Iowa turns out to be Big Biking Country, and Karla — one of my new colleagues at Hawkeye Community College — invited me to join her and some friends on August 30 for the sixth annual R.A.S.H. Ride, which started in Independence (about half an hour from Cedarloo) and made a 25-mile loop northwest to Littleton, south to Jesup, then back east to Independence. Some of the riders band together into uniformed or costumed groups, including these pink-bearded members of Team Flamingo.