[Leica] Some shots from RAGBRAI

[pjleeson at mchsi.com (Philip Leeson)]

Nice shots from my (and Gene Duprey's) home state.
I hope you weren't risking an M8 !

For those in other areas, RAGBRAI was started 30 years ago, by a  
couple of Des Moines Register columnists.
Hence the name:   "Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa"
They limit the starting numbers to 10,000, but usually a bunch more  
accrue as the days go on.
I've never been on it but everyone in Iowa has had contact with the  
event, now one of the oldest rides of its type.

Phil

On Jul 26, 2008, at 10:09 PM, Adam Bridge wrote:

> I've just finished up the 2008 RAGBRAI - a ride for about 10,000
> intimate friends that begins in western Iowa near the Missouri River
> (this time in the town of Missouri Valley about a half-hour north of
> Council Bluffs) and finishes on the Mississippi River (this time in Le
> Claire).
>
> The riding was quite hilly - I did about 15,000 feet of climbing over
> the course of the 370 miles I rode. (I got some sort of gluck and
> missed a day and a half of riding.)
>
> I'll start the with image I like the best. This was taken near the end
> of the ride on Day Five so people are pretty well spread out. We're
> descending toward the towns of Toledo and Tama.
>
> <http://www.adam-bridge.com/Images/WindingRoadHomewardBound.jpg>
>
> And this one as a group of us followed one of the very rare trucks
> that needed to share the course with us. Most of the time the lane in
> our direction was closed to traffic with on-coming traffic heavily
> restricted. But it's an ag economy and goods and services have to be
> provided.
>
> <http://www.adam-bridge.com/Images/Trailing.jpg>
>
> This gives the idea of a typical mild hill. The hills in the early
> part of the ride were much steeper and more frequent as we cross the
> Loess Hills region of Iowa. It also gives a feel for the variety of
> folks riding.
>
> <http://www.adam-bridge.com/Images/AnotherHill.jpg>
>
> It was a great ride with decent weather and even abnormally cool
> temperatures and humidity. We rode through some of the Iowa areas that
> flooded so badly - we're talking a 500 year flood here - and the area
> was hard hit both in infrastructure and jobs. The wet spring and
> summer has really pushed the corn back which is obvious as I rode.
>
> But the people we met were upbeat and positive. I was honored to  
> have met them.
>
> Adam Bridge
>
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