Roadside Mysteries

In the town of Houghton, Iowa (fun fact: The locals pronounce the town as “HUFF-ton”) they had an attraction called a “Redneck Pool”. It seemed appropriate to join in as the only banjar player to play in something called a redneck pool, so I did. Near by a local group was serving ice cream with a home-made chocolate sauce. It was damn good!

We did the pass-through in Salem and I played banjo on the porch of the museum. One of the docents there named Mike said I should stop by the next town of Houghton and play some banjo for Betty Jo. It took a while, as I was in the redneck pool and broke a string on the banjo, but I got it back together and headed off to the John Deer dealer where Betty Jo worked. The dealership was off the route about three blocks and as I approached, I can see this woman standing outside wait to hear a banjo! Mike was not sure it was going to happen but then there I was. Some people have to work in these towns and miss out. Not Betty Jo!

A wonderful stop on the route was called the Geode State Park. It was a beautiful park and worth visiting again. At the park I met the woman (A music teacher named Jenny Peters ) who brought here ukulele with her on her bike. Here we are jammin’ some tunes.

Now this is redneck swimmin’ ! This mud beach was still a ways from the final town, yet there were still people out in the river and maybe 300 more in Geode park. just chillin’. I left the park and wondered how late the rest of the pack was going to hang?

I’m sure that there were still 200 people back at Geode Park when I arrived in Middleton. In fact, I was late getting into this town, so the rest of route had NO SERVICES from the Ragbrai crews or the Iowa State Patrol ! No sense hanging around here, I headed out to Burlington with the rest of the pack (what was left of them) to have dinner with my crew at 8:10 PM!

Played some banjo near a veterinary clinic, met some nice people and learned that the next town on the route had a Bonnie and Clyde history.

It seemed appropriate to visit the local museum and play some Foggy Mountain Breakdown for the locals. Some of the Bonnie and Clyde gang were captured in Dexter, Iowa.

So, I met Sherry from Oxnard in Walnut the day before, and now John Condon of the Buck Hollow Band today! So far, so good!

OK, now we will start the ride, well rested and dry because we spent the night at a hotel in Walnut, Iowa. Who could blame us?

Is this a carousel or a merry-go-round? Actually, there’s really no difference between the names although a merry–go–round is simply that spinning playground fixture for kids.

On the road again, this time starting in Onawa, Iowa:

Looks like we have here Lois, Barb, Ken, Sue and Jim getting ready for the first day of the ride

Onawa, Iowa is where the Darrow Pipe Organ company is located. I stopped by their shop located at 421 Pearl Street in Onawa just by chance as it was just a block away from the Ragbrai Expo, a good thing too, because there was not much new at the expo this year except for the Tide booth where I won a stainless steel coffee mug.

Biggest tractor award

Goes to this Case Quadratrack Mega-tractor parked out near some main street in Iowa someplace.

A sign of our age

No, we didn’t stay here, but this was the first Ragbrai we did where there was NO CAMPING! Oh, one night we stayed in a rustic cabin in a state park that had a bed and was air conditioned, but the bathroom/shower facility was located in another building. Other than that, it was Quality Inns and EconoLodge for us.

Weld two school buses together, what ya get?

The Bus Maximus of course. Since we didn’t make the campgrounds at any overnight, I didn’t get a chance to meet up with some of my favorite Ragbrai teams and their buses but we saw this one in the parking lot at one of the meet-up towns. (I did get to meet Lee Dog of the Tall Dogs again this year for a short time).

Thomas Rest Haven in Coon Rapids

This place sold Gyros for lunch and the residents were having a great time using water guns to shoot at the passing cyclists. I had heard that they were pretty accurate marksmen.

With Iowa State mascot, Cy the Cardinal

The Iowa State ‘Cyclones’ were called the Cyclones since 1895 but it was too hard to dress some volunteer to look like a a system of winds rotating inward to an area of low atmospheric pressure so years later the university chose a bird for their mascot.

The ABC computer

I made a pilgrimage to the Durham Center to see the first electronic digital computer ever built, but of course the exhibit was on loan to a computer museum in California. There were a few vacuum tubes and a memory cylinder on display so it wasn’t a total loss.

Jacquie Phelan and the Ragbrai Banjo

Jacquie, also known as “Alice B. Toeclips” is a famous cyclocross racer and founder of the WOMBATS. From an interviw: She has been called “the outlaw queen of mountain biking.” Sometimes, she plays the banjo.

Six Miles outside of Melborne, IA

In this picture, upper left is an Iowa State Patrol vehicle with a large audio speaker on the roof.  On the right, THOUSANDS of cyclists safely crossing a highway.  Bottom center is an official Iowa State Patrol wireless body microphone connected to a left-handed banjo.

Wilton, Iowa

In a caboose playing banjo for an hour. Another Ragbrai complete. No rain, no heat, no humidity. Best Ragbrai ever?