On the last day:
Eugene, the Piano Peddler
I may have also heard Alicia Rau playing her little trumpet at the tire dip near the re-created Fort Madison fort.
Inside the fort, some banjo music
Interviewed by Tiny Circus, the last on the list. What a strange trip it has been.
So, on the way into Fairfield…
I see a sign to the airport and…
“The Maharishi Vedic Observatory” ? You know, the T.M. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi observatory, of course.
It’s like a combination of type of stone henge and cement crop circles
One must use these tools to locate transcendental consciousness. I couldn’t stick around, but you are free to click HERE to learn more if you wish to attain enlightenment. What a trip!
Lots a banjar picking this day:
At the Smoky Row Coffeehouse in Oskaloosa
It was a fun place and I had just meet some guys who were following the route to help set up the musical acts when some people with still and video cameras circled around and asked questions but never identified themselves. We all kinda got weirded out and left.
And at the Musco Technology Center
Another C.U.B.S. banquet! I had just rode in on the path to William Penn University in Oskaloosa when I bumped into the club president. What luck! And then there was a nice evening by the campfire with our overnight hosts.
Well, we passed up Knoxville to camp at the campsite near the Red Rock Dam that was constructed by the army corps of engineers. What a great idea! Much better than staying in the noisy town.
Not a dam but a windmill
In the nearby town of Pella, Iowa. It was a pass-though town on the next day, but we stopped in a day early to see the sites free of all the bicycles.
They Like Windmills here
Founded by Dutch immigrants in 1847, it was the boyhood home of Wyatt Earp.
Lots of windmills
…here’s one made out of bikes. It was strange being here before to locust plague of Ragbrai and not seeing ANYONE on the street riding a bicycle. I mean, in the Netherlands it’s as common as, uh, I don’t know… WINDMILLS?
One more before we go
Pella is the headquarters for the company Pella Windows and Doors and the Vermeer company. Some local newspaper took some pictures of my on my bike… I don’t know what became of that…
Old farm building along the way…
But somehow missed the midget wrestling in Dallas Center on the way to Des Moines.
Iowa State Historical Museum
This is an old stunt plane used in Iowa during the early days of flight. Another item recorded in the museum is #2013.023 Hand Made Banjo. Somewhere in Des Moines I met up with Tom Herrington of the Roadside Boys and we were interviewed by the Register. There may still be a video HERE. So far that’s 3 for 3 !
In Yale, Iowa:
Bathtub Races
It’s a bathtub mounted on wheels and full of water. The object of the race is to finish an obstacle course in the shortest time while being hit with water balloons. The steering mechanism seems to have something like a 10:1 ratio which made it difficult to guide the tub through the course. It’s in Yale that I met up with Mike McAbee and Teresa of the Buck Hollow Band.
And in Washington Township:
The old Township school
This was the last rest stop before going into Perry. I was interviewed by some local paper while entertaining the riders and a group of locals who were collecting money for the renovation of the old school. They were going to turn it into a social hall of some kind.
The team at the beginning of the ride in Council Bluffs:
Ken, Jim, Barb, and Sue
It looks to be a good day. At the very top of the hill I met some IPR folks. Lookie HERE and listen to their report on the first day and listen to some banjo music at about 15:10.
There is a “limited edition” of the Ragbrai banjo:
For display purposes only
This is yet another home-made banjo fabricated with recycled furniture and cooking pot technology. The old Remo head was initiated on the 2005 Ragbrai and used until the end of the 2009 ride.
Here Leo is taking care of the historical artifact and getting it ready for all to see.
Now on display at the Iowa State Historical Society!
Note: The banjo on display is just ONE of the official Ragbrai banjos. The parts of this particular banjo have been on the ride at least one time, but not all in one piece as shown here. For instance, the banjo head and tail piece survived the ride across Iowa five (5) times. The pot from an aluminum pressure cooker had been on the ride twice and the neck only once. The brackets and tuning pegs have been on the ride four times and have been on various banjos for as long as I can remember. The pegs came from an old right-handed instrument that was over 100 years old.