Today was the first stage of the ride across Iowa and it was a very hilly 52 miles of great riding.
About every 2 miles there were places to eat or drink all sorts of stuff. My favorite food was big slabs of ice cold watermelon for $1.00--this is food of the gods, especially during a long bike ride. As I told one of the kids selling watermelon "you are not only selling watermelon, you are saving lives".
This was the first official stop of the day in Mineola and I was shocked at how wild everyone was getting at 10 in the morning. There was some serious dancing going on.
Bikes and people everywhere in Mineola and I found out later folks were just getting warmed up. I think that this is the bicycle equivalent of the motorcycle deal in Sturgis Dakota (not sure if N or S). This is much milder than Sturgis but from what I can see it will get lively.
There are 1000 different "teams" of riders doing this Ragbrai and some have interesting names and costumes. I was thinking that Team Tigereye was pretty sexy until.........
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Well the first stage is over and from what I understand all 10,000 riders and 2000 support vehicles made it ok. This is almost 15000 people moving across Iowa like a herd of locusts, pretty devouring all in its path.
Personally I am adapting very well to being around this group of people. There is a constant stream of lively conversation as we ride along. Riding alone is not the only way to peddle across country.
Today was hilly and many were bitching but I was cool and surprised myself that I was not like a blog clot in the road of faster riders. Actually , not to brag too much, but this old fluffy brick of a bike rider (Sassy term) did a little kicking ass and taking names . I was actually passing people on the hills and smoking them on the down hills. If I were to rate myself right now I would put myself in the top 80000 riders and Missy Sassy in the top 100 drivers. Cannot wait til tomorrows 80 mile ride to see if today was a fluke or not
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