This Saturday wasn't the best. It wasn't the worst, by any means, but it wasn't the best. It was one of those days when I kept getting thwarted. It started out great. John got the bob trailer all set-up to test it out before we take it on RAGBRAI.
We met our friends and some people were running late and some of them hadn't really ridden all Summer, so we knew we were going to be going at a slower pace, but it was nice that they were starting to ride, so they didn't get injured on RAGBRAI.
Our friend John Heck brought his chicken hat and the damn thing was eyeballing me most of the way.
I know people always say that Iowa's scenery is boring, but I will take riding among this boring scenery any day.
The ride was going fine, until my bike flatted. Damn the luck! John helped me fix it and took a little bit of time because he was trying to make sure there wasn't a hole in the actual tire because there was a pretty big hole in the tube.
He finally got it going and it didn't flat again, so who knows what happened there. Then going up the first hill, my chain fell off. We had that problem with my bike on TOMROV and John said he never could tell what was causing it, but apparently, it's still a problem.
Long story short, we got there too late and missed the parade. It's a small town and tiny parade, so it didn't take much to miss it.
Our team did get to put the new RAGBRAI bus in the parade. They just painted it a couple of weeks ago and they're very proud of it. I'm not much of a party bus kind of girl, so I haven't been super involved in any of that. I just like to ride my bike and I don't plan on spending much time on it. The paint job is nice and I'm glad our team is happy about it, though.
Our friends who live in Riverside have a party every year during Trek Fest. One of them is a ceramist and she makes incredible (and sometimes creepy) statues and changes them up every year.
They also bought an old house and redid it and added on to it and then had another friend ceramist do a mosaic in the entire bathroom. Pretty cool, huh?
They did their outside here and there, as well.
The party was nice, but when it was time to go home, John had an issue with his bike and broke a couple of spokes. We were thwarted again with our bike ride, but luckily, we had some friends pick us up and transport us back to Iowa City.
We waited for them at the end of the bike trail, in the parking lot at Bud's Meats. So very Iowa'ish.
We got home and I did some cleaning in frustration. I guess it's a good, healthy way to relieve your frustrations with the extra added bonus of having a cleaner kitchen and living room. We ordered a pizza and after a bizarre incident I will try and write about tomorrow, my daughter brought her puppy for us to watch for the evening.
John went to bed pretty early, so Jaxson and I did some hanging out. I read my book outside. I had originally tried the screened-in porch, but Jaxson couldn't see out of it, and unlike the cats, he can't jump up to the ledge to look outside of it. So, I set up my fancy lawn chair out in the yard . The bugs haven't been too bad this year, and I'm never having another kid, so I don't have to worry about Zika virus...Anyway, I sat and read my book and held his leash, while Jaxson ran around the backyard, and then when he got too tired, he sat on my lap and snuggled until it got dark.
I'm here to tell you, if you have one of those days where you feel you are getting thwarted at every turn, end it by renting an adorable puppy and sitting outside on a beautiful Iowa evening, reading your book and snuggling with it. I guarantee you, sh*t will turn right around for the better.
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