Sunday, August 1, 2010

RAGBRAI - Thursday





On the bus ride out to Sioux City, the man sitting next to me (who had done 25 RAGBRAI's) told me, "Well if you are not in shape now, you will be on Wednesday). I need to be in better shape to get through today. It's hilly and hot. It's an 87 mile day. My back is getting tired and we have to stop and mobilize is twice as the day goes on.

Dad has been yelling out in each town, "Hello, Storm Lake. Hello, Clear Lake. Hello, Algona." As, we pass through Dike, Iowa he yells out to a lady, "Hello, Dike!" (Woops! That one doesn't quite work). We laugh about this for five minutes.

We stop at the Iowa Archaeology tent along the way to learn about Native American spears and arrows. They are handing out free water so I fill up one of my bottles and somehow lose my cap. "Don't worry, we can find it," they say as they start hunting through the trash and around the tables. "We're archaeologists. We're good at finding things." And, they did...right into the trash with all the used water bottles.

I get my closest to bonking today about 15 miles from camp, but Dad is far ahead of me and moving faster because he is tired. I ride at over 20 mph for over 2 miles to catch him and yell out, "Dad, I have to stop!" I eat a banana and a gel and drink lots of water. It perks me up and so does the bottle of water I pour all over my head in the last town.

A family is handing out water a few miles from town and we stop to talk. The woman says I can pour one over me if I want. As we ride into town I think about how much I miss home.

We get into camp, I pull my suitcases into my tent and open my suitcases. Ants everywhere! Hundreds of them. They found my Flinstones vitamins (which I wasn't even taking). I spend the next 30 minutes or so hunting down and killing every last one of them either with bug spray or with my index fingers. It is stifling hot in my tent and now half of my possessions are covered in dead ant carcases. At least, I packed every thing I own in plastic bags.

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