Day 7 (Finally done)

                Today was the last day of RAGBRAI, we rode 63 miles and then an extra 1 mile to get to the river. Strangely enough the wait to get to the river seemed longer in time than the 64 miles that I biked.  So now I am on the RV driving back to DBQ. Over all I thought it was a really good experience

Joey Ott

Day 6 (I wanted tea but was under age.)

      

      So today was an EXTREMELY boring day. One of the highlights was when we were home after biking, Sam  myself and Rick were sitting in a circle when Sandi comes out and out of now where offers Sam some Herbal Tea. So Sam is like “ uh sure?” then Sandi leaves and we forget about it. About 5 minuets later Sandi comes out with all of this weird tea that like effects your moods (like a drug)So Sam is says “ alright Joey here is something for you and me to try.”  And Sandi immediately comes back with “ OH no he is under age.”  So at that point we are all busting a gut over this and I am thinking, “ What the heck is this stuff??? Is it even legal???” So there is my adventure with the herbal tea. Tomorrow is the last day and I should be back in DBQ at around 3:30 to 4:00. Another update will follow.

Joey Ott

Day 5 (Taking it slow)

                Today my dad and I took it a lot slower, we stopped at a lot of road side stands and took videos.  It was a lot of fun and took a lot of stress out of the whole operation.  One guy in our group had a problem with is bike tire and popped three inner tubes today. (6 total on this trip) And later as we were sitting in the RV he announces that it was a really good RAGBRAI day. So maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t three blown tubes make it a bad day? Anyway, we later went down to the square to walk around and we saw this guy juggling,  he was amazing. One of the highlights of the day was when my dad and I had lunch at “Mr. Pork chop”  where they gave you a big hunk of pork and a napkin and that was it. Tomorrow we go 52 miles I will write an update after.

Joey Ott

Day 4 (another 50 mile day)

        Well today was a fun day, we got done with the trip in about 4.5 hours, but it seemed really short. A local church is letting us use their parking lot for our RV and later we are going to go to a Mexican restaurant so we can watch the gold cup semifinal match between Honduras and United States. Tomorrow we have a route of 52 miles. I will write and hope to post a update tomorrow.

Joey Ott

Day 3 (an easy 50 miler)

 

                Today was a boring easy day.  The 7^th member of our biking crew just got here.  He wasn’t here for the first 3 rides. Also later tonight we are going to “ Zombie Burgers” for dinner and then going to a Iowa Cubs AAA baseball game. I don’t have anything else to say so I will update again tomorrow. (later in the day) We don’t have WIFI so my post will be a day late. Sam (the RV driver) and I went early to the ball game so as to see the batting practice, and we each got a ball! It was pretty cool.

Joey Ott

Day 2 (The Century)

       So today we rode a route of 83 miles, OR you could do an extra loop and get to over 100 miles (this is called the Century) I did the Century with Rick. We finished the 113 miles with an average speed of 16 MPH. For probably 4 or 5 miles Rick and I were drafting behind "Team Jackhammer" we were going probably and average of 19 + MPH, which was AWESOME! By the end we had caught up to my dad and Tim. Nearing the last few miles I was pretty well shot and was ready to be done. After a while we went to a spaghetti dinner, and played risk for a few hours a game in which I am about to win.  (-: Tomorrow we have a 50 mile day. I will write a post again tomorrow.

Joey Ott

Day 1 (for real this time)

        We woke up at 5:00 took apart our tent and put our stuff away. We then left on our 5o mile trip, as we rode along the sun began to rise, which made a beautiful  picture. On our trip there were quite a few strange things that we saw, such as, loon helmets, hamballs on a stick and chocolate covered bacon. (sounds nasty right?) Besides that it was a pretty uneventful ride. (which I guess is a good thing) After our ride, which took about  3 hours and 45 minutes, we basically hung around the camping area. For lunch we went to a Pizza Ranch and watched the USA VS El Salvador soccer game. Tomorrow we will ride 83 miles. But there is an extra loop that you can ride so that it becomes a 100 mile + day. I plan on doing the extra loop. I will write another post when I get to the next destination. (if I get there!)

Joey Ott

Day 1 of RAGBRAI

       Today I woke up at 5:30 like any other day, and did the papers. After the papers is when it gets different. My dad and I went to our church where we met up with the others that are doing RAGBRAI. We then loaded our bikes and hit the road, roughly 6 hours later we arrived at our destination. Since then we have mainly just hung out around the area. At 6:00 we went to an orientation video were we found that there are 20,000 people (rounding) doing RAGBRAI this year. That is a third of Dubuque's poulation! Now we don't really have anything to do until tomorrow at 6:00. When we are done with our ride tomorrow I will post another update.

Joey Ott

UPDATE!!!!!

