Travel day to Iowa, Part 2

Checked in and showered. The haze of waking up at 3am is temporarily gone. So, about the people here...apparently, RAGBRAI is quite the national event. We met a guy on the plane who is a cancer survivor and riding on the Live Strong team at RAGBRAI. He was coming in from Maryland. As we were waiting for the hotel shuttle, we met another guy who was unpacking his bike to ride from the airport to the campground (good luck to him trying to ride with his overstuffed duffle sack on his back). And then, at the hotel, we met a few other folks from different parts of California. All of them were friendly and nice, well maybe except for the one guy who left us stranded at the hotel, but that's a long story. And then there was this family from Sacramento, but the husband and wife grew up in Iowa. Too bad their son broke his collar bone in a bike accident a week before RAGBRAI. Oh well, there's always next year for him. The common thread among all, passion for adventure. We talked about bike cases, riding, pie, unusual characters at past RAGBRAI rides and more. The first question is usually, so, is this your first time? Virgin talk is very popular.

There's a RAGBRAI expo where vendors sell their wares. As we were strolling through there, many people were riding their bikes. There was someone on those old-fashioned bikes with the front wheel very large and the back wheel very small. There were recumbents and tandems, and then of course the usual bicycles - some carbon fiber, aluminum and steel. What was noticeable about walking through the expo was that there weren't a lot of minorities. In fact, I think we were the only minorities in that we are Chinese. My husband told me that last year, it was very similar. There was only one other Chinese guy, and he sought Rick out. I found that pretty funny. I'll have to see what the crowd looks like on the first day of the ride. The plan is to go to the river and dip the front wheel and then start the journey. Day 1 is supposed to be 52.6 miles with a cumulative elevation of 3,864 feet. Hope I make it!