Chasing Down Friends Old And New

We're just back from a 4-day trip, looping through 4 states to visit friends and family.  After our friend Michael left on Tuesday, we hit the road towards Minneapolis, the shortest route taking us through stretches of Wisconsin we've never seen.  Melinda had never been to Minnesota, so that section was all new to her, and we returned through Iowa via Cedar Rapids to greet our RAGBRAI buddies as they hit the road for the cross-state bike ride.  And Saturday morning we met family for lunch on the way back to "Ketelsen East".   It was a busy but fun couple of days to catch up with everyone.

The first leg of the trip got us to Minneapolis where one of my oldest friends (let's say longest, not oldest) Beth and her husband Phillip live.  We met nearly 40 years ago, and have drifted in and out of each others lives, but we try to stay connected.  They had a horrific car accident 12 years ago while on a camping trip where she suffered a spinal injury.  She requires massive amounts of care and continued therapy, and works hard to maintain her abilities and stay on top of her health.  Phillip does an amazing job of support and fills in caregiver gaps and juggles the schedules of at least three of them...  New on the scene is her new service dog Mika, a beautiful golden retriever.  They've only had her a few months, but it was amazing to see the two of them working together.  One of her stunning skills was opening and closing the sliding glass door to the back yard for Beth's wheelchair using a looped rope.  Mika also understands a large vocabulary for fetching various items and following orders.  We spent a couple days with them in their beautiful home and yard and got out a couple times to see some of the local highlights.

Friday we headed south for east-central Iowa for Toddville, home of the Toads, a bike group I've ridden with for a couple decades.  As we approached the little town, we passed the house of John Hill - I was hoping we might catch him in the yard and we did!  We pulled into the driveway as he crossed between his barn and house in his wheelchair.  Another astounding medical story, John was an active biker on our cross-state rides, when he had a massive stroke about 6 years ago.  He was given up for dead until he "woke up" 2 days later.  He has trouble speaking and gets around in a motorized wheelchair, but his spirit is unabated and he was overjoyed to see me and meet Melinda.  He was extremely proud to show off his new restored '85 pickup he had just bought.  Last year he regained his driver's license, and is awaiting modifications on the new wheels.  He is shown here with wife Nancy and his new-to-him truck.

This is the first time in recent years I've not been driving support for our RAGBRAI group.  For those of you for which that is a new term, it stands for the Des Moines Register Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  This is the 42nd edition of the week-long bike ride (NOT a race!) across the state.  I did the ride 8 or 9 times before my medical issues 10 years ago, and have driven support about the last 6 or so.  It is an amazing week, a real showcase for the hospitality and friendliness of the State.  Our little group, about 12 riders in total, arrange to camp in people's yards in the overnight towns, use their bathrooms and showers before the next day's ride.  This is repeated for 7 days as they take a new route every year, covering from 430 to 530 miles to traverse the state.  This year's is a shorter version near 430 miles.  I came by for the traditional bus loading to meet up with team mates.  Shown here is Maggie and Dean, who helped arrange the overnight hosts most every year.  At right is Carl at center with Donna at left and Chris at right.  You'll have to supply your own caption for the photo, there has to be a good one out there...

Also joining the Toads this year is Bryan and Carol from Tucson!  Bryan is an optical type like me, working in the shop in the basement at the Optical Sciences Center a couple blocks from the Mirror Lab.  He is a very active cyclist and bike builder, and first joined us on RAGBRAI 2 years ago, and couldn't stand missing it last year, so they are back, shown at left.  Their tandem, a Hase from Germany has a recumbent position for Carol up front, and a normal upright position for Bryan.  Also seen in the background is the 12 passenger bus that Carl got for free (a good story), that provides travel to the start and support for the week.  Finally at right is a "Melinda Sandwich" between Carl and his son "little Billy".  Billy rode with the support van about 20 years ago when he was to small to cycle, about 5 or 6 years old.  A year or two later he started biking with us, Carl providing a hand to help push him up hills.  Eventually he had to work thru the summer to make money for college, so stopped joining us.  He was a football player through college and is now a elementary school teacher in Missouri.  Little Billy is getting married this December down in Phoenix during his school break, so he is now officially all grown up.

After an hour or more of catching up with buddies, we took off for Iowa City to spend the evening, departing for parts east the next morning, stopping in Davenport at The Machine Shed for some "down home" cooking with a pair of sisters.  Well, it turns out that 8 showed up, including a brother, nephew, 2 nieces, and 2 great-nieces!  Shown here are the great nieces Mya and Alivia (left-to-right)with their Great-Uncle Dean and Great-Aunt Melinda.  We'll see everyone a few more times this trip - it is Alivia's 8th birthday this week, which we'll help celebrate Thursday.  We finally got home midafternoon Saturday, almost exactly 4 days after we left, tired, but glad we connected with everyone we reached out to...

Highlights Of Our Summer Vacation!

Our Summer break at "Ketelsen East" in the western 'burbs of Chicago is winding down, but we've covered a lot of ground in just a couple weeks.  Time to review a few of the highlights, each perhaps not enough to fill out a post on their own...

Of course, the primary reason we come back is because we both have family here.  So we've spent time with both of Melinda's sisters, and seen most of my relatives in Iowa as well - a couple times!  Min and sister Maj travelled down to Saint Louis upon her arrival to visit an elderly aunt while I was still off on RAGBRAI and had a good time reliving the past with them.  The day she returned from that trip, I got back from the bike ride and we returned to Iowa the next day for great niece Alivia's 7th birthday party!  She is a ball of fire, and along with her cousin Mya (also a great niece - that we've not seen in what, over a year) made you tired just watching them!  If we could only harness their energy...  We figured the cool temps would keep everyone out of the pool (high about 70F), but the 2 girls alternated between pool and hot tub at brother Jim's house, all while keeping everyone entertained.  A week later, we returned to visit some friends, and join (Dean's sister) Linda and Lauren for their 35th anniversary (Alivia and Mya's grandparents).  We ate at a local pizza joint and got to hang out with the great nieces again (at right).

We did a lot of local activities!  I think we cooked at home only once, and that was while Melinda was out with her girlfriends and I was home alone to grill...  We ate out with friends pretty much every night.  I got in a pair of banjo lessons, and do well enough that Melinda can recognize the tunes.  We're going to try to get it to Arizona so I can continue to practice.  We saw the movie "The Way Way Back", which was very good...  I went to the "Flea Market", a first-weekend-of-the-month garage sale that fills up the Kane County Fairgrounds with what must be the largest garage sale around.  That is where I found the 'ole camera I first got as a teenager last Fall.  This year, while tempted by a collection of science books from the 1890s, I only spent money to enlarge my collection of astronomy-themed 3D stereo view cards that a woman had.  She specialized in vintage postcards, but had a few thousand of the Keystone View Company cards.  Otherwise, if one was in the market, you could find everything from an Indian totem pole, to unknown rusty farm tools to TV Guide magazine from the 1980s - pretty much anything and everything!

And speaking of friends, we met Mary and Dave, organic farmers west of town here...  She was recently given a telescope that her sister was throwing out from their Wyoming ranch.  Mary didn't know if it was functional, but it also had a thick layer of dirt and dust on it.  We retired to their place after dinner and it was a decade-old Meade telescope of fine quality, though only 3.5" in diameter.  I wiped the dirt off as best I could and was able to show them Saturn - this while set up on the hood of our car since it lacks a tripod.  She was certainly impressed by the view and promises to keep it going after I found her the manual on-line.

And speaking of friends, we spent time with Carolyn a few times - she even joined us in Iowa for Alivia's birthday.  I came home from the Flea market to find her and Melinda down at our micro-beach on the Fox River with her grandson Colin.  They wouldn't let him into the water, but he had fun running and jumping on what little sand there is.

In the 3 weeks I've been here, it is interesting to watch the progression of flowers, both native and cultivated, as they come and go.  When I arrived in mid-July, the plot next to the house was all about the tiger lilies, now there is no trace of them, but the phlox are now filling it with white and lavender.  The sunflower at right is from the back yard of Sharon, a friend over in Davenport, Iowa.  It was backlit and striking, so captured it with the macro...

And while I enjoy stalking the various bugs and insects of the region, you already saw the highlights, but have a couple more to show you.  I spotted a common whitetail dragonfly in a prairie walk at our nearby forest preserve.  Easy to spot, but harder to stalk and sneak up on!  And at right is a katydid spotted in the little jungle adjacent to our house...

And of course, RAGBRAI is always a highlight.  While I've made some posts about it already, indulge me for a few more pictures!  First up is from our camp in a backyard in Harlan Iowa.  After a warm trip across the state, and a hot first day's ride, a rainbow over riders Sue Ellen and Terry portend nicer weather for the rest of the week.  This frame is actually a "High Dynamic Range" (HDR) image assembled from 3 exposures with slightly different exposures to maintain detail in shadows as well as highlights.  We actually had just about the coldest weather we've seen on the ride in my 20 years, hitting 50F for a low on Friday night!

