July 22, 2002- Cherokee to Emettsburg
75.5 Miles- 1632 Feet of Climb
Conditions- The good news- the winds shifted to Northerly. The bad news- So did the route! Temp- 70's to mid 80's. Flat to gently rolling hills, none memorable.
As always, our great thanks go to Rich Ketcham at Geobike for allowing us to use this helpful information.
Towns visited
Cherokee (start town)
Rembrandt, Marathon, Webb, Ayrshire, Emmetsburg (overnight town)
Our day started very early after a tough night for me. The rains came again at midnight, just after we finished uploading yesterday's report. My tent leaked from everywhere. I spent an hour wringing out towels after mopping, trying to save the dry state of everything, but the rain was so hard, I sent everything to the bus and tried to sleep on the "porch" of the community building nearby. There was a floodlight within 6 feet aimed right at me and I only slept one hour and 45 minutes. Bummer.
We got an early start today and the temperature was notably cooler. This was a good thing. Our first town was 30 miles down the road. I really like it this way when we ride 30 miles til breakfast. It's as if the ride hasn't really started yet. I've said before, the weakest muscle in my body is the one between the ears. I need all the help I can get! An ambient addition to the morning were the windmills that generate power. This is called a wind farm and the crops were blowing right in our faces. The first town was Rembrandt, memorable because you couldn't tell the name of the town unless you knew it. There were no signs or markings. Oh, and get this. One of the "downtown" (it's either downtown or "not" in these towns) a building had the word "The" on the facade and nothing else! hmmmm.
Breakfast was excellent and hats off to the Rembrandt cafe that did some strategizing and planning. They decided to serve biscuits and gravy with OJ and coffee. Nothing else. Great plan, because we actually had efficient service, right at the table and very little wait.
The only advice we had for Rembrandt (besides putting a word after "The") would be to make sure you put better signs in the town. They had wonderful, exceptional live entertainment and lots of amenities, but it was on the far side of the town and we scrambled to find what we needed in the sparsely populated first 75 percent (read that as 200 feet) of the town. As we exited, we found the park with the great band, and plentiful food and facilities.
On the road to Marathon (pronounced "MAR a thin"), Bruce spotted some ex Hawgs. They really appear thrilled that they are no longer Hawgs, don't they? This was a high quality live music day! And no less than 30 times, people spotted us as having been performers in the previous night's concert in Cherokee and thanked us for the entertainment. If they only knew that they couldn't have had as much fun listening as we did playing! The day turned sour after when my Brother John, a newbie, radioed me and asked me to wait. When he arrived from behind we learned that a previous back condition had reared it's ugly head and John is out for the week. The rest of the day then was spent as two different projects. One was John's experience finding and using the sag wagon and the second was our next 50 miles.
We stopped where an Iowa state trooper was directing traffic. What a wonderful contrast to the Houston MS 150 where I received threats and harassment from a Houston Police Department officer on that ride, which I will never take again because of it, but that's another story and the Houston PD is already famous for that. The Iowa trooper not only gave us instructions on how to get the sag wagon, but also gave us instructions to his home if we needed it! Oh yeah! This is Iowa!
In Marathon, nobody seemed to know how to get a sag wagon. John was injured and in pain. The locals did not even know what a sag wagon was, and we finally got assistance from an ambulance driver. We suggest better signage in most towns. The library in Marathon was especially helpful by having internet access to those that needed it and phone access. This impressed me twice. A bar and the library both had phones available. These were not pay phones. The folks there simply trusted us to put it on a credit card. This does not happen everywhere, but oh yeah, this is Iowa.
They had a train for those tired of riding bikes. The only problem was that it did not go to the next town! We found the place for the sag wagon and posed for a group shot with John before we left him to wait for it, a wait of around two hours.
Next was Webb, where we entered through a huge spider web. When inside the black plastic structure, the temperature shot up a mere 30 degrees!
In Ayrshire, we saw the Silver Lake fire department had found a new way to put out fires!
While yesterday's route was Southbound with headwinds, today's was Northbound. As bad luck would have it, the winds shifted to give us an incredible challenge. As I've mentioned in previous years, there are many things that can get in the way of an easier ride. Among them are rain, hail, tornadoes, bagpipes, vermin, sleet, snow, headwinds, heat, and cold. Of these, the recent bagpipe players have been pretty good, but have you ever noticed that bagpipe players walk while they play? Do you think that they do this to get away from the noise? Anyway, sleet is probably unlikely although hail is. I don't know what a vermin is. I've never seen a tornado, but my, my! I've heard a lot about them, but I'm not sure they exist, either. We know about rain, but it does cool us off. That leaves headwinds, and in my book, this is worse than hills. They could be a tie if every time you had a good strong headwind for five minutes, you would get a tailwind of equal velocity for five minutes. That's what hills do. No complaints on them, here.
Hawg Tom Sparacio of Washington just couldn't resist this Kodak moment while Rich Gurr posed with this rather corny mailbox.
Anyway, the headwinds were relentless whenever we headed North, which was most of the time. They were so strong, that when Tara and I "broke wind" for each other (hey, it's a cycling term- you know, drafting, where when you follow very closely, the person in back save 20 percent or more of the effort) we only were able to maintain 11 MPH.
Our campsite was wonderful, but even better, my wife Cindy who has forgiven me for all incidents in Marne last year drove down from Fairmont, Minnesota to pick up John and take him to a plane from Sioux Falls SD to Houston. Follow me through, here. Since Cindy was going back to Fairmont anyway, she took us (Dave, Bruce, Aaron, and John) with her and as we speak, we are staying in true comfort at their home in Fairmont. She will take us back to Emmetsburg at 7:30 AM and then take John to the airport. Now I figured this out. She is driving almost 500 miles altogether so that we can have a comfortable night.
So there you have it- The Person of the day for Tuesday is not a Ragbrai participant at all! It's my loving wife, Cindy Plummer- C'mon, let's hear it! (applause, applause)
Seeya tomorrow!
Dave
Email me at plummer_dave@prodigy.net
Links to Today's Towns
The Official Emmetsburg Ragbrai Page
