RAGBRAI 2008 Day 6

This day's ride was from North Liberty to Tipton on July 25. My distance total was 69.41 miles with an average speed of 12.4 mph (5h 34m). For one of the shorter rides, this was a deceptively hilly one but nothing that phased any of the riders too much, at least as far as I could tell. I had the impression that most people were taking it in stride as they considered how straightforward (i.e., very few hills and only 53 miles) the last (July 26) day's ride would be to Le Claire and the welcome banks of the mighty Mississippi. The interesting person of the day award goes to Theresa, an ex-colleague from Rockwell ... I'm not sure if we were in Mt. Vernon or Martelle but I think it was Martelle. Theresa, as you might guess from the picture, rides with the ConeHeads.


The morning's ride was again under cloudy skies and so it was nice and cool. The kind of day where one could easily "ride forever" ... well, except for the pain in one's butt, of course ... hehe.

Upon arriving at Tipton, I was in for a nice surprise as there was an indoor place available to stay. However, it was only about 1:15 and the owner of the home, Pat, was not going to be back until after 2:30. So I stopped at a Subway and had lunch and then spent time writing notes in my journal as well as catching up on the news, as they had a few (Davenport) papers available for customers. After that welcome break I rode back over to Pat's house (see picture, immediately below) to introduce myself.


Somehow, I now realize, I never did get a picture of Pat, but we sure had fun that day. I told her I was an engineer type and would be glad to offer her computer assistance in exchange for a shower and a nice bed in which to sleep. She laughed ... and I could see that she did, indeed, have something in mind for me to help with on her PC.

That "something" involved helping her set up a mechanism to save email attachments (pictures) for easy reference and so she could then delete the associated emails and "thin down the herd" of email in her inbox. This was fun to do and I also helped her set up a new gmail account as one of her issues was an abundance of SPAM (and who among us doesn't have that as a problem?) and I really like gmail's automated SPAM filter. Got that all working and went uptown for some pasta and pie dinner while taking in a few of the sights ... then I was ready to hit the sack.

Turns out we had about 1/2 dozen more riders stay there and even more stopped in to shower. I tell you, it's so very nice of folks to offer up such seemingly simple amenities to the riders ... very much appreciated by all.

As a postscript, Pat and I have exchanged emails regarding more PC questions and I think we shall simply be friends for a very long time.

Tomorrow, the final day ... I was glad to see it arrive!