On to Council Bluffs RAGBRAI...

On to Council Bluffs RAGBRAI...

As far as travel days was concerned, this one was about the easiest. The most frustrating part of getting from the East side of Iowa to the West was trying to stay connected to internet so I could finish some work tasks (and Teresa could finish school assignments).

We woke up early and started exploring Keokuk. Truthfully, I was on my hunt for an Official Keokuk Ragbrai t-shirt for my 2019 collection. I eventually found one at the YMCA :)

We really noticed things seemed familiar. The Hampton Inn and the Walmart gave strong feelings of deja vu. Interestingly enough we did our first RAGBRAI in 2013 and it occurred on the same days so Facebook started showing Teresa some very applicable "Memories from 6 years ago." Apparently, our meeting place for our Charter was Keokuk, IA in 2013.

Breakfast, charter check-in, bike & luggage drop off, and onto the Charter Bus. We saw a lot of wind turbines... and that was about it. After a disappointing lunch at Taco John's, I fell asleep.

 

Teresa and I have a very specific track record with buses. Seems that whenever we are on a bus (charter, race, school), it gets lost. Once at the Disney Marathon, our bus from the Animal Kingdom, onsite hotel, missed the turn to the bus drop off, made a U-turn across 9 lanes of traffic, back-tracked, and cut across another 9 lanes of traffic to make the turn. This happens more than it should, really.
So, while deep in a much needed slumber, I was violently shaken and I hear my lovely wife whisper, "We're in Nebraska...giggle, giggle, giggle." Begrudgingly, I was awake for the the remaining 45 minutes of navigating BACK to Iowa and through RAGBRAI traffic.

The group eventually made it to our overnight camping field, found our tent, luggage, and bikes and headed to the Expo.

Again, I was on the hunt for the Official Council Bluffs RAGBRAI t-shirt for my 2019 collection. I had been able to pre-order many of them but missed the ordering cut-off on a few.

I want to be kind of specific with this part. This is not an exaggeration. The 1st stop we made was the ONLY indoor section of the Expo - Registration. We walked in the door and someone in my group said, " This is registration. There is no way those shirts are in here."


We immediately left, looped the outdoor expo twice with no luck and regrouped. I found a group of friendly volunteers wearing the shirt and inquired. "Yes, we got our shirts today. Yes, they were selling some. Yes, we'll show you." WE HEADED TO THE INDOOR SECTION OF THE EXPO. No more shirts.

That was our excitement the day before the riding start. It was nice to have a relatively un-eventful day. We retired to our tent and settled down for some sleep. About 30 minutes later, the fireworks started.

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