As driver, I don't get on the route very often, but while picking up riders in Pella, I spent some time hanging out in the Dutch capital of the state!  They are quite proud of their heritage, and have the largest operating windmill in the country (135 feet tall) that is actually used for grinding grain.  On this breezy day it was putting on quite a show.  This vertical panorama was able to get it all in with all the bikers in the foreground.  The museum and store in the adjoining building was pretty neat too.  You could even buy your own wooden shoes, including some pretty ornate ones for special occasions!  On my way out I ran into a couple local residents dressed up in traditional garb.  The one on the right admitted she was actually of German descent, but for a crowd of this size, all the locals were Dutch!

Well, those were the highlights of our Summer trip.  What was perhaps the most amazing is that after last Summer's drought and hot temperatures, other than my first few warm days in the mid-nineties, it has rarely gotten over 80F the last couple weeks.  It has been great, though a little on the rainy side.  Given the choice, I'll take rain and cool!  Until next time...

New McDonald's Menu Item - A Blog Post!

As I said in my last RAGBRAI post, after the bikers take off in the morning, I like to linger over breakfast and read the paper.  In Omaha, where the bike ride originated this year, after doing my cooler and snack shopping, I stopped at the McDonald's at 40th and Dodge.  Breakfast was uneventful, but as I was gazing out the window, I saw a blog post!

Even regular readers of this blog likely don't realize it, but at the bottom of the page, there is a link to "FEEDJIT", which tells us who is reading the blog and what they are looking at.  Of course, there are limitations, it identifies not actual readers, but lists the city where their ISP is located, and how they got to the blog.  Interestingly, one of the most popular posts I've ever written is the one on Moiré patterns!  For some reason, the patterns created, usually from a pair of overlapping screens, stands out and yells to me!  In this case, from inside McDonald's, it was caused by the overlapped screen patterns of window advertising!  The view from the outside is innocent enough - shown at left.

But the view from the inside, to someone who (at least sometimes) notices the little things, was very different!  Shown at left is above's left window from the inside.  The Moiré pattern I noticed is in the overlap areas - note that the overlap pattern at right is different from the overlap at left.  Click the image to see a larger version.  What causes it?  Well, the advertisement is not a solid graphic - it has little holes in it...  I know that Tucson has requirements for convenience stores to unblock windows so that the inside can be seen from the outside at night - a theft deterrent.  By putting the little holes in the graphics, they become at least partially transparent to see inside at night, and like these pictures show, you can see outside during the day.

The key for the present experiment is that when the holes are put into the graphic, or if they exist in the substrate before processing, they come out with different hole spacing!  As a result, when they are overlaid on each other a Moiré pattern results.  In fact, when you click and load the left image you may get a checkerboard pattern on your screen as the hole pattern interferes with the pixels on your viewing monitor. The picture at right and near left show the overlapped areas with more resolution so that you can spot both the hole pattern in the graphic and the resultant Moiré pattern.  While the pattern on each of the graphics looks identical, if you look at the full-size version and put a ruler up to the screen you can see that the patterns have slightly different spacings.  Because the Moiré patterns are different, we know that all three of these graphic screens are slightly different in size or frequency.  Even though the 2 outside graphics don't overlap, we can tell that if they did it would result in a different Moiré pattern!

Going back to the very top picture of the
advertisement from the outside, the right hand part of the graphic has a totally different look from the inside.  The main reason is that the graphics have no, or almost no overlap.  However, there is a window sun screen that is used to block part of the incoming light.  The screen, as shown at left, has a regular pattern that hangs down over the graphics.  The resultant set of Moire patterns between graphics and sunscreen is shown at right.  It is quite intricate and again, is different over different graphics showing that the hole spacing differs slightly.  At least to me it is very eye catching, though most people would likely not see the patterns, let alone realize what causes it or knows its name!  I would file it under "frequently seen but rarely observed" - my moniker for details from everyday life that few ever notice.

And while not listed on the menu at McDonald's, I got a big kick out of it.  And after seeing this my first day of the ride, I went looking at other outlets for similar effects, but never saw it again.  Keep your eyes out!

Off RAGBRAI's Beaten Path...

While the RAGBRAI bike riders are off peddling across the state, I usually have a little time on my hands.  I often try to linger over breakfast and read a newspaper, though I've never been able to find my normal New York Times outside of Iowa City.  Of course, there is the occasional stop at the midpoint town to pick up or drop off bikers, and there is the daily shopping for snacks, keeping the cooler stocked with drinks, and the approximate 30 pounds of ice per day needed to chill same.

And then, there is the occasional roadside attraction that catches my eye.  I'm trying to be better at hanging out more, but often it seems the route assigned for support (which we are advised to follow to avoid interfering with bike traffic) is often pretty dull.

