Published: July 24, 2008 12:51 pm      

Ted joins 2008 RAGBRAI trek in Tama

TAMA — After facing varying conditions as the day progressed, Wednesday's version of the Register's Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is in the books.

After a beautiful night, I began the day’s ride at around 6 under clear skies and temperatures that could almost be considered cool.

Twelve miles down the road was the first stop, Nevada.

Of course, about half the people I heard utter the town name said it incorrectly, pronouncing it like the state and (instead of Ne-vay-duh). A resident of the town who was watching us pass through thanked a rider next to me for pronouncing it correctly. Kind of reminds me of a few years back when we passed through Charlotte on our way from Maquoketa to Clinton.

At the time we passed through Nevada we were on the historic Lincoln Highway, so naturally we were greeted by Abraham Lincoln.

The gentleman had an amazing likeness to the 16th president, beard, stovepipe hat and all.

It was another seven miles to Colo, and along the road was an old-time gas station. This was evident not just by the looks of the building, but by the fact a sign advertised gasoline for 17 cents a gallon.

State Center was another eight miles, and most riders seemed to stop there for an extended period of time before the long 16-mile jaunt to Albion.

During that span a few things changed ... the wind picked up dramatically and we began seeing a handful of hills.

Suddenly the riding was much, much tougher. The wind would continue the rest of the day, and as fate would have it, it was coming from the south and east ... the two directions we would ride for the remainder of our journey.

We then headed 11 miles to Green Mountain, an unincorporated community, and another nine miles to Le Grand.

You always see some funny things on RAGBRAI, and the funniest I saw Wednesday was at a farmhouse outside of Le Grand.

A man was giving away free, cold beer. That sounded too good to be true and it was ... the cups cost $2.

From there it was another six miles to Montour and eight more to Tama/Toldeo, where we spent the night. Hopefully the wind lets up a bit tomorrow.

I’ll check in then.

Ted Schultz was the Clinton Herald’s sports editor from 1995 to 2007 and is now the sports information director at Grinnell College.