Biking into Pella, I start seeing signs along the road for a lather face shave.
It is something I've always wanted to try and it seemed just odd enough - even for Ragbrai - that i had to check it out. So I followed the signs into a neighborhood and then a side entrance to one of its homes.
There, master barber Scott Sales was finishing up his first customer, a young man from Champaign, IL. Scott had just put the sign out about 20 minutes earlier.
It looks just as you might expect a barber shop to look like - with a barber poll, barber chair big mirror and all the tools of the trade.
Scott previously had a barber shop in Des Moines, and gained a claim to fame for giving haircuts to presidential candidates - notably Mike Huckabee, who's son had become a regular during the campaign. Newsweek, Los Angeles Times and at one point 75 journalists packed into his small shop for photo ops.
When the building housing the shop closed down, Scott closed the business and now lives in Pella raising his six children doing haircuts and shaves on the side.
Now in the chair, Scott lays a warm towel over my face to open the pores. Then he lathers my face, and begins to shave.
Go with the grain on the first pass, and then shave across the grain, he said. As it turns out my boney face is an obstacle course for a barber's razor.
The shave finished with a cool lotion, and a cold towel on my face to close the pores.
Freshly shaven, I hopped back on my bike and pedaled on.
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