White and Built-in (The past few days, and now)

Because we promised, here's the positive review of Sara's hospitality in Altoona. The food was perfect (especially the fruit salad), the AC was heavenly, and Colton and Carter were very cute. The ride into Altoona was the easiest, shortest day of riding. It's a strange thing when riding 54 miles seems like an easy day of biking. The next day, 70 miles, was not quite as easy, especially because it was hilly. This took us to Grinnell College.
Grinnell College is where we spent Susanna's 18th birthday. Her mother, clearly the best mother ever, thought ahead to order her custom bicycle cookies from a local bakery for her birthday. Very cute, and very delicious. We also had the best dinner ever at the college's dining hall. But, before that all 170 little youth soccer campers had to eat first. Not cool. But the buffet was worth it, because they have the most intense cafeteria ever at Grinnell. Personal chefs were stir-frying made-to-order dishes and rolling made-to-order sushi, along with many other food options. So, clearly this was a better food option than the regular fried, gross expo food. Unfortunately, the cafeteria was the best of Grinnell. There was no AC, and unlike either YMCA, there was no air movement. We didn't sleep well.
The ride to Coralville started out rather unremarkably. We were all clipping along rather quickly, and this was good, because it was a 75 mile day. However, somewhere after the meeting town, Dr. Mel had an accident. Needless to say, she broke her leg. Save for her, we all finished the ride, and met her in Iowa City.
We never made it to Davenport, but after a broken leg, intense sunburn, and three days without air conditioning, it was a general consensus that we would spend the final day exploring Iowa City (aka we were so over the whole biking thing). After a brief stay in a candlewood we are initiating our triumphant return to showers, AC, and a solid week of no exercise.

First RAGBRAI casualty: Mel fell off her bike and broke her leg. More to follow.

Nothing. Just Nothing. (Day 3--Carroll to Boone)

It's official. Monika is the most hardcore biker of us three. She got up at 6 to start biking. And that would be okay if we'd gone to bed at 8 as we did the night before. But we didn't. More like 12:30. So she barely slept before a 70 mile day of biking. Susanna and I are certainly not that intense about this ride. We slept until 9:30, and opted to be dropped off at the halfway point for the day. Iowa has finally flattened out and we are all grateful. 

The Asian hats are still garnering a lot of comments, some culturally ignorant ("nice lampshades") and some culturally insensitive (speaking "chinese"). We still have the most commented-on hats at RAGBRAI. We've also all developed RAGBRAI tans. And of course, bike shorts are longer than regular shorts, so it's always visible. It's embarrassing.

We are staying at our second YMCA of the trip, only this one is terrible because it DOES NOT HAVE AIR CONDITIONING. Seriously, it's a sauna. And there are fat old men sharing the gym with us who clearly have neither showered nor do they have any intention of showering. They sleep without shirts on. It's horrible. We're sitting outside, where it's a cooler 90 degrees. We are considering sleeping outside or upstairs in the women's locker room. For some reason that's a lot cooler. 

Tomorrow is an easy 54 miles to Altoona. We look forward to air-conditioned housing, and good food. And no shirtless fat old men. 

Just Plain Navy (First day with wifi!)

Iowa is a dead zone. There is no wifi. There is no cell service. So, needless to say, there have been no blog updates. But, we've started RAGBRAI. And Iowa is absolutely not flat. The hills are enormous. The heat is sweltering. The drunks are rampant.
DAY 1: Glenwood - Atlantic (56 Miles)
It was our "Virgin" day of RAGBRAI. We only ever rode 30 miles before...so, this was a little bit of a shock. Our asian rice hats earned us a lot of compliments from other riders and lewd comments from drunk 50-year-old men ("I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese", anyone?). The heat was disgusting the whole day. Seriously, we had dried salt on our eyebrows. The YMCA gym we slept in was horribly bright and loud, but it had a shower, so, whatever. The 7 am wake-up was crap.
DAY 2: Atlantic - Carroll (65.something Miles)
Thank goodness the weather was better, because it was a long day. We saw the German part of Iowa, where everything was Haus-whatever or Vilkomen to Insert Town name. We thought that the hills were going to be a bit smaller, but no. Absolutely not. We consume more water than I ever imagined was possible. After passing through a prohibition-era underground distillery, Templeton Rye, we finally arrived in Carroll. Where we don't have to sleep on a hard gym floor. Success.

We survived our creepy hotel and deliciously dry breakfast. We just passed the last turn off to get back to Chicago...hopefully we'll be in Iowa soon!

Our Day: An Artistic Rendering by Monika

Tom the Raper (White with Blue Polka Dots)

Indiana is boring. There is no cell service. Most rest-stops are closed. But it is home to one special resident--Tom Raper. He must personally own 1000 billboards. Tom RAPER RV's...that's the kind of name you change in court before opening a business. (1-800-RAPER, anyone?) Thank god we're out of Indiana.

Our hotel in Illinois is disgusting, exactly as it was last year. Mildew never seems to go out of style for cheap midwestern hotels. (It's as wet as Club Kelscat after a rave....) And we got here after the pool closed. There better not be bedbugs. Twelve hours of driving, and this is what we get. More driving to follow tomorrow.