Team Gumby reappeared on RAGBRAI after being officially banned for life for misbehaving more than the usual suspects.
"You culled the herd, huh?" my husband Jim asked one of the original Gumbies.
"We had to put down the bad ones to get back in RAGBRAI's good graces," a Gumby rider admitted.
"We used to be young and do young stupid things. Now we do old stupid things. Stupid is the operative word."
Then he accused the MelonHeads of being banned.
"Oh no," Jim said. "Not us."
The MelonHeads are ambassadors of good will. Hand out the beer and all you'll hear is a lot of chuckles and some good stories if Brian Bentley comes along.
I saw Banana Man in his big yellow banana "boat" in Harlan.
In Neola, I ran into Roger Denesha (see photo above), the BMX bicycle rider with a BMX mask and all the BMX frills that he wanted so badly as a kid and couldn't afford. He's from Kansas City, and if I remember right, he's a computer programmer.
Former Iowa City mayor Ross Wilburn rode past me between Council Bluffs and Underwood, signaled, and slowed down enough that I could catch up to him. He told me he met a guy from Seattle this morning who sold all of his worldly possessions and bought a new bike. He's riding RAGBRAI and thinks he might ride to Maine next. Sounds like an interesting guy!
At breakfast in Perkin's in Council Bluffs next to Motel 6 where we stayed a couple of nights we met an interesting Iowan named Dennis who was healthy and fit. When I told him how strong he looked (wishing I were as strong for the first giant hill out of Council Bluffs), he told me he'd had a triple bypass last year when he was 53.
It started with chest pain, which he thought was from the medicine he was taking for acid reflux. Chest pain was a known side effect. His doctor forced him to pursue heart tests thought he wanted to wait until after RAGBRAI. All his heart tests checked out fine until he did a treadmill test while hooked up to an EKG. That did not go so well.
He thought he was having a stent put in but it turned out he needed a triple bypass.
His doctor told him to be sensible on RAGBRAI, so he was careful, and he was grateful when it turned out he was riding with a young emergency room surgeon and either a nurse or a paramedic. He felt he was "in good company"! He's grateful to be alive, and I told him I'm glad he's alive, too. He seems to be really enjoying every day, whether he rides every day all day or not. He said he's only riding half of today unless one of the newbies he's riding with doesn't want to ride the whole day. She's never ridden the whole week and wants to try this time.
She won't write "V-I-R-G-I-N" vertically on the back of her calf in black ink though, as is the tradition when you first ride RAGBRAI because she rode three days once before.
"Doesn't want the undesirable attention?" I asked, and Dennis smiled and said, "I think that's part of it."