Day 4: Ames to Tama-Toledo

North Liberty, Iowa -- I'm sitting in the North Liberty Public Library right now and only have 27 minutes until the library closes for the evening. So please forgive any typos, grammatical errors and incomplete sentences. I'm in a bit of a hurry!

Ok, here we go....

Day 4: Ames to Tama-Toledo

I woke up this morning at 5:15 am and was on the bike before 6. I decided that today was going to be a day that I rode hard and did my best to get to camp as soon as possible. Jim and Seth left camp a little after me and I didn't see them all day. I was a man on a mission.

The day itself was rather uneventful. I passed through the small towns on the route quickly and didn't really talk with too many people. The ubiquitous, "Where is Waldorf College?" question was asked multiple times and a few people struck up conversations, but I was in a hurry most of the day and the head winds and rolling hills made for a grueling day.

The interesting stories came from Seth and Jim on this day.

Seth's lack of good biking equipment caught up with him on this day and he had to flag down a ride in from Green Mountain rather than ride the final 26 or so miles. He asked a few people in the town how to get a ride in and ended up running into a few members of Team Iffy. One lady in the team actually recognized Seth and when Seth introduced himself as an Admissions Counselor from Waldorf, the lady said she was a guidance counselor from Iowa Falls and had met him earlier in the year.

Library closes in 20 minutes...gotta hurry! She ended up explaining that her mom and sister were also riding into Tama with their van and she asked if Seth could drop them off at the local casino and then drive their van to the campsite. Seth agreed and had found his ride. Pretty incredible that a somewhat-stranger would trust a young man with her van....but we've come to expect that kind of trust on RAGBRAI.

Jim's story is simple. He went to purchase a coffee and the cashier said that it had already been paid for. Jim looked for someone to thank but no one was there. Just a goodwill gesture from person Jim would never meet.

These stories reminded me that we weren't locking any of our items in the campsite. Thousand dollar bikes were sitting on the ground. Ready to be stolen but safe in the friendly atmosphere of RAGBRAI.

It gave me a positive feeling to know that most people are friendly and trustworthy. RAGBRAI is more than a bike ride across Iowa...it's really a reminder of human goodness and kindness.

I'm glad I'm taking part in this experience. It's quite the ride.

---

Sorry folks...but library is closing and I'll have to wait to recap Day 5 and include photos from the past two days.

Check back soon!

-- Josh