And then on Wednesday morning, coming out of Knoxville, as I was crossing the mile-long bridge spanning Red Rock Lake (which the bikers came in on the night before), I spotted an unusual structure.  Shown at left, it is an observation lookout at Cordova Park, which was fortunately on the support route!  Pulling up, for a mere pair of quarters, you could climb the 169 steps to get a bird's eye view of the surrounding territory.  Finished in the late '90s, in a former life it served as the water tower supplying the park (built in 1972), but when it transitioned to a pipeline it was re-purposed into an observation station, as well as a night-time navigation light to lake traffic.  If you click on the image at left, you can spot a student and teacher about halfway up the stairs.

It was a magnificent view!  A display claims you can see the Iowa State capital building, as well as nearly a half dozen nearby towns.  In the early morning view I had, the view of the reservoir was about as good as it can get in the Midwest, and the view to the west shows the above-mentioned mile-long bridge across it.  Shown at left is a 10-frame panorama, unfortunately limited to the 1600 pixel limit of the blog...  Even the vertical panorama of the tower's shadow at right is interesting with the spiral stairs.  Other trivia facts - the observation level is 106 feet off the ground, and it is recognized as having the tallest and longest fiberglass stairway in the world!

And while the structure and view were great, I'm easily entertained, and a patch of prairie nearby also called out to me.  I'm a big fan of milkweed and the creatures they attract, so immediately went to some nice plants with the macro lens.  I was in luck - a couple milkweed beetles were posing for me!  Seemingly a little more rare than the milkweed bugs that dominate near our home in Illinois, the beetles are some of the few creatures that can feed on the toxic sap of the milkweed.  Both milkweed bugs and beetles are aposematic (brightly colored) to advertise to predators that they have absorbed toxins and are poisonous.  Both of these views are of the same fellow who was checking me out from the safety the leaf afforded.  Taken with the 100mm F/2.8 Canon macro, I tried to balance the on-camera flash with available light to get a reasonable exposure.  Both genus and species name (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) comes from the latin for "four-eyes".  These shots show how the antennae nearly bisect the eyes on each side.

While the above beetle was mostly hidden, another on a nearby leaf reveals the red body and black spots they sport, as well as the microscopic hairs I've missed before...  When I finished taking 30 pictures to get the above 3 shots, a bit of motion caught my eye on a nearby plant - a Harvestman!  This fellow didn't want to pose and I was only able to get a shot or three, this one being the best.  Harvestmen are arachnids with their 8 legs, but are not spiders since they lack the multiple-segmented bodies. 

Anyway, I enjoyed a nice diversion from filling the cooler and driving the bus.  I ought to aim to do it daily!

RAGBRAI Fun!

The Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is a peculiar event.  The one just concluded was the 41st edition - it was started by a couple of reporters for the Des Moines Register who set out to bike across the State and invited readers to join in.  They expected perhaps a few to show up, but hundreds came along on that first 6-day ride.  The next year they held what they thought would be the last one just to accommodate the riders that missed the first, and a couple thousand came along.  So an institution was born!  Every route is different, the overnight towns change from year to year, and the weather and route conspire to make each ride a killer or rolling party.  This year, rolling into Des Moines, actual counts of bikers tallied 35,000 riding at least part of that Tuesday!  Normally they try to cap participation to about 8,000, but since it is held on public roads, you can't keep out anyone who wants to join in.  At 410 miles, this edition was the second shortest, and most agree that the cool weather for most of the week made this one the easiest by far.

While traditions endure, like the dipping of the tires in the Missouri and Mississippi, the towns go to great length to ensure there are entertaining things to do both in the pass-through towns during the day as well as the overnight towns.  I remember an unknown town from decades ago where they ran "toilet races" - porcelain toilets on wheeled carts with each participant using plungers to push themselves along the route.  Or in Dutch-steeped Pella, contestants wearing wooden shoes used yokes and buckets to transfer water between tanks.  Never mind that most of the water ended being hurled at your "competitor", the fun was in participating. 

Sometimes, you bring your own fun...  In Knoxville, we weren't able to find a private yard to camp in, and we got assigned to the bowling alley.  It is always nice to have access to bathrooms and showers, and in this case, we camped on the small lawn next to the road and use of the facilities there.  In Knoxville, Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Dean got joined by their grandkids Becca and Linus for part of a day's ride.  And of course, a highlight for them was camping out with Grandma and Grandpa.  Curt brought along the perfect accompaniment for such a nice evening - a "balloon glow" as he called it, otherwise perhaps known as a Chinese lantern.  It is a little hot air balloon that used a small flame to heat the interior, floating off a half mile or more in the few minutes it burns.  BTW, if you know officially what these are called, I'd love to know to get some - Curt says they are available at Menards, but not here in the Chicago area!

