RAGBRAI - Day 1

Excerpts from Monte's journal during RAGBRAI...

July 20, 2008

The morning started off slow. We were stopped at a train for about 5 minutes. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Weather is better than average, 70 degrees and high humidity. With the wind in our face we rode the rolling hills of western Iowa. Surprisingly many folks don't like hills. Even with my 30+ pounds in gear, the hills were enjoyable to me as were the rows of corn.

We stopped in every town on the way for water and a bite to eat. The most unusual sight of the day was the lady riding with a dog - who had its own helmet. She had a sticker on her bike which read "You would look look hotter with a helmet."

We had an awesome lunch at a meat market in Minden. Ran into Roti, fellow Cyclone, who did the whole ride as well. My parents and I ate dinner together - unfortunately, a guy we dubbed "Rude Dude" decided to eat at the same restaurant, and he was not a happy camper with all the RAGBRAI folks riding through his town and the fact that dinner at the local diner was $1 more than normal which was 8 bucks.

I found a place to tent and met Joe/Doctor/Garrison Keeler fan. Now I'm off for some suds....

2:30 AM: Wind hail on its way. Big dilemma - pack it all up or not. Jerry who is a self contained rider says yes so I do. I end up at a house across the road - FALSE ALARM. Put tent back up. It's cool.