RAGBRAI

I can't believe it's over already! We had a good time, though it was an exhausting weekend--I can't believe how much I walked on Friday! Because we were hosting a couple families at our home, I was only able to get out to see what was going on that morning, and for a brief half-hour before dinner. While I was walking around (because any other mode of transportation would have been less efficient, with all the traffic jams!), I was thinking how impossible it would be to *really* portray what our town was like that day...but I gave it my best shot! I think it's easy to see it was a bit crowded and chaotic, but overall things were organized well enough that the day seemed to run along smoothly in spite of the traffic congestion. Here are a few of the photos from Friday:

Courthouse lawn Friday morning.


Vendor stands were along both sides of the streets around the courthouse. My sister and I took the kids for a walk around the area to check things out and have some food before most of the crowd arrived.


The kids were thrilled.




The main street in front of the courthouse was blocked off with an orange barricade that also went around the sidewalks to control the flow of traffic.


Everywhere you looked there were bicycles, riders resting and chatting...




...and since I take such stunning port-a-johnny pictures, here is another one for ya :) They used them to block off a street!


By 1PM, everything was a campground!
The library




The school and practice field




The park




...and the backyards of homes all around town.


Including ours! :) Our girls were so jealous of all the tents...we had to set up their little purple butterfly one too so they'd feel included. But in the end they decided the "new" tents were much more interesting!


Our house is pretty close to the route the bikers were using to get into town, so we could stand on our porch and observe some of the traffic cutting across the main street headed to the park--and be glad we weren't trying to get anywhere. :)


While the girls napped I walked up the bike route and watched the endless stream of riders!














It was all pretty interesting...a lot of the riders had team names, some had painted buses...


...and some came dressed in costumes or had things attached to their bike helmets.


We hosted two families, totaling ten people. Our girls loved eating dinner with their new friends, and we truly enjoyed their company--they were wonderful guests!




It was over all too quickly and we were sad to have to see them off so early the next morning, but we hope all had a safe and enjoyable trip back home again!