Day 55: When 50 miles seems easy (Iowa Falls to Cedar Falls)

Inches out of the sleeping bag at 9:12 and met Sherrie for coffee and the Coffee Attic. We are two breakfast sandwiches and gave an interview to the town paper too.

Then she took us on a tour of Iowa Falls: to the bike shop (home of the Super Tuned tuneup), Ricky T sr's garage (the Ricky's are not related) to see Sherrie and his decked out bicycles, stereo systems and all, the hospital to actually visit Ricky T, where Rachel got some advice about her knees, then finally back to Mark's house to pack up. Sherrie offered to drive most of our stuff to Rachel's family at Cedar Falls, so we only had to carry a few bags. We didn't leave until 1:30 but weren't worried cause 47 miles seemed breezy after yesterday. Or not breezy. We're just finally confident we can make it any distance 60 and under with no real difficulty, assured of our strength. It's a deep kind of comfort that we only just learned.

We had a headwind the whole way, but no detours. We even stopped for a road whiskey at Grumpy's in Ackley. We made it to Cedar Falls by 6:30 or 7, welcomed by Naomi and John, Rachel's dad's cousin and her husband. They cooked us an incredible meal of Iowa State Fair food (no deep fried butter, don't worry).

Then, while unpacking, Rachel realized she couldn't find either of her rain jackets, which had been tied to the back of the tent. Worse, her wallet was in one of the pockets. So we called in our Iowa Falls reinforcements, but, no luck. The jackets are gone, along with her wallet, so we're trying to figure out how to get her an ID. Turns out California is the only state that doesn't allow you to apply via mail, you have to go in in person. But she can't. Cause she's in Iowa. There's traveler IDs, but those require an itinerary, which we don't have, cause we're science vagabonds. And expedited passports take forever and also take you for all your worth. Any ideas?

Day 54: Iowa Falls aka magicwonderbikeland (Nemaha to Iowa Falls)

I used to find it impossible to get up early in the morning, the world soupy, thick and heavy, but that's shifted substantially in the last two years. Anjali started me a little at school, and in Davis, I'd get up before work to run because the summer days there are brutally hot. Now, on this trip, I love waking up at 6:30, getting out before 8. No flies, the air is cool and sweet, the sun's up but not fiery and there's nothing like putting 50 miles behind you before noon.

So I left Jim's place early, before Rachel woke up. And this splendid day rose before us and the tailwinds propelled us and there were those 50 miles by noon. I also don't do well with heat so I stopped for lunch in a cemetery (only place in Fort Dodge with shade on the way out). Rachel and I decided we could do 100 mile, our first century, so we plugged Iowa Falls into the GPS. Best decision ever.

It's this sweet little town that feels bigger than its 5200 residents. We figured we could camp in Assembly Park, which was right on the Iowa River without getting kicked out so long as we hid ourselves kind of well. Cooked up some lettuce wraps filled with kielbasa, quinoa, mushrooms and onions and basked in the glory of the evening and how easy the day felt despite the distance.

The evening was so warm, I decided to clean up in the river. I ran up the swinging bridge and down the road to the river, interrupting the migration of twelve mama gooses and their goslings. I wasn't sure if the river was safe.. It seemed a special kind of crazy that on such a gorgeous evening, there was no one else swimming in the river. So I flagged down a guy driving a boat and asked if the water was safe. He assured me it was. 

I jumped in with all my clothes on ... double duty, washing machines are few and far between. While I scrubbed off the thick cake of sweat, dirt, sunscreen and bug spray, the guy on the boat, Mark, docked his boat right there next to the shore. When he found out Rachel and I were cyclists, he called up his friend Sherrie. It was Tuesday and Tuesday's are bike nights in Iowa falls. She's loud and blonde, Mark said, you're gonna love her. 

Rachel's in there somewhere 

Sherrie was awesome and kind of adopted us for the night. She took us to Alden, where the cyclists were grabbing some brews before heading back. And the first song Burchfield plays when we arrive is Wait So Long by Trampled by Turtles! I went crazy like always; that was a good introduction.

Anyways, we stayed there for a while, then Sherrie drove us back to town to meet Mark, Chow neè Kevin and Ricky T jr at Woody's, where Rachel was proposed to and then had the world's second worst beer (the first can be found on tap in Sundance). Old Legion: don't do it. 

We ran outside at midnight to look for the ISS but it was too bright, or we got the time wrong. As the night wound down, Ricky T convinced Mark to take us out on his boat on the river. And out there you could see the stars. We've had the universe stolen from us by weather for the last two months so to finally see them speckled up there was, well, kind of magical. Mark got a call from a guy in England about an engine failure in a commercial airplane we could see flashing in the sky from the deck of the boat. Turns out he's a machine genius.

We didn't end up camping in the park today, we slept on the couch in Mark's basement which is the most classic man cave I've ever had the opportunity to invade. The plane was fine, made it safe all the way across the nation. Now we just have to do that.

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Day 53: Iowa is just the classic windows desktop (Sioux City to Nemaha)

Californians, we've been lied to our whole lives. The Midwest is about as flat as a buffalo's back. Todd promised us Iowa has more elevation gain than Colorado. I have not fact checked but after today I believe it.

We took our bikes in to Albrecht's bike shop in downtown Sioux City before heading out because my bike's been feeling kinda funny from time to time, like I'm grinding something deep in some bearings. Turned out I had massacred the chain these last 1700 miles or so, so Kelly the Bike Mechanic threw a new one on there. 

