Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tuesday, July 27th

My apologies for the two-day delay in updating this blog, as it is actually Thursday afternoon when I'm able to log on to post our adventures. Unfortunately, there are areas of the route through northern Iowa were phone service is sketchy at best. Add tens of thousands of extra folks trying to access the bandwidith and the result is chaos.

Our riders knew as they headed out that even though the day was only 60 miles, the weather conditions would be miserable. It was in the 90's, with stifling humidity. Fortunately, the terrain was flat and the ride was expected to be easy. Turned out that the weather was a greater adversary than the miles the day before. The group arrived in Clear Lake absolutely exhausted and glad to be there.

But they still managed to capture the moments for you! This photo gives a good sense of the endless miles of cyclists on the road. And, as someone pointed out, it looks like Santa is a fan of RAGBRAI, too! Others insisted this was a member of ZZTop, as Santa's jersey would represent the North Pole "Colder Than Hell 100." (A reference to the famous mid-summer rider in Witchita Falls, TX.) Either way, I give this fellow credit for attempting the feat.
Mark loved the contrast of the old barn and soybean fields and the wind turbines. We all agreed that it was an interesting juxtaposition. We were all surprised at how many large wind farms we've seen in northern Iowa - on both the bike and support routes. Denise learned that they've built the turbines ahead of the capture and delivery lines and that there is moratorium on building more until that issue is addressed. They sure dominate the landscape.
At one point near the town of Hutchins, the bike route and the support route were separated by a train track and a few yards of grass. I snapped this shot of the riders going by beside me as we all waited for our turn to pass through the 4-way stop sign that was the principal intersection of this tiny town.

Meanwhile, Bill realized that the support caravan was bogged down for some reason and captured the same convergence of routes from the opposite side of the tracks. It is a rare occurrence for the routes to come this close to each other.

In Wesley, one of the pass-through towns on the route, the community turned out lots of entertainment in the form of local impersonators. Here, young and old Elvis welcome Mark to town. We all loved the idea of a pre-teen Elvis.

Over at the jail, Barney and Otis tried to arrest Jerry, who quickly made bail.

Aunt Bee and Opie offered a friendlier welcome to the riders. Guess they couldn't find a true redhead to play the role Ron Howard made famous, so they just got a little spray paint...

Britt was the next pass-through town on the route. This community hosts the National Hobo Convention every year and they were excited to have 3 "real" hobos on hand to greet riders, tell stories, sing songs about hobo life, and pose for photos. Here's one of the hobos holding Dan's bike while he snaps the shot.In every pass-through town, this is always the #1 attraction. The logistics involved for this ride are always a marvel, including transporting these beauties from town to town. One thing I did learn this year is that the pass-through towns must close down their services and attractions by a specified time in order to urge the riders on down the road. Supposedly several years ago, there was a town that threw a great party and no one wanted to leave - riders were on the road until well after dark.One of the businesses along the route offered this display of taxidermied art. (Knowing my fondness for squirrels in this state, Bill proudly presented me with this show for the blog.) Guess this is a good overview of Iowa wildlife in its unnatural state.Many teams have their personalized koozies along, and this seems to be most popular trading item. We all loved this one...Speaking of dead wildlife (well, I was!), I also learned that it's become a RAGBRAI institution to mark roadkill with a warning sign "Roadkill ahead." This is not so that biders can avoid them, but so they can leave a decoration of Mardi Gras beads. According to our team, some of the creatures are so covered in offerings that you can no longer identify what they were. Would you call them Ex-Party Animals?

Finally, both bikers and support team arrived at Clear Lake, our next overnight stop. What a beautiful place it is! Our hostess, Ann, was riding for the day (many folks will pedal just one day of the route), so the next door neighbors on either side were there to welcome us. Everyone was hot and hungry, so Cheryl led us on a short walk to the nearby tiki bar (wish we had one of those at Club Lake...). She and Denise decided to check out the water while we waited on our burgers to arrive. Clear Lake is about 14 miles around the lake and only about 15-20 feet deep. Like Storm Lake, it was created by the glaciers. It's been a popular resort town for Iowans for generations. You have "North Shore" and "South Shore" folks who have grown up on the lake - like Club Lake's East and West beaches. We were staying on the South Shore, high on a bluff looking directly across to the main beach of Clear Lake.The main bike route was only about a mile from the restaurant, and those who knew about it, stopped by for a cold one and a splash in the lake before heading on. We enjoyed watching them stream in and noticed that one large group were dressed in an especially unique way. It was a crowd of cross-dressers. The men were in dresses (polka-dots being the preferred pattern) and the women were in men's clothing. We found these guys to be especially fetching.

Many of the roads around Clear Lake are small and several in our group had a hard time finding our host home. They ended up around the lake at the main beach. Tired and hot, they were discouraged when they learned they had to ride about 7 miles back to us. Cheryl solved the problem by getting their boat out and offering a taxi service. Of course, a bunch of us had to go along to identify our riders for them. How else would they find each other? It was a great day to be out on the lake and we all loved the ride.
Cathy didn't go along for the boat ride because Bill had just ridden up and wanted to eat lunch and have a beer. As it turned out, they experienced the best event of the day! Remember those strange-looking cross-dressers we'd all seen arrive earlier? Suddenly, someone came through the crowd and announced there was going to be a wedding and the groom was buying a round of beer for everyone there. Not about to miss a free brewski, Bill and Cathy decided to hang around for a little while. And they got a show. All the polka-dot clad couples formed a line and processed in - they were the friends of the bride and groom who'd all particpated in the RAGBRAI ride! The groom, attired in a black straw hat, sequinned jacket and short black skirt joined his betrothed, wearing a long black-and-white polka dot dress, a red straw hat and Jackie O sunglasses. The minister wore a long floral-print dress with feather trim. All sipped margaritas. Despite the crazy clothing, Cathy said the service was actually very sweet and they really were getting married.

Of course, Captain Bill quickly offered his congratulations to the happy couple. We learned from the newspaper the next day that the couple had met on a RAGBRAI ride the year before. The actual reception was to take place the following night in the next town on the ride.This lovely lakeside place was our home for the night. A series of decks made the distance down to the water easier to handle. The view across to Clear Lake was spectacular. Ann and Byron live in nearby Mason City (about 10 miles) and come and go much as folks do with Club Lake, mainly because of the winters.

Clear Lake does freeze over and therefore offers a variety of winter activities, too. Ice fishing, ice sailing and snowmobiling are popular sports. Cheryl told us that they take in the docks every winter because the lake freezes. Each house has a boat house on shore where they can store everything. Cheryl pointed out that their dock was in sections and built of lightweight material so it could be done easily and quickly. All the Texans were agog at this idea.

Ann and Byron offered a boat ride to the riders while the support crew cooked dinner. Because they'd been so nice to us, we invited the neighbors to join us, too.
City Beach at Clear Lake was a very popular spot. It was also the scene of fireworks and a concert in the evening. We didn't have to go anywhere but the deck to enjoy it all. Furthermore, a big cold front was on the way and the line of thunderstorms provided nature's fireworks. It passed overnight, bringing cooler weather in its wake.

1 comment:

  1. howdy! I am the groom from the clear lake wedding. I DO recall speaking with captain bill following the wedding ceremony. my wife, sue, and I appreciate your wife's kind review of the ceremony.
    it was light-hearted by design, as we all are veterans of decades of good times on ragbrai, and in fact, the wedding (a real one) was fashioned after a fake one we did back in 1995 in the beer garden in pilot mound.
    getting married on ragbrai was the easiest way to do it, as all our friends would be there anyway.
    thanks for the photos.
    --kim west (the groom)

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