It was a late night in Glenwood - fireworks, drunk people, sleeping next to the porta-potties, and being anxious about the day ahead (and probably sleeping on the ground) did not lead to restful sleep. Not to mention I was sleeping near the baggage trucks (you give RAGBRAI your luggage every morning and they truck it to the next stop), which start setting up at 4:45, which also is when some weirdos get up and get ready for the day. I got one good hour of sleep from 5-6.
On the bus from Muscatine to Glenwood, I met a lady named Angie, who is also a RAGBRAI virgin (that's the term around here) so we decided to hang out and set up camp near each other. She has a few friends doing RAGBRAI too, and we met a few of them at the expo in downtown Glenwood.
I got on the road about 7:30, and they started the route right up a nasty hill, because, of course. We stopped in the small towns of Malvern, Randolph (really just a church on a hill), and Tabor on the way. It was very hot, but got cloudy for the remaining part of the day, which helped a lot. I felt strong throughout the day, which honestly surprised me. I did stop a lot on hills, and occasionally walk up them, but that's par for the course for me.
It was a pretty good day of riding. I picked up my luggage, set up my tent, went downtown to the expo with Angie and her friend Beth, who is also super nice, and we had food truck dinner and ice cream. They headed back, while I plugged my phone into the side of city hall to charge. Phone power and cell service are valuable commodities out here!
Then it was back to the campground (fortunately RAGBRAI has free shuttles at the overnight towns, so we didn't have to ride) to head to bed. I took a shower in a shower truck. It had rained and thunderstormed earlier in the evening, so it was a damp night. But I slept much better after being completely exhausted. And I survived, which is important.
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