A rebound ride

Friday's ride was great, such a relief after the struggle on Thursday. It was shorter, 64.1 miles, but still 3,051 feet of climb. What would have seemed like steep hills a week ago are just slopes now! It was a bit cooler than we would have liked early on, but not bone-chillingly so like Thursday. And most of the last half of the ride was pretty darn flat, without the head wind we've had for most of the ride.
We're at a library, so we can write a bit more, but there's a 15-minute time limit. Nothing like a deadline!
We would be remiss if we didn't write about the food on RAGBRAI, a big part of the experience. RAGBRAI is in essence a big fundraiser for all the towns along the way. The 4-H kids, Scouts, churches, fire departments, PTAs, etc., all staff booths with everything from water and Gatorade to burgers and brats. We're partial to the kids' groups, and Carol likes to sample from what's something of a competition between the church ladies of Iowa to make the best pies. There's even a team called Pie Hunters, who wear wedges of pie on their heads, with the label of what kind each is looking for: dutch apple, gooseberry, cherry, etc. We've sampled some of the Iowa specialties, such as pork chop on a stick and the half-pound pork tenderloin sandwich (split between the two of us, it was still huge). (For our foreign friends, Iowa is the No. 1 pork producer in the U.S., so pigs are a big deal.)
Linda overheard a group of thin, young male riders say they were going to have at least one big dessert each day. One of them replied: "But we had four ice creams yesterday." The reply: "Ice cream is just fluff. It doesn't count." Oh, to have the metabolism of a 20-year-old again!