RAGBRAI 2016 Day 6: Ottumwa to Washington, 68.5 Miles

Somehow the week of RAGBRAI has gone very fast. I guess that means we are enjoying ourselves :). Waking up this morning with just two days and a night left was a shock. So were the rain clouds.  The cool weather was nice, and the tailwind. Today's ride was almost 70 miles so nothing to take lightly.   A little push from the wind was always nice. Jim said "what tailwind?" Then looked at his speedometer which said 20 mph.  Oh.

The clouds threatened all day but it never did more than sprinkle.  I found pancakes for breakfast which I had been dreaming about, but true to form was hungry again 5 miles later.  Then it seemed like some of the roadside stands had been scared off by the rain.  The pass through towns were a little short on food too.  Partly that was our fault...we saw large signs for a root beer float on the other side of town and passed up everything else. Then the root beer stand just wasn't there. Doh. And it was then 20 miles to the next town. Argh. Luckily the Amish stand saved our bacon with fresh pie and homemade ice cream. 

But there was definitely less pie and cookies than usual on the route today.  Everyone is starting to look a little ....haggard.  I'm sure we all have sore legs and butts. The band played until 1 am last night, and the fireworks woke everyone up at 10:30.  Not sure if I could drink and party and still get up to ride the next morning! 

But the rain held away from the route and  overnight town even if there were flash flood warnings all around us. The sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon.  We are looking forward to a short flat day to finish tomorrow.

Here's some interesting facts about todays route from the official RAGBRAI Pre-Ride back in June:
http://ragbrai.com/2016/06/10/ragbrai-route-inspection-pre-ride-day-6-ottumwa-to-washington/

Friday’s Route:
Ottumwa to Hedrick – 17.0 miles
Hedrick to Hayesville – 14.4 miles
Hayesville to Sigourney (Meeting)  – 7.2 miles
Sigourney to Wooden Wheel Vineyard – 15.7 miles
Wooden Wheel Vineyard to West Chester – 4.7 miles
West Chester to Washington– 9.5 miles

Total Mileage – 68.5 milesTotal Feet of Climb – 2,541