R17 51 Day 3.1 Algona to Clear Lake: The Great Bike Walk Across Iowa

Just riding along, until we weren't 

We left our breakfast spot and headed off, mostly straight, towards the eastern horizon. It was fairly flat and a really pretty day. But then, off in the distance, I could see vultures swarming and a massing of people on the slopes of a mild hill. What was afoot? 

I arrived near the base of the "hill" and found that all of ragby had decided to stop and get off their bikes and walk. No one near me knew why we were walking, and grumpily, I decided to try to stay on my bike as long as I could--dislocated elbows be damned. A couple riders around me did the same thing and very slowly we crept up the hill. 

RAGBWAI

Finally, I was forced to dismount, grumbling and whining the whole time. "There better be a massive wreck at the top of this hill, damnit."

After about 10 minutes of walking we crested the hill and found...nothing. No reason to be walking at all. The hill wasn't even that steep. It was barely a hill. This would be one of those mysteries that never gets solved. Who had caused this walk? When had it started? And why? Ragbrai is such a massive accordion that in theory, someone could have crashed mid-hill hours before and we were still walking all day long, even after the ambulance had scooped them up. 

At the top, refreshed, I remounted and returned to the road. Not long after the hill debacle, I came to the north turn. Hooray! Tailwind, for about a half a mile. I loved every minute of it and flew into the tiny town of Wesley where I found the beavers waiting near a blocked off street. 

Watching ragby turn

But we weren't all accounted for. Where was Kenny? 

After a healthy wait, we decided that the majority of the beavers would head down the closed road into town, and I would wait for Kenny. We would all meet up in the bar in town. And that is what we did. 

Beavers hanging

Bandit, we miss you already!

We parked the bikes near the fire station and went into the bar, where we found Lars, aka Tazi My Poochy, manning the bar, and we all got bloody marys and beers and whathaveyou and found a table in the back under a bunch of vintage cans. 

Applesauce squeeze 

We had to do something to pass the time back there, so I teased Kenny about using little kid's applesauce squeeze pouches instead of Gu tubes or whatever. In hindsight, that may have been misdirected. I am sure those applesauce packs are cheaper and less chemically than Gu. 

And then, we got Steven to do the strawpedo. I honestly do not understand the physics of the strawpedo, so some other beaver will need to get on here and explain. 

Step One: Wrap Lips Around Bottle

Step 2: Chug

Step 3: Oh God. 

Eventually, we rounded ourselves up and  headed for the bikes. Steven and I filled our bottles in the fire station. And did some recruiting. 

Welcome to the team. 

We decided we needed a "team pee," a new phenomenon from this year's ragbrai (the team that pees together stays together).

Then we all emerged from the corn and headed towards Britt.