Day 22: Hotter than the Hubs of Hell

Elkader, IA to Lynxville, WI

Stats!
Miles biked today: 47.5
Total miles biked on trip so far: 793.8
Max speed: 33.0
# of lynxes spotted in Lynxville: 0 so far
# of heat rash patches on my body: 5

Thanks to everyone for the comments! We are glad people are still reading! :)

Today was HOT. The heat record for this area at this time of year was broken. Tomorrow is meant to be a few degrees worse. It got rough towards the end of the ride, so we called it off early today. Energy-wise, we both felt great, despite all the hills we covered.

And there were a good few hills today. It was another day where I saw a few that I was sure would be walkers, but we ended up climbing them without much problem. We decided to go off the route today, mid-way, and went over into Wisconsin so we could avoid some killer river bluffs. Tracy, who we met in Hannibal, warned us about them and suggested we ride on the Wisconsin side.

When we first crossed over into Wisconsin, it was at Prairie du Chien, WI. I loved this town. I'm adding it to the short list of places that I could live that we've seen on this trip. Right now the list is Blacksburg, VA; St. Louis, MO; and Prairie du Chien, WI. That's it. There have been a lot of really cute towns, but they've mostly been too small to be livable. Prairie du Chien had everything you could want and was really pretty.

After that, we got on the main road that will take us all the way to La Crosse – Route 35. It goes right along the Mississippi and from our map it seemed to be a lot flatter than the route that ACA wanted us to take. But it's a busy road and was kind of terrifying. We're going to stick with it, though, just because I hate hills that much. I really wonder about why ACA chooses the routes they do.

Here's a handy lexicon, in case you ever read the field notes in an ACA map:

Scenic – miserable hills
Rewarding – miserable hills
Breathtaking – really miserable hills
Plain – yes, please
A Bit Boring – easy riding
Adventure – lunacy
Rolling hills – big hills
Steep hills – cliffs
Gravel alternate route – death ride
“It says pedestrians only, but bikes are allowed” - pedestrians only
Heavily trafficked - 4 cars per hour

I don't even know why I read the field and riding notes on the maps. They always give me false hope.

Anyway, today we were riding on the actually heavily trafficked route 35, the sun was beating down, and we just had to throw in the towel at Lynxville, population 179. Our reward is the lovely motel where we're staying – Hoochies II River Roadhouse. I am not kidding.

Naturally, I asked the Hoochies II barman why it was named Hoochies. He didn't know, but said that since they changed the name, they've had a lot of swingers' groups come through. I guess people just assume Hoochies is a swingers bar. Go figure. Yep, it's a bar and grill with a motel, too. Everything you could ever want, all here in Lynxville, home of no lynxes.

I think we're going to try to make it to La Crosse tomorrow, but it's going to be even hotter than today, so I'm not sure if we'll make it. I was breaking out all over in heat rash today.

Please send lots of good vibes for a nice breeze and maybe a few clouds tomorrow!

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.

Day 20: "Let's Have Lick 'Em Aid for Lunch!"

Oxford Junction, IA to Dyersville, IA

Miles biked today: 43.1

Total miles biked on trip: 703.7
Max speed: 32.0

# of tractors in tractor parade: 120

The netbook is back up and running and I have posted yesterday's full post. Now, for today's!

To tell you fully about today, we have to start with last night. As you know, we were staying in Oxford Junction, IA in a park just outside town, camping. Well, we've camped a few times on this trip so far, and even camped one other time in a city park. The way it works is, after about 8 or 9 p.m., the place clears out. This seemed to be the case for Oxford Junction, too, except that in Oxford Junction it was cleared out all day. Not a soul at the park all day.

So Dean and I were reading our books by flashlight and getting ready for bed a bit later than normal -- maybe 10:30 or 11 p.m. As we were just trying to get to sleep, a car drives into the park and points its headlights right at us. It parks, stays there with lights on about 2 minutes (still on our tent), Dean pops his head up to investigate, they then turn the headlights off and sit there another few minutes, before finally driving off. They never got out of the car or anything, and the park is a little bit out of town, so there would be absolutely no reason to go there. Also, everyone in all of Oxford Junction knew we were staying there.

