RAGBRAI 2012 Titos Style

Its RAGBRAI time again in Iowa.  It always occurs the third week of July.  This year marks the 40th anniversary of the event and it seems like it gets better every year. If you don't know what RAGBRAI is all about, CLICK HERE.

Billy particularly likes the ride.  He enjoys meeting people along the way.  Pulling him along in the iron lung is no simple task.  First of all he becomes a very heavy load on the uphill portions of the ride.  Anyone who does RAGBRAI will attest that Iowa is not flat.  The other logistics nightmare is keeping Billy cool.  With temps of over 100F this would be a challenge.  We are talking power packs, misters, and lots of batteries.  Consequently, we had to scratch Billy from the ride after we saw the forecast from a Conrad Johnson talkalike.  Probably was a good thing, because if we were doing the ride, we might not have bumped into the Tito's Girls.

The Tito's Girls transcended upon Parlor City Pub with cases of Tito's Handmade Vodka and they were passing it out like so much candy to babies.  This contingent of babes came out from Chicago to promote their spirits and promote they did. Billy immediately fell in love with Barbara, the Las Vegas Realtor by day and Bartender when called upon. (Billy wanted to be Facebook friends, but since Barbara has over 5000 friends already he has subscribed to her public status updates instead.)  After going through many bottles of the Handmade Loudmouth Soup, we were invited into the vintage Airstream trailer they use for their promotions. Eric, Tasha and Rosie were formidable hosts as they continued the hospitality.  Billy picked up a visor which he now wears constantly.

I wonder if Billy's landlord, Wally has a visor.  Wally is a big Tito's fan and has several cases tucked away, but alas, Wally quit drinking Vodka about 8 months ago.  I wonder what he is planning on doing with his stockpile?  I guess time will tell.  

RAGBRAI in Homestead (An Amana Village)

If Billy could ride a bike.....he would do RAGBRAI.....so when RAGBRAI stopped in the Amana Colonies for its second visit, Billy requested that he be front and center.

I store the Hummer in a secret place in the town of Homestead, so early this morning I proceed to the storage garage and it fires to life even though it has not been driven for awhile. You see the Hummer is thirsty and unless Billy needs to go somewhere or there is a lot of snow cover, it just hibernates most of the time. (I actually have been thinking of pawning my blackberry for gas money) I'm off to Middle Amana and the second story walk-up to gather Billy the lung and the backup power supply and before we know it we are back in Homestead to see a good number of this years RAGBRAI participants stream into town.

For the blogies from outside of Iowa who are not familiar with RAGBRAI , please point your browser to here.

There used to be a lot of party people on RAGBRAI ....but nowadays it seems like a bike ride
to the church picnic. Gone are the naked beer slides and people riding au natural....at least thats what I heard. Naked Gun still rides RAGBRAI, having done so for 33 times. Some of those times he was wearing his signature slingshot.


A phone call to him today confirmed what I thought...no more slingshot. Just like everything else, things are never the same as the old days.

However, the beer drinking continues and I shot a few pics to evidence that.

It appears that virgins are a rare commodity as I only spotted one in the whole group.


This whole party for the RAGBRAI people was chaired by Tony of AJ's Copper Garden. He's the one in the muscle shirt.

Anyway, today, Billy lived vicariously through the whole event naked in his iron lung and no one was the wiser.