We Made It!
We have finished the 2006 GRABAAWR!
Today (Saturday July 1, 2006) was scheduled to be 64 miles. Our motel was about 3 miles from the school which is the official start – so we saved a little bit, but then gave some of it back hunting for main street in Bascobel for lunch. We had a big hill in the am and then again in the pm. There were several places where the headwind was significant so we used pace lines whereever we could. The terrain was varied and hilly.
We were trying to reproduce our “men in the cornfield” picture but had trouble finding the right spot. We took pictures but somehow didn’t get one on my camera. I will try to add one from someone else’s camera when I get a chance.
We did get this group shot.
We had lunch in Bascobel at the Unique Cafe. The food was very good. We recommended it to Janet and Amy who also ate there and enjoyed it.
The last stretch of road from Bascobel into Prairie du Chien was hot and dry – we used up all our water so stopped one of the GRABAAWR sag wagons and got more water. It really helped get us to the end. We had a little trouble finding Hoffman Hall (whrere we took showers at the end of the ride) but ended up in the right place, showered, shuttled the cars from parking, repacked for the road and headed out after saying goodby to Amy and Brian.
We stopped at a Culvers for some ice cream before we left Prairie du Chien to tide us over until Dinner.
We wended our way down to Marshalltown and then Des Moines on back roads. At about 7:30 we stopped for dinner at a diner at exit 131 on I-80. It turned out to be near my Aunt and Uncle Ruth and John. They joined us for a brief conversation since the Jaz in July band concert they were attending got rained out. We made it to Omaha by about 11:30pm for a long day.
After breakfast we said goodby to Martha who is flying back to MD and we headed west. At theYork rest stop Janet switched to Rick and Janelle’s car and I headed for Concordia to finish getting ready for the Switzer Reunion in Lindsborg starting Thursday. The rest of the group continued on to Boulder.
This wraps up the blog entries for the 2006 GRABAAWR. Hope you enjoyed it!
The additional pictures associated with the blog are at www.flickr.com/photos/kws1111