I am writing for two days because we had poor phone service at Cresco.

Charles City to Cresco - 64 miles

Cresco to Waukon - 65 miles

Lots of Hills today, beautiful scenery to look at along the route as we sped down hills going 30-40 mph. Weeeeeeee!   The day started out with several big long hills that took seconds to go down and what seemed like hours to go up... You went from 30-40 mph down to a turtles pace of grinding out the uphill.  When we weren't dealing with the long drawn out hills, we were coping with "lasagna noodle" hills the entire way.  (AKA rolling hills).  Groups of people greeted us throughout our ride some selling us food, some giving us free water and bananas, some cheering us on, others sitting under a shade tree waving from afar.  Each small town had its own theme and lots of food, activities, and more food to keep us going.  One thing about the state of Iowa that I adore are the local people we have encountered.  Iowa people are gracious, friendly, and generous!   Iowa's version of Casey's called Kwik Star gets a 10 star rating on our books.  We have met people from all parts of the world.  Lisa spoke to two people from Norway today and she keeps running into friends from home throughout the ride.  We have encountered classic Iowan hospitality.  My Christian music playlist that I was playing along the route received several positive  comments and some great inspiring conversations along the route.   At one time Lisa and I were separated, she encountered a  young girl who was playing Christian music as well, which sparked a conversation between the two. As Lisa shared her concerns for me on this challenging day, she prayed a powerful prayer for  me. She asked the Lord to bring someone alongside me to encourage me. At that time I met a fellow horticulture Rider from Milwaukee who took my mind off the fears about the route and helped pass the time.  God is good...all the time!  Check out the videos I made on FB.

We haven't mentioned the smells of Iowa ....... The pungent aroma of the hog confinement operations awoke our senses each day as we slogged along the weary miles.  We encountered many different Species of roadkill, some merely dead, others clearly disemboweled.  Riders routinely pay homage to the deceased carcasses by tossing Mardi Gras style beads on them for their remembrance. LOL!  Contrary to common belief, Iowa is NOT flat!!!!!   Not only has that been our experience the last 6 days, but we anticipate many more encounters with the hills of Iowa on our ride tomorrow.  By the way, Jeff was the eloquent author of this section.  I also got me picture taken with the famous creator of Tender Tom's Turkeys!  See photo below!

Clear Lake to Charles City 7/26

Today was a race against the weather so we really pushed ourselves to ride with very few breaks.  It was very challenging for some of us, but with the encouragement of other team members we finished the ride. (60 miles) We are halfway across the state at this point!!!!!

Highlights of our adventure

Beth - meeting someone from Byron who was one of my granddaughters teachers (he was a guest that taught her  class how to do the rubrics cube) this year.  He remembered her and told me how helpful she was and she was so gracious when she lost the competition they had.  Made this grandma's heart melt!  The live saxophone music provided by the community of Cartersville.

Tony - finding a five star parking place next to the Quick Star gas station with nice neighbors.

Lisa - I achieved my best riding time on the last 15 miles.  I was motivated by the impending storm and barking dogs in in the distance.

Jeana - Eating blueberry pancakes in the cornfield a second time.  Leaving extra early and seeing all of the red tail lights snaking through the hills of rural Iowa.

Vicki-  riding her #### off to beat the storm

Jeff -getting to the town before the storm hit

Algona to Clear Lake (55 miles)

Today was one of our best days except for the 15-20 mph crosswind, it required a lot of energy just to hold onto your bike.  There were times when you felt your bike shift to the side with a guest of wind.  The towns we went through today really rolled out the red carpet, demonstrating the heart and soul of RAGBRAI and Iowan hospitality.
Some of our highlights for today we're.......

Lisa -visiting with the residents from the retirement center, seeing the hobo center, and changing the lyrics to random songs (with Beth) to fit with our cycling aches and pains and worshipping in song as we rode.

Jeff-Meeting and greeting real life Hobos in front of the Hobo Museum in Britt, the hobo hub of the world, and perusing portraits of distinguished hobos (past and present).

