Day 4: Ames to Tama/Toledo

Miles: 78
Feet of Climb: 2,869
High Temperature: 80 Degrees
Sky Conditions: Sunny most of the day, headwind of 10 - 15 :-(

Well, it never seems to fail. This part of the country very rarely has wind out of the east during this time of the year, but it happened today. I can't help but feel that I am jinxing the weather!! Tour de Kota was awful for headwinds this year, and now RAGBRAI is getting spoiled!

The ride today (other than the wind) was pretty good. It was a day that took an awful long time for everyone to finish. This was our first day with a host family, and I think everyone was worried about finding the house, so we all waited for each other, which caused the quicker riders of the day to do a lot of waiting.

I think for the most part, we all rode separately, which was nice for a change. Again, the pass through towns were great, the food was plentiful, as were the hills. When we finally made it to our host house, we were delighted to find that our hosts were real people! Marian and Frank Duhacheck (sp?) were wonderful hosts! There was plenty of room for all of us to sleep (including the camper in the backyard), and Marian went way out of her way to make sure we were fed with cookies, coffee, and just about anything else we wanted.

We unhitched the trailer and took the van to town, where we all found some good food to eat, and some even witnessed a good old fashioned bar fight! Once back to the Duhacheck's, we were quick to bed down for the night, hoping that tomorrow's leg to North Liberty would be less windy, but most of all, that the forecast for rain would not come true!

Kyle.