Day 6- Friday, July 25, 1997 - Bloomfield to Fairfield- 72 miles and 1,820 ft. of climbing.

Conditions- Clear, Sunny, Hot, and Humid. The Hawgs milage index (factoring in hills, heat and winds) 100 Miles!

First of all, we have learned that several of the Superior Hawgs are celebrities! Mentioned in the Register yesterday were Dave and Kim Diercks who were married on the fourth of July. Here are their bikes. Here are your hosts, ready to embark on an exciting day behind the famous Superior Hawg bus.

Because of the length of the ride, we thought that we would put in quite a few miles before breakfast. This turned out to be a bad choice since we resorted to homemade ice cream in some very unusual freezers.

Our first pass through town was Pulaski, home of Alexander Graham Pulaski, the first telephone pole. (just kidding). Next was Milton and then Keosauqua. Their theme was Alice in Wonderland and they were decked out and ready for us.

Next was Keosauqua, which is on the Des Moines River. Here is a picture just before our arrival in town. We lunched here and many swam to cool off. Here is the big hotel in town. Finally, here are your Ragbrai hosts, Norm, Bruce, Dave, and Ruie. We crossed the Des Moines River three times today. After each bridge, there was a huge climb.

Here's a shot that Irving Stone sent us of them relaxing by the Des Moines river in Bentonsport.

Well, the old ego's been helped today. A state trooper was counting cyclists through the intersection with a "clicker" and told me that I was number 4,378. Out of 16,000 or so including the free loaders, that puts us almost in the top 25% and that's with a whole bunch of stopping. We took a survey as we rode and found that we pass more than 90% of the riders with less than 10% passing us. That's pretty good for a quatrogenerian!

After a grueling and hot sprint, we reached Fairfield, Iowa. We got a real big greeting there! (that's Norm in front) We certainly were dissappointed that when we finally reached town, we had three more big hills to climb to reach the information board. Oh well..

News Flash! Remember the parachute plane that we showed you a few days ago? Well, we got a visit from it's owner and pilot and discovered that he is the founder of our own Superior Hawgs!!! He is Denny Mills, on left, the leader of the first Ragbrai Air Force, also known as General Mills. He founded the Superior hawgs about 15 or 16 years ago and the name came because the bus is manufactured by the Superior Coach Company, and that part of the name was already painted on the side! During our fireside chats with the Hawgs, boss hawg Larry usually imparts wisdom on the group. Tonight's special quote from Larry related to all Hawgs being equal, "No Hawg's tail has more curl than any other's." Thank you Larry.