The whole scenario was a bit scary. But we tried to go to sleep anyway. It was hard. You have zero protection in a tent like that. So I asked Dean to grab our dog repellent and the knife from the tool kit, just in case.

At around midnight, a guy comes walking into the picnic shelter where our tent is with a flashlight! What on EARTH could he want? Dean again popped his head up, and the guy turned off his flashlight, mumbled something we couldn't make out, and walked off.

That made it way harder to sleep. What if it was some wannabe murderer who'd just heard there were two people camping in the shelter? I was terrified. Then at about 3 a.m., two guys just go running through the park. Where to? They weren't headed for town, and there's nothing walkable in any other direction.

So we each got maybe 2 hours of sleep. Raccoons were out making noise (they scare me, too), frogs were croaking, owls were hooting, and apparently half of Oxford Junction was out to kill us.

So when 6 a.m. rolled around, we got on the bikes, very VERY tired. Our only other option was another fun filled night in the O-J, so we decided to roll out of town. We probably shouldn't have been on the road, we were so tired. It was pretty dangerous. And every push of the pedal was exhausting.

We each had a 5 Hour Energy, but that can only take you so far. Food and energy drinks can help, for sure, but nothing can replace a good night's sleep. We were totally out of it and didn't end up taking many pictures.

We stopped for a rejuvenating lunch today in Cascade, IA. It's a cute town and the waitress thought we were the coolest people ever for doing this trip. Also in Cascade, the whole town was covered with signs that said "The Flamingos are Coming," and we have no clue what that was all about. Was it a sleep-deprived hallucination?

Despite our exhaustion, I was really proud of how well we did today. We are definitely out of the flatlands and into hilly territory again. We didn't have to walk up or take a break on a single hill! There were hills that, from the bottom looking up, made me say to Dean, "I'll probably have stop and walk this one," but we did great! It really shows how far we've come.

Dean bikes through the drive-thru ATM lane.

We were so glad to get into Dyersville and get a motel room with a door and a deadbolt. We'll be sleeping tonight!

Dyersville is home to the Field of Dreams baseball field (movie set) and also the National Farm Toy Museum. Obviously, we hit the museum (the movie set is 3 miles out of town). I learned a lot about tractors, which was good because, after dinner, we walked right into the middle of a tractor parade! I've never seen so many tractors assembled in one place in my whole life.

And now, it's bedtime. I am exhausted. I hope the netbook works again tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

I love a parade!

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!

Day 18: An Unscheduled Rest Day Due to Craptastic Weather

Today we woke up at the regular time and it was dark and pouring rain out. Weather predicted thunderstorms all day. We waited a few hours to see if it would let up. It did a little bit, but neither of us was up for a late start, full day of biking to a wet campsite, so we decided to make it a rest day and wait for sunnier skies tomorrow.

Unfortunately, we don't even have any pictures to post. It was so yucky that we stayed in most of the day. We checked online for Muscatine, IA points of interest, but all we got was an octagonal house that is now used for office space and a pearl button museum. We decided to stay in and read.

We did get lots of rest and are once again ready to hit the road. I also talked to my friend Heather who lives in Iowa, and we're going to meet up with her sometime in the next week or two!

Tomorrow, I think we're shooting for Oxford Junction, IA. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to report then. :)

PS - Happy 28th Birthday to Dean's sister, Leah!

Day 17: A Day in the Life of a Bike Tourist

Burlington, IA to Muscatine, IA

Stats!
Miles biked today: 60.1
Total miles biked on trip: 612.7
Max speed: 28.0
# of goats that bleated at us in fury or terror: 1
# of new kinds of animals we saw: 1
Dean and I were talking on the road today about all the stuff we mean to include in the blog, but either forget to include or haven't gotten around to including.

For me, I forgot to tell the story of the vulture that divebombed me a few days ago. We were biking along a very lonesome road on a very hot day, and a vulture that had been circling high in the sky swooped down and came flying right at me! I screamed (those things are scary), but it changed direction at the last moment and avoided me. I'm not sure if it was just curious about us or just having some fun or what.

