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RAGBRAI 2004 - Day Five - Thursday, July 29
84.3 miles - Marshalltown to Hiawatha - 1,962 feet of climb
Thursday dawned cloudy and humid; we knew it was goin to rain, we just didn't know when. This is the first morning town of Garwin. One of the churches in this town had some really good cinammon rolls.
Find the funny thing about this picture. Still need some help? Look at the signs on the left.
Still in Garwin, Jeff thought this was neat, so he took a picture of me by the sign.
In the next town of Clutier. Notice how everything is soaking wet. About ten minutes out of Garwin, it started raining pretty heavily. It really wasn't too bad riding in the rain, except when you were going 25+ mph down a hill - then that rain hurts!
Elberon is half a mile down the road - you can just make out some farm buildings on the left side of the picture. We decided not to ride down the road to get to it, since we didn't need to stop. Oh, and the next town of Keystone was also a mile or so off the road, so we didn't stop there either, and I missed the picture.
Van Horne was probably the smallest meeting town we found, though that was kind of a good thing. A huge number of team busses were parked along the main route, so we got to see more of them than we did in other towns - and there are some very amusing teams. More on that later.
The "town" of Newhall. Literally no more than two dozen buildings, but we stopped at a gas station for a restroom break.
Unfortunately, the town of Atkins was a mile or more off the route again, so it was another town we didn't go to - and another town I missed a picture of. This is the town of Palo, which had an abundance of bars, and a full beer garden, plus some quality muscial entertainment. Staying with a common theme, though, we didn't stay for too long.
After we got in to Hiawatha, we went downtown to check out the festivities. Hiawatha went all out for us, with legions of cheering people as we rode in handing out all kinds of free stuff, and Hawaiian-themed parties all over downtown. This is Steve sitting on Jeff's lap as we tried to cram six people into a mid-size car.
An extreme close-up of Erin. Why isn't the small girl sitting on Jeff's lap in the front, instead of the much larger Steve? I don't remember, but I'm sure there wasn't a good reason.
A look down the residential street we rode into town on, towards the main festival grounds.
This was ingenious. Some boy scouts had this rigged up - you had someone sit on the white bucket in the background, and whenever you would make a putt on the blue carpet, the toilet above the bucket would "flush" and drench the person below. Extremely entertaining.
This is the bustling main fairgrounds. Hiawatha had some of the most extensive and entertaining festivities. They really went all out. Oh yeah, and I called Megan, of spring break SCUBA diving fame, when we got in, and she came and hung out with us for awhile too, which was awesome.
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On to day six -->
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