Ragbrai- Day 6
Ottumwa to Washington, Iowa
If you promise to return, you may click on the blue towns below for links to their pages.
Towns Visited- Farson, Packwood, Richland, and Dublin
54.9 Miles
1474 vertical feet
used by permission from Rich Ketcham and GeoBike
Payback Time for all of the Treachery Ealier in the Week!
Conditions- Sunny, Flat to gpleasantly rolling (not an oxymoron after earlier) with a few memorable- Winds - Slight headwinds.
We start by climbing out of the Des Moines river valley from Ottumwa. This is a slight reminder of last Monday! We pass the band shell where we went to the concert of the community band the night before. Now it smooths out a bit and we are cruising mostly at speeds above 20 mph and spending the entire time in the left lane of the highway. Time for some water. As a matter of fact, we later learn that our average is 16 MPH for the day. Breakfast for us is at Chris' Cakes. Everybody else had that idea too, but they've got it town. There's Sheila Widnall, the former secretary to the Air Force, a cabinet position. This morning, we go 24 1/2 miles before we get to anything! This is a record for this ride I think and finally here's Packwood. This is a stop for everybody since it's been so far, but the biggest problem is bike parking. Here's Mark Dunigan, from West Des Moines. He's the guy who tows his canoe on a trailer behind his bike all the way across the state. I'll bet he paddles about in the Mississippi when he gets there, tomorrow. While talking to him, a teen aged girl tells him that he is pretty dumb for doing that. He is sitting in a lawn chair and drying out all of his stuff and he tells her that they said the same thing to Noah. Haah! Here's Norm and Dave and the entire trio in Packwood getting ready to hit the road. But wait... Norm finds a very exciting activity taking place on a side road of town. This is the junior tractor pull champions demonstrating their talents. We have both the National champion and the the International champion. They use a pedal operated tractor with a trailer behind that raises weights in the same manner as the real thing!
We have a special surprise today.... Gravel- Lots of it. I think it's probably better to train for Ragbrai before the ride rather than during it. Norm, Dick and I are finding out how much better we are now than at the biginning of the week. In spite of the danger, the adrenelin is flowing and we stay above 20 MPH in the gravel as well. Scary.
Our next town and one that so far shares the coolest town with Albia is Richland. Everythings there, everythings clean, and everythings ready. They have a band mostly of people in their 60's or later and they seem should we say, not too polished. After awhile I learn that this is their act. They are so hilarious that they feel a need to tell the audience to eat their apples and not throw them. In addition, every few tunes including Cletus's solos, they say "We're going to take a break, but we'll be right back." When they say "we'll be right back," the eintire audience groans loudly. They never take a break between tunes. Jokes are told between each and this was true entertainment! This is "Dave's choice" for most entertaining local talent. Listen to these guys! Later on, another group has the folks dancing in the park. Ruie takes a picture of the frog welcoming us to town. Also on display is the world's largest corn stalk. Here’s another pic.
The rest of the ride is quick and without significant stops. Here’s Tallyrand, destined to be the “last town party spot!” We have a house tonight! Yeees! Showers without guilt (or money) and a wonderful host and hostess, Ike and Donna, from Washington, Iowa. Their home and yard is beautiful as we set up our tents. Here's a picture of the Hawg's. It’s hard to get all of the Hawgs together at once! Hawg Lee Fitch brought some scouts with him. They are awesome.... Youth! Dinner is at the Mennonite Church across the street. Look at pies they baked for us!
When you have a community of 16,000 people, in this case on bikes, you're going to have some accidents. There was a cyclist killed on Saturday and our heart goes out to the family. On Wednesday, a cyclist was stricken by a car and is in serious condition. But this story in the Register is a little bit on the bizarre side. This was not a registered cyclist apparently, but one of those many that do indeed show up for the parties that take place (we are told) every night. A man survived being sticken by a train while sleeping on railroad tracks after the party in Knoxville. He was asleep with his head on the rails when a Burlington Northern Freight train rolled through at 2 AM Thursday. They are not sure if this was alcohol related or not. HELLO!!.
Tomorrow we will make our final trip of 70 miles to the Mississippi. The
report will be a little late and will be posted from our hotel room somewhere
in Missouri.
Links for Friday-
Ottumwa Historical Preservation Society