Day 1, Sunday, July 21, 1996 Sioux Center to Sibley

66 Miles- Winds light- tailwinds to crosswinds- A bit of Early Drizzle, Flat to small hills

We woke up this morning to the steady sound of rain, so rolled over and went back to sleep. Bruce, on the other hand, joined the ranks of the animals and pedaled through the rain. When Norm and I looked out of the tent, the campsite was pretty much deserted and a crane was lifting all of the KYBO's (see last year's page for the definition of KYBO) on the truck. We rode through some very cool air (about 62 degrees) and came to the first pancake stop where the sign over the feeding barn said "abnormal grainery." Would you eat breakfast at this place?During the rides down these country roads, one can buy lemonade, orange juice, or coffee at most any house. Our hosts were the Roy Raak family, just North of Orange City. Orange City, along with many of the other communities in the area has a Dutch Heritage. Note the helmet that I'm wearing. This is my unofficial Superior Hawg uniform. This generated much commentary. In Alton is a very interesting cemetary and a great little town. St. Mary's Catholic Church was there and there were Singing Nuns (well, lip sinking nuns, anyway) Here's Norm in Alton.. We met some folks who converted a '57 Chevy into a motorcycle!

Next was the town of Paullina where we ate lunch. But the great bribe took place in Archer where I paid a utility worker 5 bucks to take me up in his cherry picker 53 feet in the air. It was scarier than Astroworld! Here's a picture of street dancing from the big cherry! Here's one from the full 53'!

As of 6:30 PM which is right now, 10,030 have ridden through the gate into Sibley.