The Ozark Cycling Photographer: Ragbrai 2010: July 27, Day Three

The pass through towns today included Wesley, Britt and Garner. Destination for the day, Clear Lake.
After yesterday's perfect riding weather, today was a little less friendly. Had some head winds, and temperatures in the 90's.
As has become my habit, I missed a turn, and ended up touring the town before finding our host family.
Clear Lake was a beautiful town, very elaborately decorated for the event. I over-shot my turn off, ended up riding an almost complete loop around the lake. The lake has a perimeter of just 14 miles, and is only 20' deep. The town put on a very nice fireworks display that evening.

Jason pumping up tires. This is something we do each morning. I want every pound of pressure possible in my tires, so the bike rolls as easy as possible. I'm writing in my journal.

Jason, Karla and I, pose for a photo before hitting the road.

Didn't see too many cowboys on the ride.

This family got a lot of publicity on the ride. Count them. That's a triple bike, with a tag along attached. Plus there are 2 smaller children in the "chariot"! Yes, six people on one bike!

Biking is a low impact sport, so it's not uncommon to see people in their 70's or even 80's on Ragbrai!

Seems that anytime a very large group is gathered, you'll find musicians doing their thing.

Pancakes at the lumber yard! Don't recall if this was a fire department or what, but was a rather unique setting for breakfast. As best I recall, there wasn't a real long line.

This town had characters from the Andy Griffith show. I assume this is supposed to be Barney and Otis.

This was my first meeting with Mr Carter LeBeau. Retired from the Des Moines Register Newspaper, he is the only person to have ridden in all 38 Ragbrai's. You can always spot him by his trademark socks.

This fellow had some sort of soil conservation display set up.

Since I eat a pescetarian diet (a vegetarian who occasionally eats fish), I'll occasionally eat an egg for some protein. Here I found someone selling hard boiled eggs.

Enjoying a veggie burrito for lunch.

A display from a local taxidermist.

This young lady was keeping riders cool, by spraying them with a water hose. I tried to avoid those, as I usually had my camera out.

I'd never seen anything like this, it's call an "EliptiGo". Here's link if you want to know more:
http://www.elliptigo.com/

Stood in line here for about 45 minutes for ice cream. Might have been ok, it was one of the hotter days.

I finally arrived at Clear Lake. What a pretty little town!

The home of our hosts for the evening.

Our host, Scott was also a cyclist. He rides a bike and delivers mail. Karla and Jason were having a little trouble finding the house, so he went to lead them in.

Me taking advantage of the hammock.

Karla and Jason helped shuck corn.

Looks like I was in a daze, while Jason caught up on the news.

Our hosts, Scott and Mary, treated us to home-made, grilled pizza. I'd never had grilled pizza before, but it was great. First, you top your own pizza, then he had a couple of grills set up, with indirect heat. Put your pizza on the grill, and in less than 10 minutes, it's ready to eat!