Milford to Estherville 44 miles

Today was a shorter riding day highlighted by a bit of time in Minnesota, which was a first for RAGBRAI.

Our first stop in a park in Jackson County Minnesota, included a visit with the ladies from the SPAM museum in Austin, MN. Who knew there are so many flavors of SPAM.

We also signed up for a concert to win a SPAM cycling jersey. Not sure I would really wear it if I won it, so just as well that I didn’t win.

And apparently, there is a bicycle museum in Austin that includes this bicycle that is said to have been Robin Williams’ favorite bike.

We rode by beautiful Loon Lake.

And, asking for a friend, is 8:30am too early to eat homemade apple pie?

Followed by, is 9:30 too early for a freeze pop or 10:30 too early for a root beer float? There is a never-ending flow of people raising money for schools and goats and class trips, even the fire departments are trying to raise money.

I think there is a flag salesman that did very well in June. Almost every town has a huge flag flying.

Because we finished early, we had time to go into Estherville. They have what looks like a Carnegie Library, and a nice town square around which the vendors set up for the day.

We stopped to get a photo.

This was art in the park.

One of the best events of the day was back in camp. The Estherville Little League had a Human Slot Machine. Each of the “windows had a person with a basket of a variety of items: baseball, softball, banana, apple, orange, and a couoke other things. When the player hit the button, the “humans” spun their arms and when the music stopped they each picked up an item. If all three matched, you were a winner. I won with three softballs. It was very clever.

We had a very good campsite. For some reason, no one parked in our front lawn and we had a clear view to the playground.

Yesterday I forgot to include a photo of the fire hose “tug of war”. Two teams holding fire hoses trying to get the barrel to the other side

The shower on day two was similar to day one but a little less water pressure and the towel was rougher. I give it a 4, the walk to and from the shower was reasonable.