And We're Off

Day 1 is over and we have survived! It was much more challenging than I anticipated, but it was a lot of fun as the photos illustrate. Whoever said that Iowa was flat hasn't been to Iowa. Tomorrow will most likely be our toughest day, one of the longest (72 miles) and as hilly as today. I have been hearing rumors of bad weather rolling in later tomorrow. If it does, I'm hoping the worst of it will pass by Tuesday morning.

There are so many riders that we have overloaded the cell networks of these little towns. So, there was almost no cell phone coverage. In fact, I'm sitting outside the local fire house on the grass and jumping on their unsecure wireless network to post this blog.

Enjoy the pictures below. Hopefully, I will be able to post some more tomorrow.

All set to take off, and we didn't even have to pull Julie out of the casino.

There were so many riders that we had to walk our bikes through small towns.

Riders come in all shapes and sizes

and weirdness

WHY WE RIDE!!

How can you beat having a beer at 10:30 am on a Sunday morning?

And with a beer garden like this, how can you blame us?

When your 45 miles into a 55 mile ride, you need to stop for another beer. Hell, it was also late in the day. I think about noon.