2011 RAGBRAI day 2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Jul 27, 2011 9:37 PM
Subject: 2011 RAGBRAI day 2
To: <blog@gmail.com>

with a ride this short, the key day is day 2...and you don't know anything until you wake up...

maybe the day before has been to harsh and you're just going to cronenberg on the first incline...our maybe it's all going to be cakewalk.

today was the day with the most vertical gain of the entire ride...about a mile, so if things could go bad, in would probably be here.

I slept 6 hours straight -and while it was shorter than my preferred 9- it was still solid.

mounting my bike was easy, with no saddle soreness of any kind...my combination of 5 advil during the day along with 2 generous helpings of bag balm, seemed to be doing the trick.

overall all the riding was a breeze...i started off solid and got stronger as the heat climbed...

I ran into my brother at the one stroke Ice cream place and we rode a bit together.  when we pulled into kimballton (i think) and along with the town pull-out-the-stops-for-ragbrai antics, they had a constitution quiz...i told the iowa high school sweeties that my brother and I would take the test together in collaboration -- the same way the constitution itself was done.

we missed 4 of the dozen or so, fairly difficult questions.  being hot, tired and exerted doesn't help...nothing else could explain why I choose jefferson as the father of the constitution over madison.

but we were split on the last question...it was a question of what collective rights were granted by the bill of rights and my brother and I disagreed...i noted that to the proctor, and it turned out *i* was right, but my brother with the political science degree was wrong.

we were given a free constitution for partaking in the event...i forced that document on my brother, saying he clearly needed to study more than I did...and *I* took a US flag pin.

I asked if missing that many questions meant I would have my passport revoked....problematic since I had to go to italy in november.

they got remarkably serious "no! no! no!"

then I asked if my test scores were going to be sent to homeland security...it was right about here that they more-our-less quit talking to me.

our "group leader," the pal of my brother's, has set us up and some mildly higher-brow camps, but when I pull into atlantic, there's no hint as to where my bags would be picked up to carry them forward, AND one of my shoes also managed to completely delaminate a sole.

I keep trying to contact everyone possible as I go through the notions out buying a new pair of shoes (not nearly as cool as my purple and orange northwaves). 

the cell service here is terribly blocked up, thanks to the rolling city that's moving with us...AT&T customers aren't working at all -- and it's REALLY pissing off all the snooty Iphone users.

finally I realize, hey man, I've got all my camping stuff right here...I'll just camp.

so I do.

ignoring local fare, I opt instead for pizza hut...something about unlimited ice tea and air comforting sound really really good right about now.

our waitress is named "mistery," and I ask her if that's a real name, or if she's just picked out something fake because she's hot, doesn't want people to know her real name and had intentionally misspelled so it would look "real."

not only is it her real name (her parents wanted a son and hadn't picked a boy's name), she thinks this comment is absolutely hilarious and gives us the shockingly better service than anyone else in the joint (even going so fat as to give) my ice tea in a to go cup).

as we left she said, "i really appreciate you guys paying attention.  I get customers in here every day who don't even know my name."

I don't know how that's possible.  her name tag is on her right boob for chrissakes...

...and I'm not even a boob guy.