Time: 5h02m35s
Distance:140.39km
Avg Spd: 27.8km/hr
Climbing:1,434m
Today was unexpectedly difficult, but still quite enjoyable. For those who think Iowa is flat... you are wrong. We climbed 1,434m today, but the place we are staying tonight is a mere 30m above our campsite last night. Yup. Talk about no fruit for a lot of labor.
The coolest thing about the rolling hills of Iowa is the way the farming is done on the steeper sections. The farmers have actually stepped the land so they get flatter sections to work on, then a gap for a retaining wall or steep hill, then a step down to the next flat section of ground.
Today is actually our halfway point of time of the tour. 31 days done, 31 days to go. We will cross the half-way distance marker on Friday (although that would have happened on Monday if we hadn't been bused through Arizona because of the heat).
We stopped early on today in the little town of Sheradin. We needed an ATM, and killed a half-hour at the Wal-Mart picking up some essentials. I've still been having troubles with my legs not recovering from day to day, so I bought some Cliff bars that are high in protein with the hope that eating those right after the ride will help me recover.
I was having trouble riding in a group with my Top Guns today because of the constant rolling terrain, so at the 100km mark, I left early from a SAG and rode solo for a bit. I ended up catching Katie, and we rode together for a bit, then went into the little town of Clearfield with George and had an ice cream at the only store than was open in the town. Riding down main street (Broadway St, actually) was crazy - everything was all boarded up and vacant.
We're camping tonight in another state park: Marlin E. Fogle Campground. It's not as nice as last night's, but it's got everything we need. And a lake.
The local United church came after dinner and had a little fundraiser selling us pies and homemade ice cream. They had a clever contraption on a flat-deck trailer with a little 1.5hp gas engine hooked up to the ice cream churner to mix the ice cream. And they had pies galore. I tried three flavors and five scoops of ice cream. Strawberry-Rhubarb, Peach, and Apple. The apple was my favorite. I think they ended up collecting over $700 from us this evening. Tomorrow morning they will be cooking us eggs, bacon, etc for breakfast with the same philosophy for raising money. I can't wait!
I finished off my last evening of my twenties with a sunset paddle of a kayak around the little lake with Marc (Stretch). Not too shabby at all.
And now, bedtime approaches once again. It's 10pm and the camp is silent. We'll start roaring at 6am when the kitchen generator fires up and get on with the day.
There's no Wi-Fi in camp again, but I'm writing this anyways with the intent of uploading whenever we're lucky enough to get a signal again - probably tomorrow.
Apple pie and kayaking .... Your roots are showing!
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