Randy and Julie came over yesterday and stayed all night last night. Randy is KC’s brother (and Julie is his wife!) and he’s really into cycling. That’s bicycle riding. Today, Muscatine hosted the Melon City Criterium. Muscatine is known throughout the midwest for its particular cantelope which we locals call muskmelon; there is also a lot of watermelons grown around here. We have a particular area just south of town called “The Island” (no reference to the movie!) that due to flooding over the years has very rich yet sandy ground which is ideal for growing watermelons and muskmelons. Thus, Muscatine is sometimes called Melon City. Anyway….

Randy rode in the Masters division. This is for riders who are 50 or older; Randy says it’s code for “really fast old guys”. He finished 15th, which he wasn’t happy about; he got a major leg cramp on the last lap going up the biggest hill of the course. Other than that, the last two days have been really great. It was nice to visit with Randy and Julie. They hadn’t been over since Breezomatic’s graduation and they got to see all the changes we’ve made around the house over the last year. But it was the visit with them that I enjoyed the most - I can’t speak for KC (and I’ll never try that either!!) but just sitting around visiting with them was great for me.

We stayed and watched a few other races. It’s really kind of neat to watch. I walked over to the tightest corner of the course and sat and marveled at the cornering of the cyclists. This corner is a “T” intersection and the road itself isn’t very wide. To watch the cyclists take that corner at breakneck speed and be so close to other cyclists….. well, it was amazing. I imagine you have to have a lot of trust in the abilities of the other cyclists in order to corner as they did. There was a speed indicator out near the start/finish line and most of the time it was about 25-27 mph; and this was the slowest part of the course as it was just before the “T” intersection corner. They got over 40 mph on the long, fairly straight run on the back side of the oval. Wow!