Visiting the Zoo

[caption id="attachment_175" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Emma checks out the Penguins of the African Coast at the Minnesota Zoo."][/caption]

Today we all went to the Minnesota Zoo which, last month, opened a new exhibit of penguins of the African coast. Not only does the zoo have a new exhibit, but the main entrance to the zoo has been completely remodeled. Naturally, our first stop once we got inside was to look at the penguins. They were really cool, no pun intended. We saw some swimming and some on the rocks. At first Emma seemed reluctant to get up close to the glass to get a good view of the penguins. But with some reassurance from one of the people working at the zoo, she climbed up the rocks and looked right at the penguins. I think she enjoyed seeing them.

[caption id="attachment_176" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Emma "drives" one of the John Deere tractors at the zoo's farm."][/caption]

Next we had some lunch before continuing on to the rest of the zoo. After our lunch we went through the outdoor part of the zoo in the opposite direction of what we usually do. Instead of first going to the sea otters and bears, we went in the direction toward the moose and caribou. We ended up making our way to the Wells Fargo Family Farm at the zoo. They were having a festival up there today. In addition to the usual farm animals, there were numerous John Deere tractors to look at. Emma sat on several of them. I think she wanted to do that even more than she wanted to look at the animals. Maximus also got to sit on a couple of tractors. He really liked the lawn tractor that he got to sit on by himself. After we looked at the cows in the barn, he wanted to back to that tractor.

[caption id="attachment_178" align="aligncenter" width="383" caption="Maximus loved sitting on the lawn tractor."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_179" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Max enjoyed the slides at the playground."][/caption]

We also spent some time playing on the playground near the wolf gazebo. We even let Max out of his stroller so he could play. He went on the small slide a few times, but then he discovered the largest slide on the playground. He kept wanting to go down that. That kid shows no fear.

We eventually left the playground and finished up looking at the animals outside. Max, Emma, and I looked at the dolphins and sharks before meeting back up with Mel and leaving for the day. We did not go to the Tropics Trail or the Minnesota Trail on this visit. That is one benefit of being zoo members. We do not feel as compelled to see everything on each visit. We can always go back to see what we missed the next time we are at the zoo. And we will definitely be back.

[caption id="attachment_180" align="alignright" width="584" caption="The camels were keeping cool in their pond."][/caption]

RAGBRAI XXXIX Day 6 -- Grinnell to Coralville

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Cyclists enter the flag-lined street of Brooklyn, Iowa"][/caption]

As I went to bed Thursday night, I contemplated not riding on Friday, but I decided I would see how I felt in the morning. When I woke Friday morning, I was feeling a little better, so I decided to try to do the ride. The first stretch to Brooklyn was fairly good. Mel and I stopped there for breakfast. She went with pancakes. I, on the other hand, found a big fruit cup to eat. We only stopped in Brooklyn long enough to eat and for a potty break before leaving for Victor.

We did not stop for very long in Victor either. Today was going to be the longest day of the ride, at almost seventy-five miles, so we filled our water bottles and posed Petey P. Cup for some photos with tractors, and we continued on our way.

[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="Petey P. Cup drives a John Deere tractor in Victor."][/caption]

Once we got to Ladora, we stopped again for some food. I had a chicken wrap which seemed to sit well with me. For a really small town, Ladora appeared to have done a pretty good job setting up. Besides the chicken wrap, I had some awesome lemonade from the Boy Scouts.

We did not stop in Marengo, and continued on our way to West Amana. The sun was out by now and we were quite hot. Mel was starting to get worn out. I thought I could continue, so we kept going. Mel was going to stop once we got to West Amana, but there was nothing there worth stopping for, so we made out way to South Amana.

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Among those set up in South Amana was Mr. Pork Chop."][/caption]

In South Amana we both called it quits for the day. Mel was completely worn out. I probably could have kept going, but I did not think I was going to be able to complete the final eighteen-mile stretch of the ride, so I stopped as well. We waited for a few hours for the sag wagon, but never saw it. South Amana was a good place to stop though. We found some shade to wait in, and there were a sufficient number of food vendors set up. One amenity that was missing from South Amana though was kybos. Apparently one of the store owners in town had called to see about getting just four port-a-potties for RAGBRAI and was laughed at, presumably because none were available anywhere near by. There was one port-a-potty in the area though. It was at the edge of a corn field across the street from town. I am almost certain that it was there for use by detasselers, but the RAGBRAI riders were making use of it. Those detasselers will sure be in for a surprise when they return to work Monday morning.

While we were waiting for the sag wagon, Tara, another member of our team who had only ridden a couple of days earlier in the week, called to see if we wanted her to pick us up a coffee as she was driving to our camp in Coralville. After I told her that we were waiting for the sag wagon, Tara volunteered to come to South Amana to pick us up. Within half an hour she was there driving us to Coralville.

In Coralville we stayed at the house of one of my coworkers, Sandy. Because of this, Mel and I got to sleep in a real bed and in air conditioning. Sandy's husband cooked some wonderful food for us and for the other three teams that were sharing their yard. Also Mel's friend Penny came down from Cedar Rapids and took us to dinner in Iowa City. For once this week, I actually felt like eating. So after having a brat and some other food at Sandy's, I ate again at Carlos O'Kelley's. Our service was quite slow there, so it was close to 9:30 before we got back and were able to go to bed.