Team "no helmet"

I was amongst about 15,000 bike riders last week during a day of RAGBRAI.  For those of you unfamiliar with Iowa or biking, this is one amazing week.  It stands for Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  I am one of those day riders, not there for the whole week.  Some day, when I'm not nursing a 3 month old perhaps, I will do the whole ride, which is usually around 550 miles.  It's on my bucket list.  I saw a   man wearing a "team bucket list" jersey, by the way!  Now out of these thousands of bike riders, I counted SIX people without a bike helmet.  And three of them included myself, my husband, and my father.  I will not rant and rave about the RIGHT TO RIDE HELMETLESS in this posting.  But I will include some of the harrassment I received during those 95 miles of beautiful corn fields.  These comments started approximately 30 seconds into the ride.

Middle Aged Man: Where's your helmet?
Me: In the store
Repeat above dialogue about 37 times changing the Middle aged man to random different people.

Overheard by my husband: "There's a 17 year old girl back there, long ponytail, without a helmet!!"
Tim: "Hey, that's my wife!"
Uncle Kelly: "Sex offender!"
Me: "They thought I was 17?!  Saweeeeet!"

Young man: You need a helmet!
Me: Thanks, Mom
Young man: *rant, rave, rant rant about dangers and injuries, yada yada.....*

Woman: You should be wearing a helmet!!!
Me: It's not the law.
Woman: Well it's the law on RAGBRAI!

Man: Where's your helmet?
ANNOYED Me: ohhhh kiss mine!
Man: hahaha, just don't want you to hurt that pretty little head.....

Woman: You'd look hotter with a helmet on.
Me: But I'm pretty sexy without one, too!  (Okay so that really wasn't my response....)

The whole day went like this.  RAGBRAI is awesome.  But this time, the intense, serious riders who think they are really something kind of got to me. I put my 95 miles in.  It  felt good, and amazingly, I wasn't sore the next day.  I did it, Dad. :)

And the next overweight rider who dared to say one word to me about my helmet absence they were going to get this line:  "Shall I lecture you on the hazards of being overweight?!"

To wear a helmet should be my choice, thank you.

P.S. I'll be in Heaven when I die.