My RAGBRAI saga continues!  I wake up at 5:15 to the sound and smell of coffee brewing.  (Thanks, Mike!)  Today’s ride is going to be the longest ride of the week and the longest ride I’ve ever completed.  It is 84.3 miles with 3,252 feet of climb!  This is the day I’m most nervous about.

We take off from camp at 6:19 with plans to ride about 17 miles to Liberty Center.  The plan is to get breakfast there.  When we stop, we’re pretty disappointed by the lack of restrooms, the conditions of the ones that are provided, and the long lines for food.  So we ride another 7.6 miles to Lacona, and we’re glad we do.  The fire department had $5 sausage and egg biscuits and free coffee!  Plus there are plenty of porta potties.

The meeting town of Chariton is about 15 miles away.  During part of that distance I ride alongside a friendly cyclist wearing a white veil.  Her name is Virginia.  She’s from Virginia City, and she just got married the previous Thursday.  Her new husband is also doing RAGBRAI.  Here they are together when we ran into them again later on in the week.

When we get to Chariton, we stretch our legs by walking around the town square for a bit.  We are ahead of schedule to finish our ride, so I’m feeling good about that.  After seeing the square, we head to the Methodist church for lunch.

I’ve been wanting a maidrite sandwich, and that’s what they were serving!  I forgot to take a picture of mine before I devoured it, so this nice rider let me snap one of his.  I didn’t have onions on mine.  All the people of the church are so friendly.  Here are the ladies serving the maidrites to riders.

And the lady keeping the chips supplied.

These nice ladies are doling out the desserts.

The hungry riders who ate there were grateful for all the hard work the church people put into providing our lunch.

I really appreciate and love this printed prayer that was placed on all of the tables.

One of my water bottle carriers on my bike was super loose and had been flopping all around for the last several miles.  So after lunch I get it tightened at a bike repair van that is situated under the portico of the church.  A lady is asking if anyone nearby has eaten at the church, so we tell her we just did.  It turns out she is with the Iowa United Methodist Conference, and she asks if she can interview us.  We do the interview and she takes this picture of us.

Lunch was good fuel for our next stretch, since we decide to bypass the next pass-through town of Millerton, and we miss Bethlehem because we blink.  We don’t stop again for 23.5 miles when we reach Confidence.  I grab a banana and some water there, and then we’re back on the road for another 13 miles to Walnut City.  We stop at a roadside stand on the way there, and Lynn buys a shirt and some sort of nutrition bar.  It’s just a short stop for us in Walnut City.  Just long enough for me to sit 5 minutes with my shoes off. We decide to bypass the town of Mystic to reach our final destination for the day of Centerville.

YAY!  84.3 miles…DONE! The rest of the week should definitely be doable.

 

Mike had parked the motor home at a really nice spot by the city pool and park.  This is our view while sitting outside the camper.  The park even had disc golf.

 

Enjoying a beer outside the camper before our shower.

 

There is a food truck in the park, so we order dinner from there.  I showed half of a pork tenderloin sandwich in my first RAGBRAI post.  Now I order a whole one.  Look at this craziness!  And, yup…I ate the WHOLE thing!  I will sleep GOOD tonight.