Friday, July 27, 2007

Thursday

Coog and I had agreed to ride together one day- Thursday was it. We arranged to meet at his camp area (someone's back yard) at 7:30. Everyone in our camp is up way earlier and it's really impossible to sleep late. So, I got to his campsite a little after 7 and everyone was still sleeping. He had told me we'd ride out at 8-8:30. By 9:15 we were just rolling out. That was frustrating- it was getting hot. Anyway, we had breakfast at the house so when we got to the first town and he wanted to stop for another breakfast with his whole group, I didn't want to. He got mad about it and raised his voice to me and walked away very angry. I left him and rode by myself, which really I had been doing most of the week- you meet up with people, you ride alone, you meet up, you ride alone. Everyone goes their own pace.
Anyway, putting distance between me and him and his grouchiness, I located Patty (Sunshine). We had a wonderful day riding together- we were in the mood for exactly the same pace. Took some pictures, walked around towns, and met some Amish kids. At one place there was a sign for drinking water. Filling our bottles, I was thankful it was ice cold. I looked behind the fill station at the source of the water- it was a great big bucked filled with ice. It also had garbage, plants parts, and dead spiders. Ew. I drank it anyway cuz that's what you do on RAGBRAI.
When we got into town that night, me, John, John, Rob, Brad, a girl Chris, and Rick went for Chinese food. It took forever to get seated, served and out of there, but it was nice to have a real chair and air conditioning!

6 comments:

Eric J said...

A tarnished piece of brass amongst a week of shiny golden moments.

I've tried to explain BikeJournal to a few people, you just can't. I can't wait to sit down get plastered and hear all the great stories....

And of course, air conditioning.

Eric J

Stephen said...

Oh man, you're like 500 miles ahead of me now :( I think I'll take a trip to Staples and get some tacks =P

Kin said...

Sounds like it all worked out fine, especially after you dropped Grouchy. And we know that real cyclists like Floyd and Lance would never raise their voice at Jenni.

Great reports. Have an awesome finish and thanks for sharing your stories!

Anonymous said...

By 9AM you and I would have ridden 50+ miles, as we have done already, and we will do again.

Gerry

Jenni said...

Gerry 50 miles now feels as easy as falling out of bed.

Thanks Kin!!

Unknown said...

wooooooooow....so, not only did you embarrass me in front of my Iowa friends, you've embarrassed me in front of the whole RBC & this blogger community thing. Thanks for throwing me under the bus Jen!! Guess this is what I get for trying to share my RAGBRAI experiences with you. I just thought, maybe, you'd enjoy the day from a different perspective, one that I made clear to you on how it would go. I apologize for raising my voice to you, but I got a little emotional when my "friend" didnt want to spend the rest of the day with me. It was weird enough when you made completely independent travel plans, but I thought how awkward it would be if we didnt even ride one day together! Guess this too, became my tarnished piece of brass amongst many shiny golden moments. Sorry I ruined your day.