[bike] the land of corn, soybeans, and pigs

We have made our way to IOWA...and in fact, to the start town of Ragbrai, the annual 7-day bicycle ride across Iowa. By Saturday, not only will thousands of people be here, but TENS of thousands of people will be in Rock Rapids to participate in this bike ride. We arrived in Rock Rapids today...5 days early and plenty of time to rest our sore muscles. Since we're here very early, we will be helping to set up for the biking madness.

 

From Winner, SD, we crossed the Missouri River and made our way into Platte, SD. We were hanging out at the library in Platte, when we met Dr. Bentz. Ariel was telling him how one of the best things about this trip is that "we get to meet interesting people". As a result, Dr. Bentz left for awhile, and then returned with "an interesting person", ILO VANDERBLOOM. Ilo was a funny and charming old man (he's turning 90 in two weeks). He brought us to the dinner theater (a dinner followed by a show). Everyone in town knew who he was. At dinner, people kept asking Ilo, "Who are these girls?" and Ilo would put his arms around us and say "The doctor is trying to kill me." He also liked to crack jokes such as "Have you gotten enough of the corn here?" I said, "I haven't seen any corn on the road." He says, "Why, that show was corny, wasn't it?" That night, we all slept well inside Ilo's house.

 

Yesterday we left Parkston and headed for Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota. We started noticing fields and fields of corn and soybeans. There were also gorgeous sunflower fields along the road. However, when we got to Sioux Falls, our two contacts there were not available. Then we somehow got the idea into our heads that it would be fun to try a century ride (break 100 miles) that day. At that point we had already done 73 miles. But just after we decided to ride 100 miles, the wind started blowing strong right in our faces! Despite that, we did not give up. We finally rode into Larchwood, Iowa...with a grand total of 101.92 miles, and very very hungry stomachs. We pigged out on pizza, subs, and fried food, and went to camp at the park.

 

The next morning (today) we found out that Rock Rapids was a mere 15 miles away. Yay, we made it to the start of Ragbrai!!