Highlights of my RAGBRAI Adventure

I returned from Iowa a few days ago. Before I take the time to write a long story about my experience, I want to share the highlights and some pictures. So here are some of my favorite things about RAGBRAI, in no particular order.

*The pie (I nearly ate an entire pie by myself during the time of the ride.)

*A recumbent bike disguised as a banana.

*Eating fresh baked kolaches in Solon, Iowa (Kolaches are a Czech pastry that my grandma used to make. There are a lot of Czech people in that region of Iowa.)

*A side trip to Waterloo to learn about my family history

*Riding up almost 21,000 feet of hills across the state.

*Mr. Porkchop (A man who has been cooking porkchops at RAGBRAI for years. He drives his pink school bus to a different spot along the ride every day, and he yells, "Pork Chhhhooooop" as you ride by.)

*Coasting downhill toward the Mississippi River in LeClair

*The corn fields, corn fields, corn fields. Oh, and did I mention the cornfields?

*Visiting Nevada, Iowa (Gospel singers and "Chris Cakes," a Christian form of pancakes that would absolve you of all your sins committed during RAGBRAI--or so they said.)

*Our homestay with a 90 year old woman in Jefferson.


*The excitement caused by rumors that Lance was on the ride. (Lance Armstrong).

*Being stopped for a train in Boone and getting a free key chain because of it

*The fact that I rode almost 450 miles--ALL THE WAY ACROSS IOWA!!!

*The costumes (There were riders dressed like bananas and riders dressed like cows. Team Spam had cans of Spam attached to their helmets. One team wore grass skirts and had bobbing hula dancers attached to their heads. One couple wore inflatable turtle swimming tubes to survive all the flooding.)

*Getting to ride with my dad and little brother and to hang out with my stepmom and aunt.

*The fact that there was an Elvis impersonator in several towns we rode through.

*Poppin Johnny's tractor-powered homemade ice cream.