Winds of Change

Today we "blew", big time, into Iowa. This scenario requires flexibility, reassessment, adjustment of the previous plan, then trying again. A lot like medicine by my perspective.

I was the first on the road. I started with the "wind at my back", which was most lovely. After 10-12 miles, we continued to follow our planned route and the wind were from the NE with me traveling East. Brutal as the wind stayed between 35-50 mph with gusts. Sincerely. As I've said several times, I couldn't possibly make this stuff up.

After probably another 10-12 miles of being thrashed (thank the goddess of the Wind - Alcyone, she wasn't directly beating into my face!!!), Mark wisely changed all plans. He and Ken looked and re-looked at the map, and had me change direction toward the South for the next portion of the ride. I cruised for awhile, then called it quits. For me, for no particular reason, I woke up in a "bad day". Everything hurt; just never loosened and lessened in discomfort; so I pulled a card from the deck and called it an early day. Frustrating, but that is what Thee Van is for.

Mark was the next rider due, and was just fine to jump on board early. It was about 20 miles early, as we had planned on each of us doing about 50 miles. Ken (bless him) continued to drive as I started icing myself. Again, we continued to adapt and change our route due to the unrelenting wind. Pretty darn intense.

The corn fields now are stretching from "acres" into the "miles" category; and as I stood next to one stalk, they are about 4 feet high. They were literally laying near flat on the earth due to the wind.

Mark continued to ride and weave positions and directions. I drove Ken forward over the greatest deeply rolling hills to his start point. This would be Thee Greatest route to ride (IF the wind wasn't blowing). Deep straight down with rapid straight up, over and over rolling hills. Much like a roller-coaster (Yup, I would be one of those fools that ride one for 24 hours straight as a fund-raiser). These went on for miles. You can really crank going down with the goal of not shifting down, by much, by the time you reach the top of the next (Ben, I see you packing up your bike and equipment to ride these great routes I'm finding!!!).

Ken started off perpendicular to the wind. I returned and picked up Mark at the end of his ride. Due to our shortage of riding the miles (me quiting early), Mark had initially decided he would then ride again at the end of Ken's route in order to complete the full amount necessary to reach our motel.

Mark and I delightfully stopped @ LeMars, Iowa at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Museum and Parlor while Ken was riding. How cute!! And, I decided, this was the time for a "REAL" banana split. How better to recover myself than by consumption of something cold?!? So that was my lunch. See, I really am NOT a purist with the food I eat.

We caught up with Ken and started the Freeway #3 from Hell. The entire shoulders were 4" deep in gravel. That's OK ... we can manage that. However, it seems most of Iowa HATE/DESPISE/AND REALLY DON'T CARE FOR BICYCLISTS. That would explain why the TransAmerica Bicycle Route totally avoids Iowa. Everything and everyone, from 18-wheelers through motorcyclists, not only DID NOT budge to the left what-so-ever (even if NO traffic coming the opposite direction), but they purposely veered toward the cyclist. Mark and I have experienced this before, and it just simply never gets easier. After 3 times of veering into the gravel, Ken stopped. He had enough.

We piled him and bike into the van, drove about the distance that I had aborted on, put Ken back onto the bike as there were now shoulders on the road, and off he went.

The first pic above shows the incredible changing scenery we are experiencing. The green is more a lighter emerald in varied patch-work designs due to the crop planing. The hills are moderately to sharply rolling, but short in duration. The houses and silos are sprinkled amongst all. The wind is from hell. The weather temp is perfect @ 77-80.

The second pic is Mark's answer to the people who are determined to eliminate all cyclists from the face of the earth. He thought he could drive this vehicle ahead of whoever is on their bicycle. Granted, one might call the subsequent drafting "cheating" however, arriving at our destination alive rather than amongst the road-kill would be a more positive "Happily Ever After" ending to our journey.

That's it for today. The guys are planning our route for tomorrow. The place we are staying has a manger who is a cyclist - helpful as his primary comment is, "Don't go there - Don't take that freeway - Don't travel in that direction". Next to the motel is a really large bicycle shop. We stopped in there seeking Hammer products (they don't carry any!!!), and they recommended flying to New Jersey rather than bicycling across Iowa. Hmm.m..m