Humboldt to Hampton - 72.0 miles with 1443 ft of climb.

Pass through towns are Dakota City, Thor, Eagle Grove, Clarion, Cornelia, and Alexander.

CONDITIONS- Cloudy AM, Sunny PM.  Quite hot- low 90’s.  Less headwinds with a small amount of wonderful tailwinds.

 

A word about Ragbrai.  Because Ragbrai serves a wide variety of people, some of the partiers are not even bikers and do hang around the beverage gardens long enough to make the riders real irritated with the noise.  The town of Humbolt has some of their local you ladies dressed in rather scimpy Santa outfits since the theme was Christmas in July.  Most of them were very well behaved, but one of them apparently was not quite herself by 4:45 AM this morning when she showed up at our campsite and said that she did not know where she was, where she lived and even asked Tara if she could stay in her tent.  Tara was unresponsive so she put her face up to our tent and told us hi and asked us why we were getting up and we told her because it was morning, which she did not believe!  I knew this would be a coverable event on the page and reached for my camera, but she ran away down the street never to be seen again as far as we were concerned.  At least the Hawgs are a respectable bike club!

So this morning, we were on the road at six AM.  We needed water for our bottles and never found it in town, so proceeded onward.  Kristen stopped by the road to get me to help her search for some water and the Iowa State Police heard her plea and called us over and gave Kristen a special water bottle marked with Iowa State Police!

Years ago, I blasted one of the troopers in Iowa because perhaps he had had a bad day, but I’ve got to tell you, the officers of the Iowa state Police are the friendliest, most polite, most helpful police I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  They are fantastic.  I only wonder why they are required to dress in full uniform in these stifling conditions.  Maybe they could get shorts and comfortable shirts the color of the present uniform.  They deserve it.  Once again, DRP and I’m sure all Ragbrai participants appreciate all they do.  Are they really trained comedians as well?

So after getting hydrated, Kris was back on the road.  A Ragbrai newbie, she is blowing away most of the other riders.  Well, she is a PE teacher and gymnastics coach.  Our first larger pass through town and the DRP town of the day is Eagle Grove.  The live, albeit stuffed Eagle in the tree at the edge of town must have been a professional mime. We met members of team flamingo.  They are secure enough with themselves to wear boas across the entire state!

Eagle Grove was ready with every single yard perfectly manicured.  They are really into old cars with a vintage car in every driveway. 

They had an Andy Griffith show theme.  Kristen was promptly arrested as she entered town for speeding by Barney Fife, the sheriff of Mayberry.  When she got there, she saw that Dave had been nabbed too, and had to spend some time with Otis.

A clown was doing tricks on his 3 wheeler, but was not picked to ride the Ragbrai.  Dance team Burrito was very enthusiastic.

With the winds as they were, we all wanted a sailbike.  This one was seen all during the ride. 

There were all sorts of bikes this day from tandems, to recumbents, which Dave rides, to this trike.

We are now all the way across I-35 in Hampton.  We have traveled three 70 plus mile days and are about to hit the halfway point of the ride.  We can’t wait!