All Merrows in Iowa . . . Headed East

Having navigated yet another set of potential logistical disasters, the Merrow family has managed to find one another in rural Iowa and is now making its way east with 10,000 other zany cyclists.

Arthur’s and my day started at zero dark thirty in Annapolis.

Sweet dreams of Saturday’s beautiful wedding day for my nephew, were interrupted well before dawn by the urgent need to get ourselves to the airport for a 6:30 AM fight back to Iowa.

Finding the obscure car rental return and one wrong turn into a Costco parking lot instead of onto the desired highway gave us some anxious moments, but we settled into our plane trip otherwise uneventfully.

Above is where Big Red awaited our return to Iowa, in a casino parking lot, next to the porta-potties. A quick taxi ride from Omaha to Council Bluffs and Arthur and I were cranking up Big Red, where he had spent the last three days hosting Arthur then Annie.

Annie, meanwhile, had taken off from Council Bluffs on her eastward trip by bicycle at 6:30 AM with the rest of the RAGBRAI pack. Once in town Annie had time to fully explore Minden, Iowa, the little town that was today’s mid-day rendezvous site while we tried to catch up with her.

Our meet-up plan? Simple, if texting fails, go to the post office; this worked like a charm.

Arthur and Annie joined the throng of cyclists for the run over to Harlan, the overnight spot for today.

Then it was my turn to see if could remember how to drive Big Red, all three quarters of a ton and six forward gears of him.

Tonight we have come to rest in a large open field in Harlan, Iowa with campers as far as I can see in all directions.

Time to figure out which church supper to patronize. (Annie favors the Congregational Church lasagna menu.)

Day One of the 41st annual RAGBRAI is almost in the history books.