Iowa Falls to Cedar Falls: 51 miles, 1400 ft of climbing and lots of downhill.

Today was a fun day of riding. A cloudy day with the wind at our backs for part of the day and more descent than ascent. It was also a relatively short distance with some fun town stops along the way.

The first town was Ackley and in my book they win the prize for the town with the best alignment with the RAGBRAI theme. This year’s theme is Take Flight and RAGBRAI is raising money for Honor Flight.

Ackles handed out boarding passes last night at dinner and got us prepped for some of the vendors. This is the third time Ackley has hosted RAGBRAI in the last 10 years, so they have some experience. Anyway, they were all over the theme.

They boasted the largest paper airplane in Iowa…if that is something to boast about. You could sign the paper airplane.

There was also a fundraiser where you could make and fly your own paper airplane. Bill’s flew all the way down the field.

Money was more of something to look at than it was functional, but it went half way.

A fun little town.

No ice cream for us at this stop. It was only 7:45 am.

Today was wear your school colors or jersey day for RAGBRAI. We saw lots of schools represented, including one each from Arizona State and Univ of Cincinnati (and, ‘no’ Bill and I were not representing our schools). We saw the likes of Iowa, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, Maryland, UCLA, USC, Texas A&M, Nebraska and many more. Which school do you think these guys attended?

The second town of Aplington had some fun bicycle art and a wall to sign as well as the kids from day care lined up to welcome the riders.

There was more bicycle art in Parkersburg and New Hartford, as well as fresh sweet corn just picked yesterday. That was the first corn for sale along the route.

For my flower-loving friends, the City Hall in New Hartford, as well as a home we saw riding out of town, might be interesting.

The shower today was also a winner. A solid 6 or 6.5. The water pressure was very good, as was the temperature. The walk was reasonable and the towel was the best yet.

A couple more camp pics…I forgot to include one in my day 4 post.

One of the towns today had something like the human slot machine of a few days ago, but it was subpar compared to the Little League version. I again won with 3 apples. It was for a good cause so we played.

If you want to see what the view from a town perspective as the riders enter and exit, here is a couple example photos. A bit like ants at a picnic.