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RAGBRAI 2004 - Day Three - Tuesday, July 27
71.4 miles - Fort Dodge to Iowa Falls - 1,057 feet of climb
The first stop out of town, a very popular place to get a little bit of breakfast. Starting to look the same as all the other little stops along the way? Yeah, I got that impression too at about this point.
Welcome to Badger. Between the helmet, gloves, shorts, and the windbreaker I'm wearing on only my right arm to shield the blisters from the sun, I think I look pretty good. ... Right.
The next stop of Eagle Grove. This town went all out - they had a theme of 'Turning Back Time', with old cars, old music, and all kinds of people in Grease-like costumes. We could have hung out in this town all day, but unfortunately, we had twenty miles and change before the meeting town. Oh yeah, we opted not to take the optional Century Loop that would have made the day a 100-mile journey.
Renae and Jeff go old-school with the Grease cutout.
"Smile with your eyes," they told me. Yeah.
Fittingly enough, the town of Eagle Grove had an actual eagle present. It was pretty cool to see this surprisingly large bird just sort of hanging out.
Another huge line of riders, literally as far as you can see. It was quite amazing to have this scene repeated day after day, no matter what pace we kept. And notice the yet-again perfect weather.
Renae, Jeff, and I (still with that attractive windbreaker!) at a brief stop at a roadside vendor.
The hopping meeting town of Dows. One of the larger towns on the route, and we rode right through its main street. One of the neatest things was the large yellow pool of water in the center of this picture; provided by the fire department, it was fun to see people ride into town and dive straight in.
It's amazing just how many people these towns see in such a short time.
Renae looks thrilled - or just plain irregular - as we roll into the next town of Popejoy.
Jeff, on the other hand, is slightly more relaxed.
We had a pace going and didn't want to stop it, so I took this picture from the saddle. This is some very nice pavement in the town of Popejoy. I promise that there's a town there too, but apparently I'm terrible at taking pictures on the go.
The root beer and hot dog man, the last stop before Iowa Falls. With very few exceptions, every vendor was set up this close to a cornfield.
The whole week was supposed to have a Mardi Gras theme; the theme itself had limited success, but it was cool to see things like this as you ride into the overnight towns.
Iowa Falls had a very nice band shell and park area in their downtown, and we hung out here and listened to some music for awhile. Iowa Falls did a good job of having entertainment out and available for all of us.
We watched a street entertainer for awhile, and Jeff and King got nominated to help him mount his unicycle. Shortly after this, the guy rubbed Jeff's head, and Jeff returned the favor by getting entirely too friendly with the guy's leg. I think they both enjoyed it.
Even after Jeff's mildly erotic leg-rubbing, he still had the concentration to do this. Pretty impressive.
Later, Jeff decided to go down a driveway face-first on a skateboard. Very possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen, and Jeff has the ripped gloves and scraped feet to prove it. He just looks like he's having fun!
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On to day four -->
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