A tin cup or a gilded goblet, a hut or a castle, wobbly bicycles or a Bentley -- to wherever and by whatever means, my love, our journey is splendid,
our cup is full.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

RAGBRAI -- day 1

Just a quick post to update our readers on our 2008 RAGBRAI -- Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  We drove to Missouri Valley, IA on Saturday in preparation for leaving from there this AM.  Things got a bit stormy last night, but no rain - didn't even have to turn the AC on last night as there was a bit of a breeze.  Today's ride to Harlan, IA was 59 miles and 3797 feet of elevation gain.  We left about 7AM and were safely at the end point by 2:00 with bunches of stops along the way.  We had our first Iowa pork chop from Mr. Porkchop's stand, and other traditional goodies as we slogged our way along.  The temps were in the 80's and very high humidity, so we sweated quite a bit.  Jack got in first, Greg second and Mandy and Judy came in about a half hour later.  Mark and Sue had the motorhome parked and the beer cold by the time we got there so all is right with the world.
Tomorrow's route will test us all -- its 83 miles and 5239 feet of elevation gain on the way to Jefferson, IA.  Hopefully the weather won't be too hot, but the humidity will probably still remain high, so we'll have to stay hydrated.  Mark may post some pix on his blog for those of you who want to see more (www.didelottravels.typepad.com) and the Des Moines Register and RAGBRAI websites should have some good coverage also (www.ragbrai.org).
Hopefully more info tomorrow, assuming we survive.  We'll post our pictures as we can.

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