Day 19: Trespassing and Indecent Exposure

Muscatine, IA to Oxford Junction, IA

Stats!
Miles biked 47.9
Total miles biked: 660.6
Max speed: 38.5 (a new record!)
# of bugs swallowed by Meredith: 4
# of classic cars spotted: 3

Today did not have an auspicious start. 0.5 miles into our ride, Dean got another flat tire – the third of this trip. We both have the kevlar belted tires, and they have performed great. The tubes we bought, however, keep randomly tearing, and the nozzles separate from the tube really easily, causing flats. When we were in Defiance, MO, we bought a bunch of new tubes (a different brand), and we hope this will be the end of the flats.

So Dean changed the flat, and after a few choice words for our previous brand of tubes, we were on our way again.

It was the kind of day to drive anyone to indecent exposure. Temps in the 90s, the sun beating down, and no shade anywhere on the roads. Missouri's landscape was actually very similar to central Virginia's – rolling hills and heavily wooded. Illinois and Iowa have just been farms and farms and farms. And no one plants trees in their corn fields. So it was brutally sunny today, which I'll take over rainy, anyway.

Very early on in the ride we were at a stop sign and a truck pulled up next to us. The guy behind the wheel asked, “Where ya goin'?” and Dean replied, “Uh... I'm not sure. Hon?” (he hates reading the map and just finds out where we're going when we get there). I said we were headed for Oxford Junction. He said, “That's a long way!” It wasn't so long, actually.

Our first available stop was a town called Bennett, 26 miles into the trip. It was pretty cute and we rode around it for awhile trying to find the restaurant our map promised us. We did meet some locals and saw a fancy classic car that was going to auction, but the locals informed us that there was neither a restaurant nor a grocery store (both promised on the map), but that they had a gas station convenience store. We both just wanted a snack and a gatorade, so that was perfect. We ended up getting the gatorade and a slice of cheeseburger pizza each (the only kind available). It had ground beef, onions and pickles on it. It was actually really good!

We were feeling pretty good, and the next town was only 11 miles away, so we weren't worried about not having enough to eat. Two miles into that, we saw a road closure sign (UGH, not again!) warning us that a bridge was out 4 miles ahead. There was a detour that, of course, would take us onto a busy highway. Now that we are old hands at getting around road closures, we decided to press on, check it out, cross if we could and find a better detour if we couldn't. We are intrepid road closure explorers!

When we got to the bridge, at first glance it looked completely doable. It just looked like the road was out but it was dirty and muddy where the bridge was. As we got closer we saw that, no, there was a creek and a giant hole. It wouldn't be crossable – at least not in the traditional way.

We went around the side of where the bridge had been, and we brought the bikes with us. The mud was gross and smelled like manure. But we still trudged through it, getting mud in our gears and our cleats, and crossed the creek over some planks left by the workmen. Success! We used a brush we got from our bike repair class to clear out all the mud from the gears when we got to the other side.

We made it to our next stop, Lowden, and had lunch. We were quickly back on the road after and on our way to Oxford Junction. At the restaurant in Lowden, Dean called City Hall to ask about camping at the local park, and they told us to call a guy named Steve to ask about it. We did, Steve agreed, and here we are.

When we arrived to the park, we saw our shower for the evening – a spigot. We washed our hair in it and our legs and faces. The water was C O L D ! ! ! But the most important thing to wash right after a bike ride is your butt – it helps prevent saddle sores. So in the middle of the (empty) park, with Dean standing to the side of me that had the road on it, I dropped trou and did what was necessary. It was even colder on that particular body part. Dean had to do the same. It was worth it to feel cleanish.

We then took a walk around Oxford Junction. We got talking to some men at another park in town – Jon, Lon and Rick. They had some mighty fine classic cars, and they were on a classic cars hub tour out of Cedar Rapids, where every day they go on a day trip out to some part of the state and then return to Cedar Rapids. They were very nice, and very interested in the trip.

We just had dinner at Schakey's in town, where we learned that we are the talk of the town! While we were eating there, the famous Wapsie Park Steve walked in and started telling the other patrons about us. Of course, the waitress had already grilled us after Dean showed his Maryland ID for a beer (very suspicious!), and she immediately told Steve that “the honeymoon couple” was in the next booth over.

We are now in our tent, sweating like crazy. It is supposed to storm tonight, and if it brings these temperatures down some, we'll welcome it. Tomorrow we plan to go to Dyersville (which is probably where we'll post this – we're just saving it to an open office doc right now so we don't forget everything that happened). Happy trails until then!