The Cats Are Herded

Day Five: Lawrence to Daykin

Davenport, Carlton, Bruning, Daykin

57 miles...5 hours in the saddle

This morning, I was rudely awakened by the blazing sun in my face. We had camped in the park last night and forgotten the first rule of setting up your tent: make sure you're on the west side of a tree or other obstacle, so that you'll be in the shade in the morning.

Bad tent placement.

Good tent placement...Bob and Noelle.

But at least we weren't near the sprinkler.

Here are the rest of the crew in the picnic shelter...also nicely shaded.

Anyway, I was sure it was frighteningly early, but actually it turned out to be almost 9:00. So I guess it was time to get up anyway.

Breakfast at Dick's Place consisted of a banana, coffee, grape jelly toast, and some Cheerios I bought at the grocery store next door. So not my usual bike ride breakfast, which would be more like scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast, pancakes, coffee, orange juice, and sometimes oatmeal. Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day. More on that later.

Maybe it wasn't really 1971??

Getting ready to leave Lawrence...Bob and Noelle.

Peace out...Hajdu.

Anyway, after that I went over to Paula's to try to post, which worked out fine even though she wasn't home. Mark, Al, and I took off for Davenport around 11...everyone else had taken off earlier.

We were doing fine for about 22 miles, and then I just got hungry and had to stop. Really, the vultures were circling!

My optimal cruising speed at that point.

A quick stop by the side of the road with some crackers, peanut butter, and Oreos saved me and we made it the last three miles to Davenport.

We've seen an assortment of animals on the trip so far, besides these turkey vultures, including hawks, swallows, bats, bull snakes, rattlesnakes (one alive, herded off the road to safety by Hajdu), rabbits, grasshoppers (it was like parting the Red Sea the first few days, with grasshoppers jumping away from the bike as we rode down the shoulder...unfortunately, they sometimes chose unwisely, direction-wise, and jumped right into the wheel through the spokes, probably not to hop in the grass another day), goats, pheasant, deer, red-headed woodpecker, blue heron, and meadowlark. Plus a lot of road kill, unfortunately. Pobrecitos.

We left Davenport and some of the group stopped at Carlton, which turned out to be a very fun town...the bar was closed, but the mayor's dad happened to be driving by and obliged everyone by opening the bar. Bob, Noelle, Al, Mark, and I went straight to Bruning, where I had a GREAT BREAKFAST! At 5:30 p.m., but who cares. Betty of Betty's Cafe made me two scrambled eggs, hash browns, and a pancake, and not just any pancake...a CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKE! It was DELICIOUS.

Pretty soon the other folks showed up, including the local guys from Carlton! We managed to herd all riders (miraculously) to the gazebo for an official group shot, graciously taken by someone eating at the cafe, who signed up to take one picture but ended up with six cameras (of course). THE CATS ARE HERDED. :-)

We rode from Bruning to Daykin, a very pleasant 17 miles, and here we are after a fine dinner of whitefish and baked potato. We're considering riding another 17 to Plymouth, but might end up staying here. If we ride on, it will be my first leg in the dark...kind of surprising, as we usually ride a leg in the dark every night.

A few other pictures from the day...

Lots o' corn.

Al working (yes, seriously...Al is riding with a mobile electronic office...mini-PC, HP computer, and is actually working while we ride. The evidence is right here!).

Lauree's hematoma...wow.

“Lady Sings the Bruise”
(caption courtesy of Bob Weiss)

Mark and I on the Oregon Trail! And speaking of Oregon, here are some fantastic blueberries we bought in rural Nebraska, and guess where they came from: (yes, you guessed it) Oregon.

Today's featured rig is Kentucky Jim's. Jim's handlebars feature a clown riding a dinosaur...which he says is indicative of some kind of analogy (you can make it for yourself). Jim has been riding the same bike with the same panniers since Hajdu introduced him to Ragbrai back in 1990 (it was a loaner bike that year, and then Jim bought this one). Jim has basically kept everything the same since then...which meant packing this year wasn't too much trouble, just had to grab everything that was sitting there since his last Ragbrai in 2002...oh, and fix his rear axle, which had fallen apart after the '02 ride. Jim rode about one mile to make sure everything was ship-shape in preparation for this year's ride.

Jim added some turkey feathers to his front panniers this year (found on the road...well, on a turkey) to provide the bike with some wings...on the back, note the Budweiser cup acquired with Susie Bowen (now Peace) on a Ragbrai of long ago and accompanying him ever since, great for scooping ice to put in the cooler. Or for carrying a giant sweet roll that eventually has to be discarded after days of riding around in the hot sun. Such a good-looking sweet roll, too...

In keeping with the keeping-everything-the-same on Jim's bike, he listens to tunes on his Panasonic player mounted to the front fork, which plays cassette tapes. Hey, at least they're not 8-track.

Looks like we're probably staying here, but you never know. There are good tunes on the jukebox and friendly people...and possibly a house to shower at, so I'm guessing we're staying. Over and out until tomorrow or the next wi-fi opportunity.