July 26th, Estherville to Algona

61 miles with 854 feet of climb.

Conditions- NICE! Some tailwinds, few hills, delightful temperatures.

Well, I can't tell you how agonizing it is to be stuck here in Texas going to physical therapy every other day when I'm supposed to be up in Iowa with those Hawgs. But Aaron is sending me the pictures and the descriptions and I'm posting it from balmy Houston. They are calling me every night and I just can't wait for the phone to ring. It's almost like being there. Anyway, today's story starts with a very rainy night in Estherville.
	It's always quite interesting to see the campgrounds that Boss Hawg Larry chooses for us. I strongly suspect that tonight's campground has a one to one correspondence with the spot that the Hawg bus ran out of gas. Who else can camp out in the street right in front of city hall!
And here's the not so motly crew posing just left of the center line!
	On the road this morning, Aaron saw this unicylist riding from Estherville toward Wallingford. With no handlebars, there's not much else you can hang on to! You do have only half the chance for a flat, though.
And talk about a tradition, the line for pancakes is always almost worth the wait, but is it worth the weight? This is breakfast in Wallingford.
	Here are hawgs Chris, Guido, Tara, and Andrew getting some power carbs for the rest of the ride. Note the long sleeves!
Finally, some musical entertainment. This is in the town of Ringstead. I'm not sure, and I'm sure you will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Ringstead is the home of the pork chop man, Paul Bernhard.
	Another fellow Ragbrai sufferer (is that a word) is Ruie, who teaches in a year round school setup. We've always known that there was some connections between her and the Pastafari people. Here's Molly, Ruie's daughter with Aaron at the Pastafari stand.
I don't know why, but this Captain Cornelieus is always on the side of the road. You've all seen him, right. OK, no more corny pictures! This was taken in Fenton.
	You know that you DRP crew is all teachers, right. We absolutely, positively take great delight in finding typographical errors in signs along the route. My day is totally made when I find an apostrophe-S when a word is simply plural. But this one takes the cake. I wunder if her is from Bruffles? The sign in the background is correct, but she's facing us.
So far in this Ragbrai trip, our trusty travelers have endured heat in the 100's, 70 mile per hour winds, flooding, and camping in the middle of the road. It is only fitting that there should be a volcano. The only thing left is vermin (usually not covered by insurance) and bagpipe players either after midnight or before 7.

 

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

Pass Through Towns- 

Wallingford, Ringstead, Fenton, and Whittemore

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