Dean wanted to do a "day in the life" post, where we explain just what it is we do all day, so we'll do that today. But first, a quick couple of notes about what we did and saw today.

We started off in Burlington and immediately got lost. We've been relying on the google maps on Dean's phone pretty heavily these past couple of weeks, but we quickly learned that the maps aren't always the best. For example, if the road has a bridge that crosses above another road, it will show the two intersecting. On the maps, it looks like you just need to make a turn at the corner, when in reality the road you want is 20 feet below you and there's no way to get there.

We eventually found our way and started off for the day. The only stop was 20 miles in at Oakville. Nothing until Oakville and nothing after until Muscatine. It was a hot day, so this was a bit of a challenge. We started off a bit late, as we were feeling lazy this morning, but it turned out to be a blessing.

The main restaurant in Oakville seemed to have burned down, but there was a place called The Piggy Bank Cafe that opened at 11 a.m. Thanks to our late start, we got there at 11:19 a.m. :)

I LOVED this place. I think it may be my favorite restaurant we've been to on the trip. It was really cute, and the food was delicious, plentiful, nutritious, wholesome and cheap. Perfect. On our way out some men at a table started asking us about our trip. It turns out that one of the men's daughters had done an around the world bike trip that took two years! Very impressive. He recognized our touring bikes for what they were right away. They were really nice, and the whole Piggy Bank experience was great.

We then had almost 40 miles with no services of any kind on a hot day. It was a little bit tough. It's amazing how much difference the wind can make. We had a tailwind on our longest day, and it was great. A headwind can really slow you down. It's crazy. It's just air! We had a headwind most of the way today. On the positive side, a headwind can really cool you off on a hot day.

When we were about 10 miles out of Muscatine, we were just about out of water, and I was starting to see things. I saw a tailor shop (turns out it was actually "Taylor's Greenhouse") and thought they might sell Powerade. I was definitely seeing some Powerade mirages. About 5 miles from the hotel, we finally made it to a gas station. Hallelujah! And they were having a 2 for 1 sale on Powerade!

It was so hot that when we finally made it to Muscatine, Dean jumped in a fountain!

I also noticed that they had soft serve ice cream, which sounded really good. Dean and I bought 2, but when we went to go serve ourselves, we couldn't find the ice cream cups. Turns out we were meant to use the 20 oz soda cups. That's a lot of ice cream! We managed it, though. On our way out of the shop, a lady said, "Were you in Oakville today?" We said yes. It was the owner of the Piggy Bank! She was impressed with how far we'd biked since we left. I felt pretty good about that.

We are now staying at the Muskie Motel. It's a bit musky, but much nicer than the El Nville where we stayed last night.

And now, a day in the life of a cross-country bicycle tourist! (or, at least, a day in the life of these two bicycle tourists):

6:30ish a.m. - wake up and start getting ready (this includes all your standard toiletry stuff, plus packing up panniers, applying sunblock, chamois cream (in our case, Bag Balm), and loading up the bikes with all our stuff.

7:30ish a.m. - start out for the day -- We usually bike about 20 miles before we make our first stop, but stops entirely depend on where we can find services we need. On the road, we talk about and think about all kinds of stuff. I think a lot about derby (I miss it!) and sing songs in my head and talk to Dean about all the crazy stuff we're seeing. We actually see a lot of stuff that we'd like to take pictures of, but don't, because we're in a rhythm and don't want to break it. Dean likes looking at birds (we have seen dozens of species so far) and keeps track of all our stats on the bike computer. I am a map fiend and love to check where we are, where we're going, and how many miles to our next Powerade. :)

This morning, a bunch of cows got all lined up to get a good look at us.

10:00ish a.m. - This is when we usually have our first stop. It might just be for Powerade if we had a big breakfast. We might stop for our second breakfast/first lunch of the day. These are my favorite times. You get to see a town, check out a local restaurant, talk to people, etc. Also more time to look at the map!