In short, you light the wax-soaked piece at the bottom of what
looks like a clear trash bag.  Here Curt is assisted by Romy's daughter Allie.  As the interior fills with warm air, it gets lighter until it floats off.  The flame burns for about 5 minutes and in that time, I estimate it rose between 500 and 1,000 feet and went about a half mile down range.  Supposedly it is all made of biodegradable materials, so after a few rain storms there will be little left, so you can't be accused of littering.  It was fun to watch the little ones at their amazement as it floated off - and the adults were impressed too!  After describing it to Melinda and showing her the pictures, she wants some too!

While my friends Lee and Michelle had grown up in Iowa, they had never been on RAGBRAI.  This time, though they now live in Tucson, they combined a trip to visit family and their 30th HS reunion to include a couple days on the ride.  They joined us in Knoxville, and of course, when you are camping in front of a bowling alley, you need to go bowling!  I think they were the only ones from our group to take part in "cosmic bowling", complete with black lights, lasers and disco balls.  I might have joined them, but the outdoor balloon glow distracted me...  As first time riders - of course they had to take part in the tradition of labeling their calves with "VIRGIN" to identify themselves as newbies to the ride.  They took the labels in stride, though they were still visible as they headed off to their reunion 2 days later.  No word yet on reaction from their old classmates or their son who was staying at an aunt's...

The grandkids, Becca and Linus had fun spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.  In the morning they got put to work breaking camp.  Becca is just too adorable for words as she got the job of folding up the fiberglass  poles.

After camp is broken, there was time for a quick group portrait
(CW from upper left is Dean Maggie Becca and Linus), then the kids lined up for sunscreen coverage...

Then it was time to ride!  Of course, the adults were looking for traffic, but a few faced the camera.  Becca and Linus were on their tag-alongs, helping the grownups a little with the biking...  Also shown from our group is Romy, nearest the camera, with Allie next to her.  Our fearless leader Carl, recovering from 2 new hip implants, brings up the rear.  You can see our start at 7:53 this morning.  Pretty late by our normal standards...  I remember taking off at 6:30 back in the day, but this year we slept in and had a much more laid-back week than in the past.

Maggie commented once during the week to me that perhaps I'll be rewarded in a future life - trying to tell me that she appreciates the work I do in support of the group.  Well, my response is that getting to spend time with my friends on RAGBRAI is my reward.  I can't think of people I'd rather be with for a week every July with their friendship and generosity of spirit.  I'm only hoping to continue into the future!

RAGBRAI 2013 - A Week Of Contrasts!

The Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) just finished its 41st trip across the state of Iowa.  I've been driving support for a group from Toddville the last few years after biking the event for 9 times.  It was a good ride, none of our group crashed or missed any of the ride, other than the bus.  The poor Ford bus developed a leaky fuel line to one of the injectors, and while affecting fuel mileage, making a puddle of diesel wherever we parked, and emitting combustible vapors for a few minutes after parking as it sprayed on the exhaust manifold, it continued to roll till we could find parts.  It was much happier after the repair in Des Moines.

So the ride started in a rerun of the heat and drought of the last couple years in Council Bluffs and Omaha.  For a couple days it was miserable with highs in the humid mid 90s and heat index in the low hundreds.  But the rains struck Monday night, soaking campers and riders, but not spirits in Perry...  It was a sign of things to come with moderating temperatures during the week, in fact, on the last day into Fort Madison in far southeastern Iowa, the high was only 66F with zippy tailwinds.  No complaints as riders finished and loaded for the trip home.  In the picture above, riders queue up patiently to dip their front tires in the Mississippi River.  In the background is a reproduction of the old fort which was occupied nearby from 1808-1813 - the first military fort in the upper Mississippi.  Interestingly, this replica was built on the grounds of the city of Fort Madison's other point of fame, the penitentiary by inmate volunteers, and moved to the present site in the 1980s.

Our group, some of which were doing their first ride, some their
20th, were mostly jaded and didn't bother to do the official dipping of tires in the river.  The tradition is to dip the rear tire in the Missouri as well, and if you do the first, how can you not do the second?  But after 410 miles of biking over 7 days, most of our group just headed to the bus...  I walked down and toured the museum in the old railroad depot there, and then ambled down to where the biker action was going on.  I assisted the woman on the left trying to take the obligatory self-portrait of her accomplishment, but travelling solo, sometimes your arm isn't long enough!  She came from Texas to bike across the state.  On the right I caught the "Fountainheads" from Kansas City as the entire group dipped tires.

