Today was much better than yesterday. It had fewer of those never ending climbs, but still the same heat and humidity. There were only 4 towns on the route, and about two turns total, and I think the fewer number of towns there are to suck me in, the better. I move faster without distraction.
Diagonal was a cute little town with an adorable printing press museum. I took a short tour before the town spit me out right into a huge climb. But at the top, there was a deer farm where you could feed the deer. I didn't stop to feed them, but I did stop to watch the one donkey in the pen chase the deer around.
More hills, even if they weren't as bad. I finally stopped and had some of the Beekmans homemade ice cream, made by steam engines that you can hear from half a mile away, that is a RAGBRAI staple. Delicious peach amazingness. Then I had an Amish-made pickle stuffed with cream cheese and bacon. Also amazing. Pickles are a big deal because they are supposed to keep your legs from cramping.
I honestly don't remember if anything else exciting happened, other than getting cell service briefly outside a town before the end town.
Thankfully Beth keeps saving me prime tent sites when she arrives hours ahead of me at these places. I set up my tent on the high school baseball outfield, then headed into the school to shower. Showers on RAGBRAI are an experience. This one was in a girls locker room, with only 5 working stalls. I waited in line for an hour to get clean. Then I wanted to get the lasagna dinner they were serving at the high school, but left the cash at my tent, and they were nearly out of dinner. Luckily, by the time I got back with cash, they had two servings left, which I promptly devoured. I had eaten first dinner of string cheese, hummus with pretzels, and a whatchamacallit at the Hy-Vee coming into town. I have forgotten how much you can eat while bicycle touring! But I devoured this dinner too. After charging my phone in the various hallways of the school, and using their wifi, it was 9:30 and I was exhausted. It was an easy sleep in the tent that night.
One more thing about RAGBRAI that is amazing - people leave their electronics charging everywhere and just walk away. Electricity is at a premium on this trip, and everyone trusts everyone else as a community not to take what isn't theirs. Same with bikes - no locks, no matter how long or far away you'll go. It's a unique community of people, but I like that part of it!
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