2:00ish p.m. Our second stop. If we got Powerade at the first stop, we're definitely getting food here. If we got food at the first stop, we'll get Powerade here, and maybe a sustaining snack. We also usually refill our water bottles/hydration packs at this point (really, at every stop if we can). My Camelback can do about 30 miles before I've sucked it dry.

4:30ish p.m. This is about the time we roll into whatever town is our destination. We then have to stop, check the maps for lodging options, decide what we're going to do (camp? motel?), and figure out how to get there. The lodging sites are usually a few miles off course.

5:00ish p.m. Check in wherever we decided to stay. Stand in front of a/c unit. Shower. Call my parents. Lay still awhile.

6:00ish p.m. Figure out what we're going to do with our gross clothing. Is there a laundromat nearby? If we wash our clothes in the sink, can we dry them on a railing or something? Is it hot enough outside to dry the clothes? Should we just bag 'em until the next stop?

6:45ish p.m. - EAT. We are usually pretty famished after a long day of riding, then doing all the other stuff we do. Just as the lodging is often off course, it's also often somewhat far from eating establishments. We need to figure out how to get food, what we want, and how we can get there. We are rarely willing to get back on the bikes to go to a restaurant, so we have to walk or taxi. When we finally get there, we feast!

8:00ish p.m. - Find necessities. We're always running out of stuff! Neosporin, batteries, granola bars, etc. We have to find a grocery store or 7-11 or drugstore or something where we can replace whatever we've run out off. We don't want to stock up too much in advance, since we have to carry everything on us, so supply runs are pretty common.

9:00ish p.m. - Blog!

9:45ish p.m. - Collapse into bed.

That's about it! Tomorrow we might camp... not sure where yet. Wish us luck!

Day 16: Weekdays in Western Illinois

Nauvoo, IL to Burlington, IA

Stats!
Miles biked today: 44.6
Total miles biked: 552.6
Max speed: 26
# of dollars spent at bike shop: hundreds
# of yawns on the road: 22

Today was kind of a slow day. Dean and I woke up to rain in our tent at the Nauvoo Dairy Sweet. The weather predicted scattered thunderstorms all day. We tried to wait it out a bit in the morning, but it never really stopped. So we packed up our wet tent in the rain. Yuk!

Right as we were ready to set off, we heard terrible thunder, so we decided to bike into Nauvoo "downtown" to go to a used bookstore. It turned out to be all Mormon books (Nauvoo has a large Mormon community), so we didn't stay long. We figured we'd have to get on the road at some point, so we just got going.

Every day on the road, the first 10 minutes are the hardest (all things being equal). Your butt is really sore, and your quads are exhausted, and everything in your body is just begging you not to do this to it again. The first 10 minutes today, we had all that, plus rain.

But after those first few miles, you feel much better, and once we got going a bit, it was cloudy but mostly dry. We saw some AMAZING lightning bolts way off in the distance. When it's flat, you can see just about forever. It wasn't even raining where we were, but those lightning bolts were pretty impressive.

Much of what we saw today looked like just what I imagined the midwest looked like. Flat and farms forever. We were biking on a huge grid most of the day, just like a city would have, except there was only a road every mile. Farmland in each block. It was pretty, though, and the changing color sky and clouds accented it.

We stopped for lunch in Lomax, IL, in a place called "The Pink." This was the first ever place we felt unwelcome on the trip so far. Mostly everyone has been very interested in our trip, and very friendly. On the way out I spotted an unusual license plate. If you got a vanity plate, what would yours say? ;)


We knew we wanted to stop in Burlington, Iowa today because they have a bike shop, and we were in dire need of all kinds of supplies. But we had started out so late because of the rain, and we were both pretty tired (from sleeping in the tent, maybe?), so we decided to just stay in Burlington tonight.

The bike shop trip was a major success, and we also went to Target and got some books for Dean. He finished his book a few nights ago, and has been hurting for one ever since.

Tonight we are staying at the Motel Lincolnville, or as it's known in lights, the El 'Nville. It's one of Burlington's least fine establishments, but right in our price range!

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Muscatine, IA. I hope you're all still enjoying the blog!