One more point of interest in Fort Madison is the bridge in the background seen here in the background of tire-dipping bikes.  The Sante Fe double swing span bridge is the largest in the world at 530 feet across!  The image was taken just as it was about closed after allowing barge traffic going downstream.  Built by the Sante Fe Railroad in 1927, the upper deck is for car and truck traffic (2 lanes), and the lower deck is for trains (about 100 per day!).  The bridge is currently owned and operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and is also a toll bridge - $2 for cars to pass into Illinois, free to return!

I'll be posting more about our week across the state, but need to unwind and sort through the images before doing more. 

RAGBRAI 2012

Yes, I know I've not posted in nearly a month.  Of course, I was on the road with the bikers for the first week, and since it ended 2 weeks ago I've been caught up in the return to Tucson, and I've also been under the weather a bit from Olympic fever...  Nothing serious, was over it yesterday when it ended!

Also, it is difficult to write about "RAGBRAI immediately afterwards.  You need to stew in the memories a bit and let the pain and sweat and heat fade a bit and let the friendship and good times percolate to the front of your conscienceness.  After 15+ times at the event (this was the 40th edition), I can remember some truly miserable times, but I keep going back for more!  What does that say about me???

While I've been with "Team Toad" for nearly 20 years after my accidentally joining them (subject for another post) in 1993, the only other member of that first trip is our fearless-leader Carl and morale-officer Curt.  New faces come and go over the years, some permanently, unfortunately...  But every year Carl manages to find a few new riders to join in and it is a blast every time, experiencing the week with new personnel.  This year we had RAGBRAI veteran Katy join us, Lynn rode most of the week, 2 days with his great-niece Elizabeth, Romy and son Nick joined the whole week, with S.O. Julie jumping in for 2 days.  Newbies Bryan and Carole joined us from Tucson - I've known Bryan for a couple decades, and they finally pulled the trigger in joining us.  The trip across Iowa to the start in Sioux Center was uneventful this year (unlike the flat tire 2 years ago), but we knew we were headed into the "hot zone" with some pretty excessive temperatures and drought conditions in the western part of the state.  We stopped frequently for food, bathroom and fuel breaks to help break up the trip, and we got into town late in the afternoon.  The pictures here show new college grad Anne at left, who is moving to Tacoma as I write this to start her new job (cool shades!).  And at right are Lynn, Maggie, Dean, Romy and Nick enjoying the cross-state bus ride.

Our hosts in Sioux Center provided us with a spectacular shaded back yard, which felt a lot cooler than the upper 90 temps would indicate.  This is our standard "tent village" that we lived out of - a normal back yard being plenty of room for the dozen or so souls that were part of the group.  Carl at front center gave up the tent this year and mostly slept out in his cot - here getting a pre-emptive nap in after doing the bulk of the driving across the state.  The strategy worked pretty well - the normal need for a tent, other than keeping out rain of which there was little this year, is to separate you from the mosquitoes.  The one good thing about the drought conditions is that there were absolutely no bugs the entire week, so Carl's strategy worked out well!

About the time we turned in shortly after sunset (our group doesn't do much late-night partying!), we were treated to a fireworks show through the trees in the not-too-far distance (in these small towns, nothing is too far away!).  The next morning, after everyone had left and I was alone to scout out breakfast and restock coolers, I saw and interesting-looking pair of flatbed trailers.  A new type of calliope?  No - one of the labels reveals it to be the firework platforms.  The company is located just a ways over the Missouri river in Yankton, SD, so it is easy enough to set up the display at the warehouse, tow it to the location and back afterwards for cleanup - no muss, no fuss.  Uninteresting to some, but cool to me!

And speaking of interesting - I grew up in small-town Iowa, and while mostly you have to make your own fun, there are a few jewels out in the prairie!  Mentioned significantly in the RAGBRAI literature for our first overnight town of Cherokee was the Sanford Museum and Planetarium.  How could I not stop by and pay it a visit?  It was really a  nice little museum - they had a permanent display of some of the local geology mixed with what regional fossils tell us of the early flora and fauna.  There were also displays of early people (Native Americans) that lived in the area.  A temporary exhibit consisted of very nice images taken by a professional photographer on a summer sabbatical tour of the National Parks.  Of course, the main interest to me was the planetarium - the first one in Iowa, dedicated in 1951.  It was a small dome and projector, but the director of the facility gave a nice sky tour as part of an almost continuous tour for the RAGBRAI crowd that cycled through the facility.  It was a nice respite from the normal sorts of overnight town attractions.

