Sunday Day 8 - Sioux Center to Cherokee - 55 miles

Today, Sunday, is the first day of
RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. We were a little slow packing up today, but there is no hurry at RAGBRAI.

The first city we rode into was Orange City and it was a beautiful little Dutch community. People were dressed in period costume with wooden shoes. There were floats on the streets and we saw a big wooden shoe in the park. The streets were so clean you could eat off them.

I started the days ride with Doc, Barb, Mike and Kendra. We stopped at Farm Boys for breakfast and at Mr. Pork Chop & Kelly's Pies for lunch. These three are old time RAGBRAI traditions, set up on the side of the road in farmers yards. I split a big Pork Chop with Kendra and bd an delicious piece of Rhubarb Pie, all for my good buddie Rita Ann back in Tallahassee - HI RA !!!

We ran into Danny Dunn and the Brooks clan, Bob, Karen, Patrick and Sarah, along with TJ & Darcie with son, Randy, Kathy and many more Sprinters at a little bar in Granville or Marcus.

I rode the final leg in to Cherokee with Danny Dunn, stopping in one family's yard for free beer. I had a great spaghetti dinner at the Mason Shrine, near our camp.

Our camp today is beautiful, a lovely farm house way up on a hill. I took an outdoor shower by an RV, drank too many draught pale ales and had a good nights sleep, getting up at some point to zip up the tent fly when it started to rain.