RAGBRAI’07-Day4
RAGBRAI Day 4 – Cedar Falls to Independence
Distance: ~63 miles
Today the group left out together around 6:00am. Chuck had a small issue with his computer shortly after we hit the road and decided he would venture on alone. Dean followed suit shortly thereafter. The remaining 7 of us trucked on together the rest of the way. It was a beautiful day… although my legs were extremely tender, the discomfort was minimal due to the great pull along the way that we received from Mike and Doug.
We stopped for Beekman’s homemade Ice Cream and then later for Tom’s Tender Turkey. Got a bit of the RAGBRAI feeling. Just riding comfortably from town to town enjoying the sites and the food.
We saw a family of four on a Co-motion Quad Tandem today. Dad was on the front. The kids in the middle and Mom on the back. Mom and Dad had an intercomm system to communicate with each other. We passed by them once and then they passed us on the left on a downhill stretch. As we came back by them the little man in the middle recognized us and said “hey we passed you once… we’re gonna pass you again”. Too cute. The ~4 year was talking smack to us. Hilarious!
At one point, Mike and I sprinted a short distance ahead of the other five and attempted to take a group shot of our paceline rolling. We have a friend on the back and a gent was passing about the time I snapped the photo but the image is still pretty good.
For the most part the day was uneventful except toward the very end where Dan and I collided and we both nearly went down. Luckily and I don’t know how neither of us didn’t get our bikes tangled or completely lost our balance. We stayed upright and thankful. We talked after the incident and agreed that it was just one of those split second things where inattentiveness combined with a situation (in this case a car at an intersection that took both of our attentions away from the road in front of us) combined to create a near fall.
I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life, as I was about the only one in the group who hadn’t previously taken a shower in a converted car wash. The Denny’s Red Roof Car and Truck wash in Independence was closed to vehicles on Thuersday and converted into showers for RAGBRAI riders. There were individual stalls separated by 1×2’s and some visqueen (plastic sheeting). Who woulda thunk? Certainly more profitable for the day than the limited amount of vehicular traffic on the RAGBRAI route. Below is an image of the outside of the carwash.
Late yesterday night we spoke together as a group (everyone except Rick who was over at the vendor area) and we decided to depart after the route today. The weather forecast for Friday is really bad and the thought of riding through a hilly day in thunderstorms did not appeal to anyone. So after the route we packed up and headed out of Indpendence for home.
We stopped at an Itialian restaurant called Tosi’s located in Stevensville, Michigan. (Near St. Joseph - I think). A great ending to a great trip. I think the quote of the day was once again by Mike when he said if he had a penny of every time he laughed so hard his side hurt this week that he could by dinner for the entire group. Well said Mike.
I wish to thank Leon and Delores Slikkers for this wonderful trip/event. To put it simply…. it was the best 4 days that I have ever had on a bicycle. Thank you!
All of the images from this day are viewable by clicking HERE.
I have also added images that Rick sent to me on 7/30/2007 that are viewable HERE.