Eldora to Cedar Falls via Parkersburg

Let’s pick-up where I left you last night. HRH rode all 70 miles, actually almost 70.5 miles. This is her personal best. We found a Hy-Vee, very helpful to the riders, who let us wait in the parking lot. She said that was a lot easier than telling her to drive east on Water Street and south on Center Street. What can I say? At a certain point, if you are still asking me for directions, it is your own fault.

 

 

Regardless, sitting in the Hy-Vee parking lot provided us a primo people watching spot. You would be amazed at what people can ride or put on their helmets. I still think the tutus would be hard to ride in. HRH said she saw more than one kilt. Of course, one was on a woman, and I think that makes it a little more kinky than breezy.

I made it

70.44 miles in one day

Getting out of town was an adventure. You see, we left Jillian muted but routed to Fort Dodge during the entire route. As punishment, she refused to take us directly to Marshalltown.  At one point, we were driving headlong into the riders. Not only is a serious faux pas, but they are even pissier than Jillian. We did eventually find the hotel.

They recommended we bring the bike into the room. This is never a good sign. Fortunately, the room was plenty large enough for the bike and the three of us. All HRH wanted was a shower and some lotion for the incredible sunburn she earned on the first day. Actually, speaking of kinky, if you burn while wearing bike shorts, they kind of look like thigh high stockings. I think if we cut a silhouette in tomorrow’s shorts, we could make it look like garters.

Any way, we had to find food. We settled on Perkins. Serious mistake, the service vacuumed the great verdant single element. The food was ok, but mine was the only one served hot. You can see my Yelp for more details, but we will be looking for some place different tonight.

We got back to the room, which faced onto the pool. Even with the kids playing and peeking in our window, HRH was deep breathing by 9:00. CaDiva and I tried to share a queen bed. Tonight, I’ll try the fold out couch. It isn’t that I’m not fond of my bride, but when the alarm clock went off at midnight, it was on the wrong side of my bed. As a result, I tried repeatedly to snooze CaDiva. This was not effective. Neither was trying to snooze my cell phone when I roused sufficiently to remember I was sleeping on the not-watch side of the bed.

Finally, we were back to sleep but 5:30 came very early. A little earlier than we planned, when CaDiva woke me up at 5:15 to tell her it was only 5:15. HRH pointed out there was a large clock on the night side table that would have told us each the time and with a little less difficulty than finding my phone and my glasses in the dark. Nevertheless, she had been up since 5:00.

We opted for the hotel complimentary breakfast. We’ll go back to BK tomorrow. In our hunt for Starbucks, we found one, so tomorrow should run a little faster.  Why hunt for Starbucks? Jillian was still pouting BIG TIME from yesterday and would only tell me about the Starbucks in Newton 22 miles away. Then she drove us all through Marshalltown before aiming us back towards Eldora.  She also told us it would take us an hour and 17 minutes to drive 32 miles.

And they went on and on and on

We got HRH dropped off just a block from her people only an hour and a half after our 7:00 AM goal.  CaDiva and I waited until the support vehicles thinned to a mad rush before we tried to merge. We were in Guthrie Center before we found the first Casey’s.  Of course, everyone else found the same Casey’s. It wasn’t the only one in town, but it was the first, and they were having a GOOD day financially.

Everyone had the same idea

No Fecal Matter, Mr. Holmes

We found Parkersburg easily enough but they put us way off the downtown center of activity. We should probably try to get closer, but they are still rebuilding after a devastating tornado about 5 years ago. So we decided to be good guests and sit in the shadeless Methodist church parking lot, surrounded by locked bathroom facilities.

It is on the way out of town for the riders. So we texted HRH instructions to stop at the first kybo on the way into town and find us for lunch. CaDiva and I are working on not sneezing or laughing hard until after lunch. This is not easy given the need for open windows despite pollen and CaDiva making up RAGBRAI mottos. The eco-friendly Sturgis is my favorite so far. If HRH finds food before us, I hope she brings us some pie and pork chops. If not, we’ll feed and hydrate her as good ground crew does.

She texted us about a cute shirt she spotted and something about Thursday anklet. The shirt said, “Does this bicycle make my butt look fast?” We are going to ask her about the anklet after hydration.  More later.

I brought pie.

She brought Church Lady Pie! One slice each of Apple, Strawberry Rhubarb, and Cherry. HRH tried them all but stayed with the Cherry. I tried the cherry and it made my head pucker. CaDiva is a fan of strawberry rhubarb, but that made more than HRH’s head pucker.

We sat in the parking lot through a lovely lunch of chicken and rotini pasta with spinach (CaDiva forgot the Parmesan but it was still superb.) The chilled salad was so filling we passed on the fruit and dived into pie. HRH was all set to start out again when we realized we didn’t have the engine running so her phone wasn’t charging.

Lessons learned:

·         Hang up gloves over night to dry out

·         Turn on engine when HRH arrives

·         Use time waiting for HRH, while MiDiva blogs, to clean out purse and other helpful chores

·         Pee before finding a place to park and wait for HRH

·         The sun screen (both the stuff we slathered on HRH and the silver one in the windshield) were a good idea

·         Remind HRH to bring her Gatorade

Oh, anklet Thursday was actually through Ackley, IA. And that made a little more sense. But, it is RAGBRAI, so anklet Thursday was not that far-fetched.  It also turned out we were sitting across from Ed Thomas Field. He coached football in Parkersburg, Ia. He was killed by one of his former students in 2009.

We are sitting in Cedar Falls now, at the intersection of bikes and support vehicles, watching for HRH. She had to do a phone retrieval, no damage, which she will explain later. We are still trying to understand what a marine in dress blues was doing walking down 27^th towards the bicyclists, but sometimes you just have to enjoy the view and not ask questions.

Unfortunately, I was distracted and didn’t catch the tandem recumbent bike with both riders wearing the cowboy hat helmets. Might come by later, we’ll see.

Called mom twice so far, and she reminded us that she parked in Cedar Falls with my father, the Dastard, when he was digging a well in Waterloo. She still tells the tale of when she walked out of the little trailer they lived in, seriously pregnant with me and carrying my only slightly older brother, when a tornado strolled the road right in front of them. Fortunately, they only had full-service gas stations then (that was probably why they called them service stations) and the attendant slide a chair up under her before she fell down.

I don’t like posting pictures of children, especially ones I don’t know, but I will tell you there are enough of them on RAGBRAI for CaDiva to nickname them, Ragbrailettes.