Day 5
Charles City to Waterloo, Iowa
Miles: 84.6
Max Speed: Unknown
Average Speed: 12.6
(1) Above left: Heading down the wide open roads of Iowa. Iowa is noted for being pretty windy and with no trees, you can see why. (2) Above right: A wide variety of unique bicycles can be seen every day, such as this ElliptiGo bicycle with NO seat. There were plenty of recumbents and trikes.
(3) Above left: It was just not far from where I took that ElliptiGo photo where the bane of cyclists occurred to me. The back tire of my mountain bike had been wobbling most of the trip and today the tire blew out. No fixing this flat. After some discussion, my brother and cousin continued on to the next town. I waited about about 45 minutes for a sag vehicle which picked me and the bike up and carried us to the next town. There, my brother was holding a spot in the repair shop line for me. About the time I found them, it was my turn. I had the repair shop replace both tires and wow, that bicycle rode smoothly after that. I was really surprised how quickly the whole process took. RAGBRAI is well organized. (4) Above right: People will park their bicycles anywhere in a town. Actually, I think this was a sculpture.
(5) Above left: Today, the three of us went off the RAGBRAI route and rode into Waterloo to meet a cousin and visit a town our grandparents grew up in. Today was our first exposure to real car traffic since beginning this trip and the roads had a wide paved shoulder making travel safer. (6) Above right: In downtown Waterloo there were quite a few others who rode off route. It was nice to be away from the crowd of bicycles.
(7) Above left: Cousin Judy, cousin Dave and my brother rode around the bicycle trails in Waterloo for a while. We hadn't all been together in about about 40 years. (8) Above right: We eventually parted with Judy and headed south to get back to the campgrounds. Waterloo has some nice bike paths.
(9) Above left: Shot this as we were coasting down a hill. (10) Above right: Back on the RAGBRAI route, when getting to the overnight host town, signs like this directed people to the various service provider camp sites.
(11) Above left: Our group was camped out on some farm property and as usual in the evening, we were enjoying live music while replenishing spent calories. (12) Above right: I was living like a pig, high on the hog so to speak, while participating in the largest organized bicycle ride in America. Since this year's RAGBRAI was rated to be the third flattest ride in the 38 years it has been running, there was an above average number of riders this year with estimates over 20,000 riders.
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