Monday, 7/25/11 Pie, pie, me-oh-my

I dropped Jeff off, litterally, on the highway exit to pick up the bike ride, in front of a channel 13 camera man.  Let's see if we can stay awake long enough tonight to see if he makes it on the Iowa news.  Heavy fog and the State police held up the riders without head lamps until 6AM, and off they rode, up yet another hill.  (Jana & girls, we drove past your favorite Walnut Super 8 several times and waved for you).

The RAGBRAI mid point meeting town today was Manning.  I told Jeff I'd meet him there and even with all our precision calculations, Jeff arrived before me.  The town really gave a warm welcome-folks everywhere to greet the riders and sell every kind of food imaginable.  Our choice was blueberry peach pie made by the VFW ladies.  The rhubarb pie  looked great too, and the pecan, and the apple, and the cherry...There was a guy eating what I thought was a fudgecicle, but it was actually a fat pork chop on a stick-odd, but looked really good, if you like a big chunk of meat on a stick at 9:30 in the morning.

Off we all went to Carroll, the bikes in one direction, the support crew skirting around the bike route.  I finally made it to a town before Jeff and sat on the edge of the park/cemetary in my folding chair and floppy hat for several very enjoyable hours with the Carrolleans cheering on the riders at they rode up the last big hill of the day into town.  One of the little kids gave me an American flag and we waved and cheered in the guy on the elipticle bike, the recumbant bikes, the older (& I'm talking old)  couple on their tandem, the beautifully tanned, fit, young couple with their 5 year old daughter all in matching bike clothes on their threesome bike, and all the other riders, big & small, young & old.   Over the hill came Jeffrey, I caught his attention (sure he would ride right past me), and 30 minutes later we were off for lunch.
We're staying in Denison, way out of the way of RAGBRAI, but nice enough and thank God they also have a Pizza Ranch (odd, odd, set up with a pizza, fried chicken, mashed potato buffett-and you are be expected to eat at least 6 plates of food per visit).  Here's your trivia question for the week-which Oscar award winning actress grew up in a farm near Denison, has a performing acts center in town named after her and her Oscar is at the McHendry Museum?  Keep in mind that no one under 40 will ever guess the answer.

Jeff is tanned and having little difficulty with the hills.  Lower altitude is kind to both of us, heat & humidity, not so much.