Later that night, as all the team members wander in, find a church or civic group that serves dinner and we take advantage of our host's shower,  we sat around and reviewed the high points of the day.  I had joined Carl, Curt and Anne at the Community Center, just down the hill from where we were staying.  As we waited in line, we ran into Dean and Maggie coming out - turns out that instead of the long wait for the upstairs dinner, we should go downstairs where another group was serving.  We had pork sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, macaroni salad and home-made cookies for dessert for $8.  While they seemed a little chintzy on portions as we came through (they were trying to get to their listed 8pm closing time), by the time we finished eating, they reached closing and we all got free seconds.  It was a breast cancer benefit, and many threw in a couple bucks more for the second trip.  Cherokee was the first of several days where the hosts put us up not out in the yards, but in the air-conditioned interior.  It is a godsend sometimes (don't forget the highs were near or over 100F for much of the first half of the ride) to get out of the heat, at least for a good night's sleep.  Of course, the close proximity of snoring teammates affected the latter, but I'm not complaining!  To close out the evening, Carl and Katy formed a duet for our entertainment, singing some folk and popular tunes.  They are good!

While I have fun on RAGBRAI, realize that as a support driver, I don't often get on the bike route.  My duties involve keeping the cooler stocked and cold, keeping the requested snacks on hand and getting fuel as needed.  Occasionally riders have mechanical issues or breakdowns and I can come into play, but most of the towns have bike mechanics to keep them rolling  Often some riders want to be picked up or dropped off on the route - there is a "mid-town" where the support drivers are allowed access to the route.  On that next day Katy wanted a pickup, so we set up an appointment in Schaller, Iowa, the popcorn capital of Iowa!  While waiting I got to enjoy some of the amenities of the route, never seen on the support route.  Shown at left here are ladies from the Lutheran church serving the infamous "porkchop on a stick".  Back when I rode the route I'd had a "Pork Chop Man" chop, but these were pretty good for $5.  That is me on the right enjoying it.  Of course free popcorn was supplied to anyone who wanted any!  And while only Katy wanted the pickup, 3 other riders joined in for a "sag" to Lake City.

The next couple days were a blur of heat and more heat!  We enjoyed a couple days of temperatures more like those of Arizona, with the added humidity of the Midwest.  It peaked out at 105F as I recall.  Fortunately our hosts invited us inside for sleeping on the miserable nights.  Lynn was our studly biker - camping and sleeping outside through the worst of the heat.  Speaking of hosts - they were uniformly great this year!  We've had hosts that I've met at the door as they were leaving saying "fridge is full of beer - make yourselves at home!" as they head out to serve meals to riders.  Others you rarely see after pointing out the shower and bathroom, some hang out with you - sit and talk into the night, cooking you dinner and running a couple loads of laundry for you! This year's crop were all friendly, most offered drinks and snacks.  Nancy in Marshalltown had some killer chocolate chip cookies, and in Lake City we had a feast of burgers, brats, beans and watermelon.  The hosts that were the most fun were Roland and Joanne in Webster City, shown here at left flanked by Maggie and Dean(who supplied the picture).  They were just delightful - Roland is retired, but working as a substitute teacher, looking forward to the upcoming school year.   Joanne was a live wire - she was the only one from the household (including our team) who went to the Three Dog Night concert that night, telling us about it the next morning.  She proudly showed us her "HOT" sticker she was awarded by a 20-something fellow, and the pictures of her smooching with him are likely posted on Facebook somewhere!

While I specialize in the mundane tasks of driving and shopping, I try to keep an eye out for interesting items - in the case of Marshalltown, the HyVee grocery store had an interesting Coke display shown at left.  I've seen more elaborate displays over the years, but it was kind of cool.  Marshalltown signaled a change in the ride.  It was still a hot day, but that was about to change and a band of severe weather came through.  Fortunately it was about 10pm, so all the riders were in and mostly under shelter when it hit.  My tent was trying to take the shortcut to Cedar Rapids, left hanging from a single puny stake, but was rescued after the worst had passed.  The storm dropped the temperatures dramatically, and yes, all of us camped outside and even though my feet and lower part of my sleeping bag were in a puddle of water on the low side of the tent, it was about the best I slept all week!  Similarly, temps stayed a good 10-15 degrees lower the rest of the ride making it a little more pleasant.

Marshalltown also marked the addition of some young blood to Team Toad!  Dean and Maggie's grand kids joined the group!  I suspect that it was their first time camping out, and I'm not sure how much sleep the Grandparents got, but it was fun to have them along!  Here Linus and Becca are being put to work to break soggy camp in our Marshalltown back yard. At right Becca looks a little sleepy yet at  7am.

