RAGBRAI Day 3

Perry to Des Moines
49.9 miles 1,308 Feet of Climb

We recovered. Well, we felt rested from the day before. Because we knew we had a shorter day with less hills, we figured we could afford a little sleeping in the next day. The storm subsided leaving a beautiful and cool morning. Tuesday is College Jersey Day so Aaron pilfered the storage boxes before we left and found one of his old T-Shirts from the Academy. Since that man has been so dedicate to staying in shape over the years he fit in a shirt in a shirt he wore at 18 years old... Yeah.

ANYWAY!!  We stopped at a grocery store to go to the bathroom and get some snacks for the day. Have you ever been in a situation where you think, "This is not right, where's the camera to capture my amused expression," this was one of them.  We found the restrooms, and a line, but the strange thing was that the line for the men's bathroom was 15 deep and the woman's bathroom was EMPTY! Well, OK, in a 3 stall restroom, there was one stall being used, but come on ladies, that is considered empty.  I checked the door placard, yes, it's the woman's room, I looked at the other placard, yes, men's. Enter the theme music from the 'Twilight Zone" here... I'm on the RAGBRAI and I should be telling you about our ride, but THIS is a HUGE moment for all those times you see men waltz right by the line of waiting women, breeze in, do their thing and leave while the line you're in hasn't moved but 6 inches in the process. Ladies, if you are looking for a new sport to try, look no further.

OK, enough of that. We left on the same road we came in on, the last 7 miles from the night before was the first 7 miles for our day today. We stopped at the same point for breakfast as the night before, no one was in need of medical attention and we happily waited in line for our "Chris Cakes" (pancakes) and sausage. They flip the pancakes in the air and you catch them then cover them with liquid butter. Yeah, it's delicious.

We traveled 7 miles for breakfast and that left 13 miles before the meeting town which signified the mid-point(ish) so the progress was a huge mental boost for us all. The route for the day took us through Washington Township, Minburn, Dallas Center-which was the meeting town where the officials routed support cars and families could meet up with the riders for a break. After the meeting town, we continued on to Van Meter, Valley Junction and through West Des Moines and finally into Des Moines.

The day went well for everyone although the last ten miles had a really stiff headwind and not much scenery as we were traveling through a more industrial area so it felt longer than the 10 miles it was.  We caught up with Dennis, rested for a little bit, did some minor repairs on things we didn't have time to do the night before and got our courage up to stand in line for the showers.

As said before, $5 is the going rate for a shower and before you ride something like this, the thought of "highway robbery" comes to mind, but as you continue along the hot, muggy days, it's a bargain!

Lines are not uncommon along the route, in fact, this year is seemed as that was the only source of getting to know people along the way because the route was filled with continuous hills. Hills like the ones on the route are steep enough and long enough that you have to gain and maintain as much speed as possible going into the next hill. Once over that hill, well, there is another hill just the same waiting for you. On occasion, you may rise up a little higher than before and you can see the route and the non-stop hills. Tedium sinks in fairly quickly so when you get a chance to have a conversation while waiting in line, it's down right enjoyable.



There are companies out there that have great ideas. This particular company had a long trailer and sectioned it off lengthwise in half and width wise in thirds that created a total of 4 rows of 3 shower stalls in one trailer. They have a portable water heater that is incredibly effective and have a tent outside the trailer to use as a changing area. All in all, they provided showers for hundreds, but probably thousands of people.

Now if you are an industrious person looking for a way to entertain for tips, here's what you do. Set up a live band in the middle of the shower trailers and let go with your best stuff. You have an audience that would not run away no matter what you sounded like because we all REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be clean again.

Jessica and Dennis took the shuttle in to the downtown center to listen to the bands and get some dinner, Aaron and I had no desire to do so and stuck to the campground and had a great pizza at the campground vendors.

It was a nice night and we needed it to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation!