Team Tandemonium Travelog #4

RAGBRAI day 4 is in the books for us.  It was actually a routine and fairly easy day for everyone!  Woo Hoo!  Since we slept gloriously in our own beds last night, we did have to get up a tish earlier to head back out to start the route in Boone, but you won't hear my complaining about that.

Austin had the early shift today and wasn't too bad to roll out of bed.  For some reason, Carter and Austin are LOVING this whole experience, which concerns me that they may get a wild idea that they want to do this again...while still under my roof!  YIKES! 

My friend, Kathy, was brave and joined us for the day. This was her first experience riding in RAGBRAI, and I believe it went fairly well for her.  Yeah Kathy!  She told me that the furthest she had ridden in one day before was 30 miles.  Well, she made it 56 miles today.  I find that highly impressive.

Carter got the privilege of sleeping in while I was taking the riding crew to Boone.  He rolled out of bed just before I got home, and we headed to Slater to meet up with Aaron, Kathy, and Austin.  Slater was a hopping little town and a people watcher's haven.  You just have to see one of my favorite shots from there :)

It was a mecca of activity that never seemed to end.  Unfortunately for me, the crew made great time and I only had about an hour of people stalking watching. Even though it was 9 am, we all feasted as though it was lunch time.  Austin has been holding out for a pork chop on a stick.  Today was the day! He was ready for some protein after his leg of the route.

We hung out for a little bit and then Aaron wanted to get going before the heat really rolled in.  

Austin was a chatter box the entire way back to Ames to do a little more laundry before heading out to Altoona.  It was clear to me that he was having so much fun. He also turned into a little fly swatting ninja in the van.  Apparently those cracked windows allow a little more in than just air flow! 

Alleman had some fun photo opportunities for the riders.  Notice again, Ace is a good sport and gets to be the lady :) 

Kathy got to be an astronaut.

I probably shouldn't mention that I detoured off the route on my way to Altoona and stopped at the scrapbooking store...let it be our little secret :)  Even though I didn't stop with the intention of looking for RAGBRAI stuff, I found some!  ...and it made the week just a little bit better for me!  

Aaron had predicted they would be done around 2:00 today.  They hit it almost on the nose!

Gotta love Carter rockin' the pink bandana!