Route Map – Day 4

Wednesday’s RAGBRAI route will visit the town of Thornton for the first time in RAGBRAI history and then ride to Swaledale, which featured the inventions of local farmer Dale Caspers during our last visit in 2010.  Dale passed away in February and we hope Dale’s inventions can be brought to life again during RAGBRAI.  Rockwell has a great aquatic center for our meeting town and Cartersville will also be on the route, a stop that was quite memorable in 2010 for their swinging aquatics!  Rockford rounds out the route, home to devonian fossils in the the Floyd County Fossil and Prairie Park Center.  Wednesday is Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, honoring the brave men and women who help protect us everyday.

I didn’t ride this leg of the ride due to potential bad weather and also to help Noah with some maintenance issues with the camper and truck. We got into Charles City around 9 AM and found a good overnight spot.

As it turns out, the weather was not as bad as we had predicted and most of our team was able to get back without getting too wet. Corey, unfortunately got into a crash in town and cut up his elbow, but only superficial and that should heal in a few days.

We headed downtown for dinner in true hillbilly fashion with lounge chairs in the back of the pick up truck. We decided to play dueling banjos during the ride. Afterwords, we headed back to camp and played sheepshead and poker.   Not completely sure, but I think Noah might have one at poker.