Tomorrow my dad, some people and I are embarking on our adventure of RAGBRAI. I will (hopefully) post daily updates. Enjoy!

We'll so far I have not done so well on the blog every thing, But I will tell you of the events of my weekend, and of today.

 On Saturday I woke up, did the papers and left for a soccer tournament with my dad and my team mate Jack. We got about half way to Des Moines when we found out that our games were canceled so we came home. We got home and watched the final of the Champions league. Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund. Bayren Munich won the game 2-1.  

The next day (Sunday) we did the same routine except this time we got all the way to Des Moines. We played our game and lost 3 – 1 witch meant that we did not move on to the next round. I came home and spent the rest of the day doing pretty much nothing..

Today (Monday) I have been doing some school work and that is pretty much it, I started a science project with my friend Jacob and we will finish it some other time.

So my school writing assignment from now until the end of the month is to write on my blog every day, so I hope you want to hear all about me cause your going to!

Yesterday some friends of Emily and mine, the Hunts, came over to spend the night. We played a Lord of the Rings game for a while, but then when we realized that we had no chance whatsoever of destroying the ring we decided to stop and go get some ice cream at Hyvee. They were having a sale on Bryers ice cream so we each (4 of us) got our own pint. We got home and began to stuff ourselves with to much ice cream. Than we watched a movie and went to bed!

My trip to Arizona (part 5 of 5)

          One thing I forgot to mention was that I did a PE class with the 6th - 12th graders, a guy had come in for the week and was teaching some basic karate. So that was a fun thing I got to do. We woke up early on Thursday morning and drove back to my grandparents house, on the way back we stopped at the petrified forest which was pretty cool. Upon returning home (my grandparents home) my dad, grandpa and I went to the pool for a little while. After the pool we went to a show at the at the resort headquarters. That was pretty fun. Then on our finale day I played tennis with my dad and then some shuffle board with Emily, my mom and my dad. Shortly there after we headed to the airport, went through security and got on the plane.... NOT so shortly there after we arrived in Ceder Rapids Iowa, drove home and went to bed.

My trip to Arizona (part 4 of 5)

       For those of you who don't know, some people from our church help out at a mission school in Arizona. So we got up early and drove 6.5 - 7 hours to the mission. We arrived at the mission at around 2:30 and went to go see our friends from church. The Suns (the people from our church) made us dinner that evening, and we watched the Hobbit with Mr. Sun and his friend. The next day Emily went to school with the navajo kids, my mom and I helped around the mission and my dad just walked around in the school and helped when needed. That evening for dinner we tryed this type of bread called "fry bread". It was really good.

My trip to Arizona (part 3 of 5)

       On Easter morning Emily and I again went for a bike ride, this time only for about 20 minutes. After our ride we ate breakfast and went to the Easter morning service at my grandparent's church. At 2:30 that afternoon my dad, grandpa and I played a nine hole game of golf.( my dad and grandpa did 18 holes but I only did 9) I went to the pool that afternoon also, but not for very long. Later we had a dinner of grilled pork, cheesy potatoes, and a salad.









On a different note, my friend Jacob and I have started a blog. So feel free to check it out!
Our blog

My trip to Arizona (part 2 of 5)

      On day 2 of the trip Emily and I went out for an early mourning bike ride, after biking around for about an hour we came back to the house for some breakfast. The rest of the day was pretty dull with the exception my grandpa taking me out driving in the golf cart, which was a lot of fun. Also we played a few games throughout the day.

My Trip to Arizona (part 1 of 5)

        For those of you who don't know, last week I went to Arizona with my Mom, Dad and my Sister. We flew out from the Ceder Rapids on Friday March 29, and had one of the most boring flights ever. (which is probably good) After arrival at the Phoenix Mesa Airport my grandparents drove us to their house. We sat around for a while until grandma suggested ordering pizza from a local pizza place. She called the restaurant and ordered a 26 inch pepperoni pizza. After we finished to pizza we went to bed.

The Merry Adventures Robin Hood

This book is about, you guessed it. The merry adventures of Robin Hood.

    The book starts with the story about how Robin Hood became an outlaw. One day young Robin Hood was going to Nottingham to enter in to a archery contest, on his way there he come upon some kings rangers who are in the forest, they start to make fun of him because he is still young. So to prove himself he shoots a buck that is quite far away it turns out that the buck is one of the kings deer so the rangers start to arrest him, he ends up killing one of them and becoming an outlaw.
   Shortly after that Robin Hood decides to go on an adventure.  While he is away he comes across a large man. They are both trying to cross a log bridge at the same time, neither one is willing to let the other go first so they have a battle with " stout yew cudgels" The man beats Robin in to the water, from the water Robin Hood calls his men who quickly appear.  Robin ask the man if he will join Robin's band. The man does and everyone calls him little John.
From there on out Little John is Robin's right hand man, and they go on lots of "Merry Adventures" together.

Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting
  Natalie Babbitt



I am going to have to say that of all the books I have read for school, this is by far the weirdest.

This book is about a girl named Winnie Foster and the Tuck Family.
Winnie is board of the life she lives so she decides to run away the next mourning. Come next mourning she starts to have second thoughts about running away, but to prove herself to a certain toad she runs in to the forest. once she is in the forest she realizes that it really is not that scary, she wanders around for a while until she comes upon a boy drinking water for a spring in the ground. She asks for some water but he won't let her have any. Pretty soon the boys mother and older brother come along, and when they see that Winnie is trying to drink some of the water the mother says that the worst has happened. They then take her with them to there house. On the way there Winnie learns their secret, the water that she wanted to drink makes you live forever.

The Black Stallion Synopsis

last week I read the Black Stallion,

This book is about a boy named Alec Ramsey. Alec and a Black Stallion are the only survivors of a shipwreck. They wash up on an Island where they live on stuff like seaweed. Until one day when there little hut burns and is seen by a passing ship, Alec and the Black are saved and they go home. Once they are home Alec starts to train the Black with the help of his neighbor Henry.

Chess Club!

I am going over to my friend Jacob's house for our chess club today! What we do is....... PLAY CHESS! It is a lot of fun. We have only had one club get together so far but plan to have them every three weeks!

Carry on Mr. Bowditch book synopsis

This is a really interesting book that I enjoyed a lot.



The main character in this book is young boy name Nat Bowditch. Right away at the beginning of the book you find out that Nat's family has fallen upon hard times, a little wile ago Nat's fathers boat ran aground and on that same day the war started. A little while later Nat starts to go to school you find out that Nat is amazingly smart. He fully expects to go to Harvard until he becomes an apprentice at the
chandlery where he has to work for 9 years. The whole time he is at the chandlery he is still learning on his own, he learns math, science and also Latin. once his nine years are over he stays in his town for a while but than gets hired on a boat crew. The rest of the story his about him and how he learns and teaches stuff.

Treasure Island

Treasure Island is an amazing book that I really enjoyed.
Every day at around 10:00  my mom would read a few chapters of this book to me.


The main character of the story is a boy named Jim Hawkins. Jim's mother and Father own a hotel, one of their customers is an old pirate that everyone calls Captain. There are quite a few things that are strange about the Captain, such as his trunk that he keeps up in his room and does not let anybody see what is in it. Also he pays Jim every month as long as he keeps watch for a man with only one leg. One day a fellow pirate comes to pay the captain a visit the other pirates name is Black Dog. The Captain gets mad when he sees Black Dog and chases him away. After a few other events that I will not mention because that would dull the beginning of the book, the Captain dies and some other pirates come to get his trunk. But when they get there Jim and his mother have already taken some stuff from the trunk, one of the things that they take is a treasure map using this Jim and some others embark on an adventure!

This book has been made a classic and I definitely think it deserves to be one!

Hockey again!

For those of you who did not know the NHL players and general managers had some disagreements during the off season which caused a lockout. Now they have made an agreement and hockey is back. Although there is going to be a shorter season this year it should be exciting!

Today I had my monthly art class.
We used all kinds of cool things, the subject for today was metamorphosis. So we had to draw something that changes. I drew hot wax being poured in to a candle mold.

 Yesterday I made dinner for my family, I made chicken alfredo pizza and cheesey bread sticks. I used my mothers new pizza stone and paddle, they work really well.

A Pizza Stone

This is not the pizza I made but it still looks good!

A Pizza Paddle

The Indian In the Cupboard

This was the first book of the semester.



In this book a boy named Omri recives a cupboard for his birthday, his mother gives him a key that amazingly fits the lock. What Omri does not know is that the key is magic and whenever he puts something plastic in to the cupboard, locks it, the plastic figure comes to life when he opens it.
This book is about Ormi and his friend Patrick and their adventures with the cupboard.

The book cover of this book.

My new reading list.

This is my 2nd Semester reading list.

          My Choices                                                 My Moms choices

         The Indian in the Cupboard                              House of Dies Drear
                  By   Lynne Reid Banks                               By  Virgina Hamilton
 

     
         And Then There Were None                              Code Talkers
                   By   Agatha Christie                                       By  Joseph Buchac



         The Maltese Falcon                                             The Black Stallion
                    By  Dashiell Hammet                                      By  Walter Farley



          Carry on Mr. Bowditch                                        The Lord Of the Flies
                     By  Jean Lee Latham                                        By  William Golding

Trip to Michigan!

Last week I went to Michigan with my family for a late Christmas and New Years Eve/Day. It was a very enjoyable time. For the last few years we have been working on some cool forts that we started in my Grandparents woods, so we did a lot of work on that. Besides that It was just your average trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house, with lots of candy, pop and cookies!