July 26th- Perry to Grinnell
99.0 miles- 2610 vertical feet of climbing.
Conditions- No rain! Temperature- upper 70's- Hills- flat at times changing to hillaceous! Now let's talk about Winds- Not one foot of today's ride was free of a 20 plus mph headwind! It beat us to a pulp.
Towns Visited-
Perry (overnight town)
Bouton, Woodward, Madrid, Slater, Huxley, Cambridge, (remember that one?) Maxwell, Mingo, and Baxter, and Grinnell- (overnight town)
With this mileage and those headwinds, Tara and I decided to set out a bit earlier than usual. We started at 5:30 AM. Even the no-fire campfire had "burned down" in the dark. Aaron rode the hog bus since his frame was broken, Bruce was still contemplating riding into the wind, and Norm was asleep. It turns out that Bruce did ride and we will incorporate his text and pics as soon as he arrives. (he just did!)
But we're going to start with last night's festivities in Perry. It was quite a night in Perry and people were wild on the streets and in the bars (at least that's what we heard). In our opinion, the greatest entertainment in all of Ragbrai is the Salza Band that plays each year. They are phenomenal. Here's a video clip.
When we started out at 5:30 this AM, we were aware that the route does not start until 6:00 AM, but we wanted to get in at a decent time, so we did begin pedaling in the dark. The route started on a 4 lane divided highway and we were put in the left land with cones. We got a bit nervous when we passed the truck that was putting out the cones and felt better when we entered a small rural road to Woodward. Few people were on the route.
Woodward at 5:45 AM was quite a contrast to most of the towns that we see when we pass through them! We had a pancake breakfast in Madrid (apparently pronounced Mad' rid) and there was no line! In fact, they had the pancakes in the plate ready for us to eat! What a change. When Bruce came through Madrid he discovered the Smokin Okie Band. And look at the two fellow Hawgs!1 Norm's the one on the left. You see so many celebrities at an event such as this!2 Madrid was not left out in this department, either!
In Slater, we met a real interesting team. They finally returned to their bike.
One of the most famous features on the ride is Paul Bernhard, the Pork Chop Man. He's awesome and Ragbrai would not be the same without him. Five years ago, you got a sound clip of the famous call. This year we have for you, a video clip of the famous..."Pork Chooooooooooopppppp!"
In Baxter, they have a small museum of Chicago Great Western Railroad memorabilia. Bruce was especially interested in this because this railroad put him through college! The towns people all wore special t-shirts. We decided to join many other Ragbrai riders off the official route and follow the original route to Baxter. Iowa has many areas where the old railroads have been converted to biking trails. This is one of them and it was wonderful as we missed 6 miles of grueling hills to follow it. Soon after, Norm made the same discovery2 after meeting some of his ex students.
In Maxwell, Bruce met the Maple Street Jazz Band. He says they were good!
The was a large amount of non bicycle traffic along the route today. This affects the safety of all of the Ragbrai riders. Bruce noticed riders calling "house up!" and the front of the two module entourage was quite intimidating!
It seems that every day of this year's ride, there is a special "surprise" in store for us as we ride the last 20 miles. One day it was heat and headwinds, others it was rain. Today, it was relentless hills and headwinds, and of course, the long mileage.
Dinner was a special treat tonight2 as it was at a very nice restaurant that was away from the Ragbrai crowd.
(please ignore the contents below, It' a private message to my wife)-
Hi Cindy,
I still can't call you on that stinking digital phone. I've been told you still have issues with those pictures of me and those two girls in that establishment the other day. John told me that my chances of getting picked up in Muscatine were 50/50. Do you know how that Adobe Photoshop program works in your business with the ability to crop photos? Those girls had their arms around each other! Can't you see that? I was in front of the library in Huxley. And you would be real proud of me. I did not go into that establishment in Cambridge that has all of that excitement that everybody talks about. So, c'mon, pick me up in Muscatine. It's such a long ride back to Houston on a bike!
Love, Dave
Credits- 1. Norm Running 2. Aaron Eilers- the rest were photographed by Bruce and Dave "live".
Email me at plummer_dave@prodigy.net
Links for Today-
City of Grinnell, Iowa Website
And Finally, the Grinnell Ragbrai Home Page
