Sunday

I'm not being all that productive today. Those two days on the bike were not necessarily exhaustive, but a day of rest seems like the right call. Having all the comforts of home on Friday night (shower, regular bed rather than a tent and sleeping bag, and a great home-cooked meal) was the key to even doing two days of RAGBRAI. 2 is DAUGHTER OF THE DAY for acting as our hostess with the mostest. Thanks, Kiddo.

Here's a Top Ten list from those two days:

1. Our plans for getting to our targeted starting point, getting my pal Pete back to the Quads on Friday night, and getting my pal Ron's and my gear back here from IC all worked, but it wasn't the smoothest program.
2. We managed to make the small towns of Lisbon and Solon excellent adventures on Friday. A small town on RAGBRAI can be worth the visit.
3. I think 65 miles is about as much as I want to ride on a single day. The RAGBRAI organizers must have 65-70 as their target daily mileage. And on both of the days that we rode, they had to stretch the distance between the overnight towns to get their mileage by doing some back-and-forth, circular routing that I found unfulfilling. Whatever.
4. If you can't get along with people on RAGBRAI, you are in need of serious help. People on this ride are universally pleasant, willing to share, and courteous at every level.
5. 12-16 ounce Coors Light cans would go for $2-5 depending on the town. Those great bloodies in Lisbon were only $3.
6. Lots of state troopers and local sheriffs on duty at traffic points. Never saw any of them have to do anything other than keep traffic moving.
7. There was an ENDLESS variety of cycling jerseys and teams. The Maplecrest Cycling Club was a Top Ten look, of course.
8. Cell phone service in towns where the ride stopped could be spotty. Some of my tweets would be delayed in posting. I've run into the same problem at Kinnick on game day.
9. I'm not sure why people would ride for the full week. Two days is plenty. I mean, it's a little repetitive, yes?
10. Really glad I wasn't in a car in Coralville on Friday night. It would have been a lousy night for a drive.

The morning paper did mention some RAGBRAI riders who got up at oh-dark-hundred in Iowa City on Saturday morning and got to Davenport in time to run the Bix 7 road race that stated at 0800. Yeah, that was on my list too. Although really, it wasn't that hard of a task considering that it was just over 60 miles of predominately flat roads with mostly a tailwind. It was doable for even an average rider. At least my pal Pete didn't try to pull that stunt.

I reserved our Hertz rental car for the September trip when we will be making the transfer from Barcelona to Bordeaux. The daily fee is almost in the "cheap" range. The kicker is the $350 drop-off fee since we won't be bringing the car back to the same rental location. We ran into the same type of add-on charge last year when we picked up the car in SF and turned it in in Reno. In doing some checking on-line, drop-off charges in Europe can regularly go to $500. I'm guessing that a more experienced traveler could find a better deal.

I have so much work to do before Europe that it's scary. Real scary.

The TdF ended today in Paris. I didn't follow it as much this year. The winner had been in the yellow jersey for most of the last two weeks. The only mystery today was who would get the stage win on the Champs-Élysées...and the guy who had won most of the earlier sprints won this one too. Meh. Little doping news this year. They must be using better drugs.

Shania is here in Moline tonight. We see her Tuesday in Minny. From what little reading I've done, her recent concerts have been fairly well reviewed. It would be a bummer if it was otherwise, eh?

OK, here's my take on The Donald. I've never liked the guy, never watched any of his shows, and disregarded his opinions on anything. What he is doing is tapping into the segment of conservatives who were maybe Tea Partiers...who want a voice to stop the Obama-Clinton progression to essentially a socialist form of government. So Trump gets a little more time in the spotlight while all of the other GOP candidates muddle the screen. My fear is that the ultimate outcome is that he runs as a third party next year and literally hands the election over to HRC (or Fauxcahontous Warren if H wears out her welcome). I've stopped reading, listening or watching any of them.

All for now. I hope to figure a way to get back here more regularly.

BCOT

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