TOO MUCH FUN!

Yesterday morning I got up a bit earlier than normal. I was thinking that I could finish my chores, set up my canopy and put out my baked goods for the RAGBRAI bikers before they started to make their way down our road toward their final destination. Let me tell you, there are some serious bikers in that bunch...a few started trickling by at 6 am. Considering that they started out that morning from a town 32 miles away and were already arriving here at 6 am.....I'm just sayin' I was impressed.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had lots of family and friends at our place to watch the entertainment roll by. My grand-nephew, Zach, watched intently hoping to gain a spot in the never-ending flow of bikers. Unfortunately for aspiring biker Zach, his mother had other ideas.

By late morning the slow trickle of bikers turned into a steady stream of bicycles, spandex and crazy costumes....Not sure what this was about....

Here is some serious bikage.

There was every configuration of bike imaginable.

I think this one looks like something plucked from a Dr. Suess book.

Above Zach is trading stories of the road with one of his new found friends.....under the watchful eye of his mother....oh, yeah, Zach is a hard core biker-boy.
There was such a flury of activity that we missed seeing some of the stand-outs. I was told that there were a couple of unicyclists that made the trip, as well as a group calling themselves "Team Bad Boy", that travel towing coolers, a mini bar and a grill so that they are ready for any situation. Totally missed seeing the rider that was dressed as a banana....that's okay though. We did, however, see and meet an endless array of wonderful people from almost every state (where were you Hawaii?) and all around the world. Our front yard turned into a make-shift rest station where riders stopped to sit in the shade, nap on the lawn, repair their bikes, and just eat some cookies.....a LOT of cookies. At various times I would run in the house, mix up cookie dough, put the cookies in the oven and run back outside while the cookies baked...I only lost track of time on two batches, they got a little 'overdone', shall we say.

The great part about RAGBRAI is that it is a ride, not a race, so people feel free to stop and visit along the route, some of our guests spent nearly an hour at our place. They took pictures of the sheep and llamas...and us. And we took pictures of them and listened to their stories.....SO much fun. I love meeting people from other places, and what better way to meet people than lure them into your front yard with homemade, fresh out of the oven, chocolate chip cookies?

Here are a few pictures of some of the people we met showing some of the places represented.

Team Great Britain

Texas

Team Italia......these guys (and girls) were awesome....thanks Kate for showing us your bum! So friendly and happy......didn't understand a word the guys were saying, but boy were they fun!

Here is Marie with some of the team. Okay, Okay, so I have a LOT of pictures of team Italia. Give me a break, who doesn't want to see handsome Italian men in spandex?

Minnesota was represented.

These are some of the nice 'Loons' that stopped to visit with us. Very nice Minnesotans.

It was a wonderful day, and I want to thank all of our new friends for stopping by and taking the time to let us get to know a little bit about your lives. I am kind of sad now that RAGBRAI changes it's route every year and will probably not pass this way again. Perhaps I will have to ride it someday..........hmmmm.....471 miles on a bike...........maybe not.

As for Zach, all that tricycle riding up and down the driveway, chatting it up with the riders and yelling "have a good ride", as they left the property, was a bit much for this three-year-old hard-core biker dude. He and Bosco had to take a little mid-afternoon snooze.