Decorah to Manchester, 83 miles with 3155 feet of climbing. Carry your bungee cords with you, maybe you can pull folks up the hills. We'll have plenty of opportunities.
Towns visited-
Ossian, West Union, Elgin, Dadena, Arlington, Lamont, and Dundee, (what a crok!)
our thanks to Rich Ketcham from GeoBike for doing this great work and research and allowing us to put it here.
Day 6 - More heat
and bigger hills.
NightLife in Decorah was very good according to reporter Norm.
The Foot Notes, from Decorah, was a really fine group, a step
back into time. Lots of people were dancing waltzes and young
people were dancing to Norwegian Schottisches and polkas. Three
Beers 'till Dubuque also performed. They are a rock band with 6
horns, a former college jazz group from La Crosse. The Sons of
Norway were having a National Convention at Luther College where
many of us stayed. The best showers of the week were located here
in the recreation center. Norm says they were the best in the
last 5 years. We would to thank the computer lab at Luther
College for allowing us to upload Day 5 to the web site.
Mist filled the valleys this morning as the riders climbed out of
Decorah, making the lowlands appear as lakes as we looked down. We thought we had hills yesterday, but they were
nothing compared to today. We counted 10 hills that were
steep and at least a half-mile long. A couple were 1.5 miles and
the last one was a full 2 miles of up-hill climbing. Despite the
work of climbing, the scenery was gorgeous. This is one of the
prettiest parts of the state. After 50 miles, the terrain leveled
out and the slight headwind didn't seem too bad. With the heat
beating down, we made a lot of stops to rest. We refilled our water bottles every chance
we had. We also drank sports drinks, and
tried to cool down under water sprinklers.
We met Mark Little from Team Air when
he had his ultra-light plane parked on a gravel road. Three ultra-lights
planes from Manchester have been flying over the route every day.
Aaron Stiles, from Waterloo, is riding this
unique recumbent that he built himself out of unusual parts.
Each of the pass-through towns greeted us with food and drinks
and good old Iowa hospitality.
In Manchester, we again rode through much
of the town before finding the information board and riding a
mile back through town to the campsite. This is, however, the
best campsite of the week, next to the swimming
pool and band shell. We even have electricity at the shelter
house.
One thing about RAGBRAI is that it can be a small world. Here are
two examples. Yesterday Team Jinx stopped along the road. On the
highway there was a ratchet. One of them picked it up and put it
in her bag, as it was a hazard on the road. When she arrived at
the campsite, she pulled it out her bag and asked the people in
her group if anyone wanted this ratchet she had found. A girl in
the next campsite said that's mine! Only on RAGBRAI. We have been
looking today for a girl named Kim. Through this web site, we
received an e-mail from Tim who said she must call him. Today
Team Jinx found the team that Kim is riding with, which
incidentally happens to be camped right next to them. We haven't
met Kim yet but have passed the message along to her team.
This is the last night out, usually a good party night. We will
go downtown and see what kind of action there is. We will try to
post Day 7 when we get home tomorrow night.
