July 30, 2010 – Day 6 of Ragbrai

We woke up today to a thunderstorm and heavy rains. The thunderstorms have passed but the rains continue. As we are packing the car, I think back to my trip to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota when I was in my early 20’s. I remember how it rained for the first 4 days, but we pressed on breaking camp and paddling the canoe. The rule of thumb was that to be wet and moving forward was better than wet and staying still. Now at 50, I know that to be dry and still trumps wet and moving forward. So we headed off to a coffee shop in Cedar Falls to wait out the rain. We are joined here by a few other bikers. It is expected to break around noon, so we may join the ride at the midpoint and do at least 25 miles for the day and roll into Manchester. The environment at the coffee shop is pleasant and I enjoyed my New York Times, but it is still lacking in Wi-Fi access. What is it with these large towns in Iowa? The only place where we have had difficulty is Sioux City and Waterloo. Kristen pointed out that the UNI college network does work in this coffee shop, so I guess that is all they really want. Hopefully, I will eventually find a place to post this blog. Quasqueton is the meet-up town and I can always go to the Telecom trailer where there is always Wi-Fi set up.

More to come on how the biking went from today…need to go out first…