Dy 21: There's No Such Thing as "Mostly Downhills"

Dyersville, IA to Elkader, IA

Stats!
Miles biked today: 42.6
Total miles biked on trip: 746.3
Max speed: 35.0
# of historic churches passed: 3
# of new (for us on this trip) animal species spotted: 2 (a donkey and a hummingbird!)
# of meals eaten: just 3 today (it was an easyish ride, and we ate A LOT of dinner)
# of friends visited: 1 (Heather!)

After two crazy days, it was nice to have a bit of a calm, easy day. I think we could physically start doing 60 mile days regularly, but we're completely tied to where we can sleep at night, and right now there are only towns with lodging or campgrounds about every 40 miles. I don't think we can do 80 miles every day yet. Hopefully we'll be able to up the daily mileage soon.

It was a perfect day, weather wise, and a decent day terrain-wise. Dyersville seemed to be a pretty darn Catholic town, and we saw a beautiful basilica on our way out of town. A few miles down the road, we passed the oldest consecrated church in Iowa, and aways after that we saw another beautiful, old steepled church. Pretty!

We've come to learn that the word "scenic" is a dirty word. Or, rather, it's a euphemism for "super hilly." Today was another really hilly day on Iowa's Scenic Byways, but it was nothing as bad as the mountains, and we're in better shape now, too, so it was achievable. When we stopped for lunch today, the restaurant owner said that the rest of our ride would be "mostly downhills." Folks, that is impossible. You have to get to the top of the hill to go downhill. So there were an equal number of uphills. But I can't blame the guy -- you just don't notice the uphills in cars, and the downhills were pretty steep.

After we got to Elkader, we met up with my friend Heather. Heather and I met in 1998 when we were both study abroad students in Caen, France. What a great year that was! I hadn't seen her since 2004 when she visited Washington, DC for work. We went out to dinner and had a great time. She is the kind of person that you can just pick right back up with after 7 years like they were nothing. There was a lot of reminiscing. And THANK YOU for dinner, Heather!! :)


We are considering going rogue tomorrow and leaving the ACA route. It promises to be brutally hilly over the next few days, and across the river in Wisconsin is meant to be much flatter. So, we're going to give Wisconsin a try, and we can always cross back over the river if it doesn't work out.

We're starting to think that no one but my parents reads this blog. Please leave a comment if you're still here! We need the encouragement.