Tony- Finding a place to fill up the RV water tank, so that he didn't have to smell his five fragrant passengers.

Vicki and Jeana- Visiting with the retired residents and getting their pictures with the Mayberry characters (Otis and Aunt Bea) and the Mayberry police car.

Beth - getting a taste of my first RAGBRAI turkey leg and dining  with a three generation family in front of their house.  They shared their picnic table and shade with us.  When the three year old heard Jeff say he needed Gatorade she went in the house and returned with two bottles from their fridge.  Putting her hand print on Iowa.

As usual, it was a unique party in every town ranging in population from 400 to 10,000. From squirt guns shooting refreshing cold water, to humorous or encouraging signs along the way, RAGBRAI has been an encouraging adventure.

Jeff's only pose for photo

 Beth and her turkey leg

Beth leaving her handprint on Iowa

Hills, Headwinds, and Miles

Spencer to Algona (76 miles)

Today was a new adventure for us, full of lots of hills, challenging headwinds at times, and our Longest Ride of the week.  We met a lot of interesting people on our route today, we met people that were from close to home who knew our hometowns well and we met people from as far away as South Africa.   It's hard to put into words the magnitude of this event, we all got separated today along the Route. At times we were one of many in a sea of bikes. I was telling everyone that it reminded me of the scene from Finding Nemo where they were trying to catch the East Australian current which was the underwater Expressway.  If you get off the route for any reason it can be difficult to get back on, much communication is required when riding with this many cyclists.   You hear terms like "on your left", "Rider on", "rumbles", "on your right", "car up", or "car back" shouted periodically to inform people of things going on .  The amount of food served to us along the way goes on forever, things like biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, fruit, pickle juice, lime Aid, pork chops, ice cream, corn on the cob, and much much more is freely available to keep us going. At one point on my ride today a little girl was standing on a short platform holding Twizzlers out for Riders to grab out of her hand as we rode by. I grabbed some and it was the best tasting thing that I needed at that time, besides that it was the cutest thing too!  Another little boy was passing out water as we rode through a town. The people here are very welcoming, sitting at the roadside waving at us or serving food. The host towns we are staying in put on a big show including concerts and other various entertainments and did I forget to say lots of  food?   Today was a long ride, one that tested our training efforts.   Jeff rode the extra 30 miles to ride a century.   Oh.......there is lots and lots of delicious pie served along the route too!..... It's late and I need to sleep.... Until tomorrow.....  Beth

Spencer Arrival 7\24

We arrived in Spencer around 2:30 after riding 68 miles from Orange City.   Today's ride was a riders dream, flat roads, low heat, low humidity, low winds, no mechanical difficulties, and a few scraped knees.  We witnessed the friendly small Midwestern hospitality of the people of Iowa, they are so friendly and will do anything to help you.   Food, More Food, lots of food..... In other words they kept us full of carbs, anything you wanted was available along the route with a variety of beverages to wet your whistle.  Every town we passed through had their own theme, it was like a country fair event with all kinds of vendors, students earning money for something at school, one Community was collecting donations for a new swimming pool.  We went from one celebration to another as we passed through towns. Vicky approached one little girl who was selling lemonade and she had a huge bucket of money, Vicki asked her what she was going to do with the money and the girl said she was going to buy candy with it. LOL!  One vendor we had an opportunity to try was homemade ice cream,.! They had all the ice cream makers hooked up to "Johnny Popper" motors from antique tractors. They offered four different flavors of homemade ice cream for us to try so we decided we needed to visit them three more times so we could try every flavor.  Lots of photo opportunities of the massive amounts of riders on the road for this thing, it was an emotional experience at the beginning as we started down the route.   We encountered many people along the way, several from Illinois, and had lots of interesting conversations.  We witnessed the caring RAGBRAI community take place as some riders collided, others quickly blocked and redirected oncoming cyclists to avoid more of a mishap to those involved.   Tomorrow we will ride approximately 70 miles with an optional 30 mile loop so cyclists can ride a century (100 miles)