Iowa is, however, as bucolic as you'd expect and there's baby corn everywhere, little six inch stalks that'll be ten times the size once RAGBRAI rolls around. It was hot and I was pretty scared of repeating the overheating I'd cooked myself into on the way to White River so I took it really slow. It's hard to even sit in the shade here though cause the flies are so bad. And have I mentioned the mosquitoes bite through spandex? Insatiable, horrible beasts.

Well Rachel and I took slightly different routes and both ended up having to take pretty major detours to avoid dirt roads. I went up by Storm Lake. 

Our warm showers host, a corn farmer, fed us another fantastic meal. We're so spoiled on this trip; people are way too good to us. 

Day 52: Three states, one rainy day (Yankton to Sioux City)

Well we didn't end up in Oz but it stormed all night long, rain and winds pounding our sturdy (new and improved!) tent. 

Today, South Dakota finally lived up to my preconceptions: it was flat. Flatland. Flat as a frying pan. 

We had decent weather - had a tailwind! - most of the way. I got real hungry near Vermillion and stopped at the Hyvee, the Safeway equivalent, for a sandwich and a mango. Funny how set in your ways you get. Like the shelves were organized differently here than in a Safeway, the fruit was stacked differently, even the way the pharmacy was set up. Anyways I sat in the cafe and destroyed the mango, juice dripping everywhere. Definitely earned some stares with this one. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. 

We ran into another tourer, Brad, there too (seriously we find'em in the strangest places). He had just caught up with the Lewis and Clark trail in Sioux City. I didn't talk to him long because I was very focused on that coffee and those calories.

It started to drizzle, then pour, as we left Vermillion until we were maybe 20 miles from the destination. My case isn't really waterproof anymore so I just stick the phone in my jacket's back pocket. The temperature stayed around 70 though and the water was warm so the riding was still pretty easy. I chewed a whole pack of gum in 10 minutes like I always do. 

When I crossed the bridge into Iowa, Rachel was heading back across it. She couldn't find the state sign.. And we never did find any notice. So we maneuvered to the interstate and took a solid selfie there. From there, we had planned on riding five miles through Nebraska (man, no other state has taken the kind of shit this state gets. Singularly, every person we talked to told us not to go) but some friends of our warm showers host for the night spotted us and invited us out for beer. We happily obliged. Buffalo Alice ("BA's") is highly recommended. Plus Adam, the bartender and also a biker, fed us from his unlimited supply of tootsie rolls. Rachel ordered a pizza (girl finally got her cheese) and we rode south to Tom's house. He grilled up some awesome pork burgers and we talked with his wife Mandy and listened to his adorable son Jackson bang stuff together in his room. 

Completely worn out from the night before, sleep came almost instantly. 

Day 51: Teach a (wo)man to fish

Number one goal for the trip accomplished today! I learned out to filet a fish. Steve, the guy from the thoroughbred motel in white River, took me out to the Gavin's dam and I caught a bass and a blue gill. Two points for the foot-long collapsible Spider-Man fishing rod made for a theee-year old. 

Let the bass drop (Steve made me kiss it before we threw it back in) 

I was kind of surprised the blood didn't bother me at all. There wasn't much of it, to be sure, but yup, felt nothing except that I wish I'd had a lemon and some hot coals to cook it on.

It's hot in South Dakota, or its hot now that it's June. Finished up The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi splayed out on the rent-a-towel in temperamental shade at the KOA while Rachel hit up the town (hair cut + froyo). Yeah the whole world is good - post-humans get off this planet and find intelligent species and need an army to defend the race from the Galaxy. Most of the soldiers are old people who volunteer for the army and get their minds transferred to younger, suppler bodies in exchange. An interesting way to get around war destroying a generation of young men/women eh. Anyways some good ethics debated in this and the previous one. Whaddya think, real space travel in our lifetimes? A girl can dream.

And we finally got out ribs this evening and shit they were good. If you're planning on a cross-country road trip, I highly recommend you planning it around barbecue. We stood in line for the first place winners and devoured juicy ribs lathered in sauce, I coulda drank that. I kind of did. 

We ended with deep fried cookie dough of course, and then booked it back to the campgrounds even though Rachel had a flat cause thunderstorm and tornado warnings started appearing in our inboxes. We were going to sleep in the laundry room but eh it's 11 and looks like the storm has passed. Tent is still standing and we stand by it.

Day 50: Take us to the ribfest (Missouri to Yankton)

Woke up and still had the whole Missouri to ourselves. I made it through the night curled easy in my hammock.

They promised us flatlands! South Dakota isn't flat. Spent the day endlessly pedaling up and riding down the hills of the Yankton reservation. We have a lot of miscellaneous food from when my mom was here so we didn't really eat whole lunches so much as snack. 

This week ended up housing both Rachel and my hardest ride - you heard about mine but today was hers, because she didn't sleep much and because we didn't eat much the night before. Lesson learned. Man and some days your shorts rub and by the end of it I was feeling rawww. 

The whole day we were excited about the Yankron ribfest. No better way to celebrate halfway than stuffing our stomachs full of Porky. We rolled into the KOA at 7:15 or whenever and showers and set up camp and we're halfway to passing out by the time we showed up at the park, we were so hungry. But the lights were all dark and the streets empty and the food smells week and it turns out they were setting up..  for tomorrow. 

Um yeah so we ended up at the yesterday cafe - themed 50s diner - and I got a bud light before my meatloaf arrived and anyways never felt like that after a bud before.

Steve showed up and we went to Walmart which I have been to more times on this trip than ever in my life. And just for now I'm allowing myself to ignore their worker compensation problems and local-business displacement ethics and say that that place is kind of a wonderland for us. I got a child-sized (me-sized) collapsible spiderman fishing rod cause I've been trying to find someone to teach me how to clean a fish this whole trip but s'pose I need to catch one first.