With the 84-mile day behind me, I was breathing easier about finishing the rest of the bike ride.  Thursday’s ride was 65.9 miles with 2,328 feet of climb.  Almost 20 miles less than the day before.  Today was RAGBRAI jersey day.

Here we are wearing our RAGBRAI jerseys and ready to begin the ride at around 6:30 a.m.

There are a LOT of people who do RAGBRAI every year or at least on some kind of regular basis.  So we saw many riders sporting RAGBRAI jerseys from previous years, too.

 

West Grove

I believe it was in the first pass-through town of West Grove where we saw this Amish lady.

 

When we first saw her, the horse was loose from the cart.  She was trying to cajole him back in place.  All the riders pretty much froze in their tracks and watched until she was on her way again.

 

Bloomfield

We didn’t spend much time in West Grove before going on to Bloomfield, the meeting town for the day.  Bloomfield was about 25 miles into the day’s ride.   Lynn was nowhere to be found upon my arrival.  Cell service had been super sketchy for me out in the rural areas where we were biking.  So I was really thankful that I was getting excellent reception in Bloomfield.  I was able to call Lynn.  Her front tire had been punctured and gone flat about a mile or so outside the town.  Two other riders stopped to help her fix the tire enough to ride into town.  Once there, she was able to have it replaced at the bike repair tent.

Once Lynn’s bike was good to go, we made our way to the Bloomfield Christian Church for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside they were serving Scotch Eggs.  I had never heard of them before.

 

 

Turns out a Scotch Egg is a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage, then breaded and deep fried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scotch Eggs were delicious!  I added the peach muffin for some sweetness and washed it all down with the coffee.

Back outside the church, as we were preparing to saddle up, a friendly rider from Seminole, FL struck up a conversation with us.  His name was Dave.  We talked about the ride, family, and plans for the rest of the summer.  It was obvious that this man loved his grandkids just like we do.

On the way through town, we saw they were giving out free corn on the cob in the square.  I would have had one, but I was too stuffed to put one more thing in my belly after that yummy breakfast.  But Lynn indulged.

The courthouse in Bloomfield was built in 1877 and is representative of French Renaissance architecture.

Troy

The next pass-through town was Troy, a little over 11 miles down the road.  We stopped there just for a restroom break, but as we were waiting in line for the porta potty, we saw this ice-water tank.

 

There were washers in the bottom of the tank, some of which were marked.  The idea was to scoop up as many washers as you could in 30 seconds.  The marked ones would win you cash.  It cost $5 to endure that punishment!  The guy in the blue shirt looking on just finished.  He put his head, shoulders, and arms in and decided it was enough after less than 15 seconds.  The fella in the picture above chose to go ALL IN!

Needless to say, he didn’t use up his whole 30 seconds either.  Ha!  Some crazy people do RAGBRAI!

 

Silos were a common site in almost every town.

 

As we headed back to our bikes, which were leaned up against a silo, we ran into Dave from Seminole again.  This time we got a photo.

 

 

Leando

After riding another 15 miles, we stopped in Leando to get a look at the one-room schoolhouse there.  Being retired school teachers ourselves, we couldn’t pass it up!

The Valley No. 3 Country School was built in 1928 and was closed in 1966.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This old school bus was parked out in front of the school.

Can you imagine riding to school in a horse-drawn school bus?

 

Douds

We had a late lunch in the town of Douds.  I had an andouille sandwich followed by an ice cream sandwich for dessert.  We met a cute couple who were sitting across from us as we ate.  They met at RAGBRAI  9 years ago and are still together and doing RAGBRAI.

 

 

The theme in Douds was Flinstone-esque: YABBA DABBA DOUDS.  And the volunteers wore shirts to reflect the theme.

 

Before leaving Douds, I signed their RAGBRAI wall.

 

 

Fairfield

We touched base in Libertyville, but decided to head on to the final destination for the day: Fairfield.  We arrived there a little before 5:00.

 

The theme in Fairfield was “Geared for Weird”.  They hosted a Steampunk Glow Party right in the center of their downtown area.  Because the motor home was parked on the outskirts of town on the fairgrounds, we spent a little bit of time downtown first so we could experience some of what the townspeople were offering.

Central Park was decorated for the festivities.

 

These ladies were part of a dance troupe that performed on stage.  We didn’t see their performance, but when I saw them hanging out in the park, I had to snap a pic.

 

I think these two gentlemen may have been the Masters of Ceremony for the event, but I’m not 100% sure on that.  They certainly look the part!

After enjoying the happenings downtown for a while, we rode on out to the fairgrounds to meet up with Mike.  We had a scrumptious dinner of beef kabobs and noodles.  That Iowa beef is a pretty stiff competitor with our Texas beef.

 

This was our transportation to the showers.

 

And these were the showers.

 

Yup!  We showered in a livestock barn.  AND we paid $5 to do it!  Lynn and I agreed that this was the worst shower set-up of the week.  You encounter a wide range of experiences when you do RAGBRAI!  At least we were clean, right?

One more day completed.  Next up…Day 6!