7/21/96 (Sunday) SIOUX CENTER to SIBLEY - 68 miles

It was raining softly as we broke camp, not a great sign for the first biking day. It was also a little chilly so I wore a light jacket but hauled my Gore-Tex jacket and rain pants in case it was going to rain more heavily. Sioux Center was great. Lots of folks lined the streets and there were thousands of bikers leaving town as the sun came up. (We have to have our tents and bags on the truck by 6:30 so the guys can go ahead to the next town and try to find a decent campsite.) One townsperson called "Don't worry - rain before 7:00 means sunshine by 11:00" and she was right. It warmed up, dried up and turned out to be a great day. There is a RAGBRAI tradition that the rear wheel goes into the Missouri River when you start the ride, and the front wheel gets dipped into the Mississippi when you finish, but Sioux Center was about 12 miles from the MO river, so they trucked in some MO river water and hosed it across the street. I guess I hit it but with the street being wet anyway, it's hard to tell. I also didn't get my trip computer started until 14 miles into the ride since it was raining hard enough that I didn't want to mess with it. But once the sun came out, the trip computer went on, the jacket got bungeed onto the rack with the rest of the clothes and away we went!

The scenery was beautiful - lush green corn fields, slightly rolling hills. I was happy about it being overcast since I somehow lost my sunglasses even though I had seen them in my tent that morning.

The trip to Sibley flew by. Kath & I stopped _lots_ since there were so many vendors along the road and some great towns to stop in. We did breakfast in Alton - pancakes and "big big big sausage" with entertainment supplied by some singing nuns ("Nothing you can say can turn me away from my God..."). There were free oranges in Orange City and the scent of citrus as you neared the giant windmill was overwhelming. We stopped on the side of the road for Pasta Boys pasta for lunch and it was really good - vegetarian, hot and spicy. We rolled into Sibley about 3:30 (after only a few miles of gravel) and found showers with actual hot water and barely visible lines. Sibley is a great well groomed little town full of blond people all trying to serve you something.

We walked into town (about 12 blocks) and found all kinds of stuff in the main drag. We got baked potatoes and I even got a mocha latte and it tasted great. Kath had her heart set on a Sibley t-shirt with the town motto (Building our Future Today) because her boss is named Sibley and the motto somehow relates to their project. She spotted them in the Chamber of Commerce window but they weren't selling them in town so she got one of the booth people to agree to sell us one when she closed her booth. Somehow we never connected again but Kath left some money to have someone mail it to her. These people exhude trustworthiness.

I tried calling Stewart but there was no cell service from Sibley. So I waited in line for 40 min. to let him know I might not be able to get through any more. Sure do miss him.

Kath & I decided to share my tent to minimize the put up/take down time. There was plenty of room even with all our stuff and we were tired enough we didn't yak each other's ears off all night. I thought the rowdy music at the beer garden would keep me awake but no problem. I slept like a rock again. And the Nilla wafers showed up on my side of the tent again.