks for itself. The pictures below are of Orange City during the Ragbrai invasion.
We passed through Orange City several years ago and like today, they touted their Dutch heritage.
	We're happy to report that the flamingo that travels with us is alive and well in spite of last night's storms.

If you have not visited Rich Ketcham's Geobike site, you should!

Pass Through Towns- 

Archer, Primghar, Sanborn, Melvin, May City, and Milford

As always, our great thanks go to Rich Ketcham at Geobike for allowing us to use this helpful information.