Day 6 - Biking Iowa - Big City Change

Riding into Coralville was a difference experience than all of the rest of 2006 RAGBRAI. Yes it was hilly and the heat persisted,
But it was the atmostphere that changed. It was a relatively short ride, only about 50 miles. The last stretch of about 2 miles was
on a soon to be completed interstate approach that gave us plenty of room for travel with no vehicle traffic. No landscaping and one side of
the road still had a long way to go, but it was mostly downhill. Downhills are most enjoyable after the tough hills earlier in the week.

Earlier in the day we had encountered the steepest hill of the trip. The Hill from Hell. 120 feet climb - equivalent to about a 12 floor building - in less than a
half mile. Admittedly, I couldn't ride it and walked probably half the hill along with many other riders. Of course, the hill came up just past another beer garden
stop where I had seen Tammy and New John. That stop was in a very mushy field. While the tent had been quite large (providing plenty of shade) it was the 2 Jello Shot girls
that had gotten my attention. And it seemed that New John and Tammy and I should have one. And a few beers too.

About a mile later when I hit the Hill from Hell, I was wondering if the jello shot and the beers had been a good idea.
Once the hill was done we evened out to a more rolling hill pattern again. Longer coasting and not as strenuous ups. The town of Cosgrove seemed to actually be
the highest point of the days ride.
Cosgrove is one of the smallest towns you can visit. A very beautiful old church with an active youth program. I have several pictures of the inside and
out of the church. Plus I met the Mayor of Cosgrove. The town has a total of about a dozen houses. Temperatures were near 100 by this time so I hung out in the
shade and had another Gatorade and relaxed to some pretty good music from a live band at another beer garden. It also gave me some time to catch up on some phone calls back home.

You could see a large panorama of the ride yet to come and while rolling, it didn't look too steep.

Coralville is on the edge of Iowa City. This is a very progressive city. Lots of chain restaurants which we had not seen for days.
This is also the home of the University of Iowa (we rode through the campus on leaving the next day.) While all of our other stops had been large or small towns, this was a City. The campground area was huge and had a large stage
and tent area and well as a very large pool with waterslide.

Once I found our gear drop and camp area I set things up and headed for the pool. The water felt great, but some rider decided to overcome his odors in the
shower with about 5 gallons of spray Right Guard. Sort of like a mustard gas attack.

I left the pool and headed for the Methodist Church Lasagna dinner, only to find it sold out already.

Hunger had overtaken me and I almost thought I would black out. The energy exertion required for RAGBRAI is tremendous so keeping fueled is pretty important.

Catching a shuttle bus, I headed to get away from the crowds and found myself in front of an Outback Steak house. The secret at Outback is to always eat in the bar
area so that you don't have a long wait. Sure enough- a table - all to myself. A cute University Student - Sandy - was my server and asked what I wanted to drink, to which
I replied - "A pitcher of water". she explained she couldn't bring me a pitcher, but brought me 3 glasses of water, I drank them quickly. 7 large glasses of water in total.
She kept checking on me - I think to see if I was going to explode or something.

When I returned to the RAGBRAI village, it was starting to happen. Lots of food booths, 4 bands, firedancers, and of course, another beer tent.

The locals were out in force. Riders are pretty well exhausted. Today it was more heat than the ride itself.