Our stay in Cedar Rapids seemed a slice of paradise!  Our host (a workmate of one of our team, I believe) had a pool in the back yard for us to enjoy and gather 'round!  It was great!  Maggie dropped Dean off at the midpoint town and brought the kids to enjoy the pool - they really enjoyed it, and I got to supervise for a bit when Maggie went to pick Dean up across town.  What a bunch of fun kids! Linus, by the way, is not named after the Peanuts' character, but rather was named after Linus Torvalds, who developed Linux (Linus' dad is a software engineer!).  Interestingly, Linus Torvalds was named after the famous scientist Linus Pauling, one of only 2 people to receive 2 Nobel prizes for different fields, and the only recipient to receive 2 unshared Nobels!  Fascinating what you learn on Wikipedia! 

The riders slowly accumulated to our grand back yard, and all agreed it was so nice that instead of going out for dinner, we'd call out for pizza!  And as pizza arrived, so did the visitors as we were close to the home base of Team Toad (Toddville, about 6 miles north of downtown Cedar Rapids). First Carl's wife Terri and lil' Billy came by (that is Bill at left with his Dad).  While not little in any sense, he first came with the Toads when he was about 5, so I'm still allowed to call him Little Billy, which we all did in those days.  I remember well riding with them and Carl would extend a helping hand to push him up the hills - not needed any more!  And besides those two, Sue Ellen, whose scrooge-of-a-boss wouldn't give her time off this week, stopped by to visit too.  She has promised to be with us next year.  Sue Ellen is at far left in the pizza panorama, followed by Anne, Carl, Romy, Julie, Nick, Billy, Terri and Curt.  What a nice evening!

Dean and Maggie had gone out with the grand kids for dinner, Becca showing me her lavender tongue.  Seems I had been shooting the growing crescent moon every night as it shown down on us, but this shot, taken about the right moment during the twilight best showed it against the darkening sky and canopy of trees.  But this day, just about the longest of the week, even after twilight we still had riders out.  Both Katy (who is known to get caught up in some of the celebrations along the way, shall we say), and the Bryan/Carole team were still out, both arriving about the time full darkness arrived.  Katy had eaten, but Bryan and Carole were grateful for the last pieces of pizza, now long cold.  They also took full advantage of the pool, soaking and swimming laps after I had turned into my sleeping bag.

Friday arrived - headed to the last overnight town Anamosa and the home base for Kurt and Anne.  At left Carl, Curt and Anne are shown leaving our poolside digs.  And the picture at right is Bryan and Carole on their Hase German tandem.  No, they are not on their way to rob a bank, but rather, Carole is avoiding sun exposure w/out liberal amounts of sunscreen...

Of course, we stayed at Curt and Val's house, so Kurt and Anne could sleep in their own beds...  This, at 42 miles the shortest ride of the day for the bikes, was only about 20 miles by car!  So I got in pretty early.  I got to spend a little time with Val, who rode a time or two back in the day, but retired from the biking long ago.  She is a mover and shaker in Anamosa, so on her way to church to serve meals, she gave me the 5 minute tour of town, while putting out fires with the issues at the grade school (about 500 people camping on their grounds) and dropping me off at what is just about the highlight of this little town.  A picture appears at left - can you figure it out?  Built of native limestone from a local quarry, it has been called "The White Palace of the West"  A spectacular structure, it is quite imposing and impressive.  One hint is the little hut on the right side - a guard tower!  Yes, it is the Anamosa State Penitentiary!  A maximum-security prison, it holds about 1200 inmates and employs nearly 400, our buddy Curt among them.  He supervises a kitchen staff drawn from the inmates.  I'll try to do a separate post, it really is an interesting place!

The rest of RAGBRAI is a blur - the last day always seems to be a rush to finish and get on towards home.  Curt and Anne stayed in Anamosa after seeing their own beds, as did Lynn.  Dean and Maggie also retired in Anamosa after bringing Linus along on a "tag along" attachment behind Grandpa.  I camped in Kurt's yard, even after being offered a couch - only my 4th night in the tent for the week!  I dropped off Carl in Charlotte at my step-mom's house, only 20 miles or so from the end, then headed to my Uncle John's house to meet up with a cousin who was there briefly.  Melinda joined me to drop off the bus in Clinton just as Carl rode up.  He waited for Bryan and Carol, then they headed back to Cedar Rapids in a nearly-empty bus.  Melinda and I were off to a great niece's birthday party, then we headed back to St Charles, home by 11pm.  It was a long week, but as usual, full of fun memories - the discomfort from the heat is already fading...  Can't wait to do it again!