Day 33 - Chariton, IA to Pella, IA

Daily Stats:
Time: 2h52m49s
Distance: 83.79km
Avg Spd: 29.1km/hr
Climbing: 792m

Good day today.  We got rained on last night so it was a soggy pack-up this morning.  The tent performed well, and kept me dry.  The trains and the rain woke me almost on the hour.

Brandon had some people to meet in Pella, and we wanted to do breakfast at a cool place he knew before hand, so we were the third group out of camp at 6:40am.

We stopped at Celebrate Community Church in Knoxville for some pie along the way.  It's a beautiful new building for a church that is growing that provides lots of help for  young adults and kids in the area.  The folks there put on quite a spread for us...  and we still wanted pie after the pie fundraiser on Wednesday!

We arrived in Pella around 10am, and had breakfast at the Windmill Cafe, then went to check in at Central College where we are staying in the dorms.

Pella is a sweet Dutch town.  And it's is very Dutch... We spent the afternoon walking around town and seeing the sights.  Here's what we saw.

The sign welcoming us to town informed us that Pella is "A Touch of Holland", and was nicely placed in front of their Water Treatment Plant.

At the center of the town square, they have giant tower, and a windmill constructed from bicycle parts was erected to celebrate RAGBRAI as it came through town yesterday.

We were expected all over town... including the Opera House.

There are windmills everywhere... and giant wooden shoes.

There's a sweet canal running through town, too.

And they have the largest windmill in the USA that still operates...  Unfortunately they wanted $10 to go the top, and the Dutch part of me had a mini-conniption wanting to see Dutch heritage but wanting to save the $10.  The saving won out, and we read through the historical stories on the wall downstairs.

We're having dinner in the cafeteria, and an outdoor worship service at 7pm tonight. Central has done a fantastic job of welcoming us and have all sorts amenities for us to enjoy.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  We had a great time after dinner relaxing and eating a peach pie that Karel and friends scored from the local church ladies in Diagonal.  I am truly blessed to have so many great friends to hang out and celebrate my 30th year with.