We have treated ourselves to hotel rooms at the Hampton Inn tonight in real beds with real showers, A/C and running water... (Oink has taken 2 showers in 4 hours cuz she's so excited about showers that don't take place in a semi truck. Or maybe cuz she's that filthy.) So while we should go to sleep and enjoy our real beds, we'll post a quick update.
Thursday was mostly all business (there was even a moratorium on wiener jokes for the day) given the 82 miles... Until we had 12 miles left. Jello shots and other antics in the last town before waterloo were posted... Oink and OM also participated in a dunk booth that contained water that may give them diseases, but in the continued "lower your standard theme", it was decided 1. It was RAGBRAI; and 2. It wasn't any worse than the pond we all jumped in yesterday. Pictures of dunk tank to be posted once we get somewhere where ATT has stronger service.
Tonight we enjoyed an evening with a few visitors... First, Oink and Moo's cousin John joined us for a few post ride beers, dinner and tractor telling stories. (John helped prepared Waterloo's streets for the bicycle invasion - THANKS!!) It was great to see him! John actually won the daily Pickle Story contest with a story about 2 RAGBRAI riders from CA looking for a ride from Pizza Hut to their friends. But, alas, we could not physically GIVE John the yodelling pickle (altho in retrospect we could have under the condition he join us in Manchester tomorrow). In addition to winning the pickle contest, John assisted Queen Judy in Team CycLee SAG - he helped transport bags from the campsite to the hotel, and riders from the hotel to/from dinner. Given he was involved in pre-ride road prep and SAG support AND he won the pickle, he's basically a member of the team now.
Our second visitors were Kim and Addie Hugen from Iowa City! Such a surprise - received a text from Kim this morning that they were coming up. Oink and Moo met Addie and her family when she was 4 and they were students at UofI. Given we swore we were just in college a few years ago, imagine our surprise to find out she's 17 and going to be a senior!? What?? ;-) Addie and Kim also joined us at camp and dinner, and it was great to catch up as we haven't seen the Hugens in 7-8 years (although we are still not happy to hear Addie is considering attending Iowa State. What!! But we WERE happy to hear she wore an Iowa tshirt during her Ames campus visit...). We concluded we need to see them again before Addie is 25. Hopefully before she becomes a Cyclone. Sigh.
A few other notes:
1. Given John couldn't take the pickle for the day tomorrow, Firecracker was the runner up pickle winner with the story of giving Moo a smack down in the Jousting contest.
2. More than one of us has commented about how weird it is to see ourselves in mirrors given this week we've gone 2-3 days without doing so. (Kybos and cornfields and tents don't have them.)
3. Thanks to Bethel Lutheran in Parkersburg for brats, shade, water, ice, an outlet for UPS to charge his phone AND... Church Lady Pie.
4. Rumor has it Geezer is giving the live from the cornfields RAGBRAI update @ 830AM tomorrow on KDSN. Listen in!
5. Funniest road side "offer" to-date from a lady old enough to be our mother: "Free showers for bikers... Back scrub included!" (Certainly not your typical lemonade or cookie stand)
5. We had other notes but we're tired and its late and we have real beds... Hoping for no rain tomorrow despite the 70% chance.
G'night,
Those 2 Farm Animals
