one more RAGBRAI page
OK so where was I...oh yeah. In a town called Chariton (sounds like Sheraton) I saw this mad scene down the street and snapped a long distance shot!

As I was biking to catch up for some closer ones, they turned a corner and both back wheels of the 4 wheeler BENT so they dragged the thing off the road to hand straighten the wheels!

Looks like they did a pretty good job unbending, but who knows how far they got before next time...they said that was the 2nd time the wheels bent.

They were a father and his 3 kids. The father works in a machine/welding shop in one of the local factories and solves problems for the by figuring out how to finagle the machines to do what they want, kind of like the machine shop in the beet plant. He loves his job and says it's like getting paid to play. Must be cool to love your job so much you do pretty much the same thing for fun on your day off!

The next day on the way to Ottumwa I broke a spoke! uh oh! Iowa roads kind of suck.

One nice thing about RAGBRAI is all the temporary bike shops on the way. I stopped at the next pass thru town and got my spoke replaced and my wheel trued! Go to go!

I was looking for Schwinn cruisers to photograph but none were to be found! I know I saw an old one from the 50s or 60s the first day but any more the only one I saw was this Huffy:

Next town, Mount Pleasant! They had a steam powered carousel!

I hurried off to get my camera to take pictures, but when I returned, they had run out of fuel for the day and were shutting down. However, they let me in to take pictures and talk a while!

These guys are renowned steam engine experts. Later, I heard Micheal Jackson contracted them to revive the steam engine on his train in Neverland. Now I know where to go looking next time I need a steam engine.

The Wurlitzer organ is not part of the steam setup. Note the electric motor... but is does play whenever the carousel is turning.

What powers the steam engine? Wood!

Cool old trolley also at the fairgrounds. Apparently there is a steam one, but this one is electric.

The baggage truck was at the top of a really big hill. On the way there was this truck. Good place for it!

A big storm was rolling in. The sky got REALLLLL pretty.....

There was some worry that a tornado might happen, but we only got a little rain, and not even much wind. The storm missed us! But it did bring some cooler air.

Today, we made it to the Mississippi! I dipped my front tire, along with many others.

Welcome to Burlington Iowa, home of..this awesome bridge!


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