When I travel with the banjo attached to my hydrator pack and someone sees it and says “Hey Mister, can you play us a tune”, I always stop and play something. It seems to make their day. It is also the reason why I’m so late coming in at the end of the day. Fun Fact: I didn’t drink any beer while on ragbrai. Sure, if it was 103 degrees out, I might, but we had unusually cool (for Iowa) weather. The people in Lacona were very nice, and offered me some beer, but I said “No Thanks, I only drink vodka”. The next thing I know, this guy goes back to a freezer and brings out a fifth of nicely chilled locally made vodka! Swell Vodka was the brand! Swell Vodka: “Drink to your wealth, Toast to your health. Drink SWELL straight from the well.”
So I had to stick around Lacona for a while so I could pass around some Swell vodka with some new found friends. A passerby thought the bottle label said “SWILL” : “Drink SWILL straight from hell”.
Stopped at the Pork Chop man’s location after Lacona, but I can’t recall what happened next. I vaguely remember dragging my ass into the last town.