Post 11 - Day 4: Webster City to Marshalltown (Hump Day)

Today's miles: 77.1

Total ride miles: 274.7

Temp: 102 degrees (feels like hottest day yet)

The B52s got a great jump on the day only to quickly learn that the weather had melted many a bike brain. The less advanced and even some of the Lance Armstrong types were all over the road, figuratively and literally. Lots of crashes and skinned knees and elbows.  But the experienced and ever so safety-conscious B52s powered through the day unscathed.  With one small set back--reportedly, some of our team were a little on edge, even grumpy you might say. In the spirit of team loyalty, we won't name names.

Day 4 - leaving Webster City

Today's ride took us through more beautiful and scenic areas:

Iowa country-side

After 3 days of riding in 100 degree temperatures, the B52s finally had to break into the well kept SECRETS of the sport of cycling:

RAGBRAI meds

After successfully navigating Hump Day - the B52s arrived at our campsite around 12:30pm.  And thus began our long journey into the night.

Setting up camp in Riverview Park, Marshalltown

Ride recovery began as usual with cartons of chocolate milk.  After the group cleaned up, we retreated to A/C in the support mobile to work on the blog. Within 10 minutes, the team was toast!  So much for helping out with the blog.

Steve taking a well-deserved nap

Betsy relaxing in the RV

Gwen & Kris working on the blog

Nap time passed and we began our daily search for a cool place to hang out until the temps dropped to a respectable 95 degrees. That put us back to our campsite around 9:30p. As we made final preparations for Day 5 - ominous signs were looming...

Storm is a-comin'

Suddenly, yes suddenly, the skies lit up and the long awaited "severe" thunderstorm was upon us. We gathered in the RV to go over the Ragbrai safety manual on "severe" thunderstorms and to play "name that famous tv show theme-song tune." Unfortunately for Soni, Big Valley never came up.

Seeing that none of the lightening seemed to be hitting ground, the campers returned to their tents under the trees and promptly got on their cell phones to keep each other informed. Elaine called Lisa in SLC and asked her to call Kris to let her know that she was scared and not very happy about the storm. So - Lisa obliged and called Kris, whose tent was two feet away from Elaine. Then Kris called Elaine, and well, it was ridiculous. In the end, the storm passed and not a single tent or B52 was lost.