Friday Day 13 - Cedar Rapids to Maquoke - 68 miles

Today was a great day on RAGBRAI. It was supposed to be the shortest mileage day, but a few of us decided to ride extra miles, go off-route, and stay in a motel tonight.

We woke up in a beautiful apple orchard, probably the most beautiful overnight stay we've had in many a year on RAGBRAI. I got to ride out to Mt. Vernon with my buddy Danny Dunn, a beautiful and fun ride. In Mt. Vernon, Doc, Barbara, Kendra, Mike and I headed off-route on hwy 1 to Martelle, then to Morley, and to Olin and Wyoming and Monmouth, and finally up to Maquoketa (which means "there are bears").

The official RAGBRAI overnight town was Anamosa, where the national motorcycle museum is located. Bev and I spent a day there before I started riding the bicycle. They have a fantastic collection of motorcycles, over 350 of them.

We stayed in the fabulous Decker Hotel, built in 1875. We met Barbara's brother Bill and Susan in the hotel bar and ate a great dinner with everyone in the hotel restaurant. No roughing it tonight !!

Thursday Day 12 - Marshalltown to Cedar Rapids- 79 miles

Wow, what a day !

We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Marshalltown last night, and it stormed and rained 1 1/2 inches. It was sunny when we got up. The motel had a great breakfast and we hit the road about 8:30 am.

Since we were quite a bit south of town, we decided to try riding into Cedar Rapids on a different route.

More Later !!

Wednesday Day 11 - Webster City to Marshalltown - 82 miles

Today's ride was hot, hot, hot. It was so hot it was scary, you were wondering if you were going to make it alive.

Yesterday's century ride was tough and demanding, but I never felt afraid I might be overcome by the heat like I did today. They were saying it was 109 degrees !!

We also had some monstrous headwinds every time we headed south. It was a very tough day, and we didn't do much except drink 5 gallons of water and Gatorade and rest in the shade a lot. I only took 3 pictures today, one of an art bike in Roland, one of a high wheeler on a bile rack on the back of a team bus, and one of Kendra and Mike changing a tube on Kendra's bike after she had a flat in St. Anthonys.

Today we saw a guy in a Brooks jersey riding along on a big wheel bicycle. we also saw two young men riding along on skateboards !! It is amazing to watch all the crazy people on RAGBRAI.

The day had a nice ending. Mike and Kendra had worked hard to guess where RAGBRAI was headed this year, and reserved some hotel rooms in Marshalltown. So we're all staying in AC at the Comfort Inn while big storms are passing thru the area. The storms are great, since they will make the weather much cooler tomorrow.

Here's today's motto, seen on the side of a team bus: "It's not the heat, it's the Stupidity" !!