Woo, I made it! 90 miles, 6:06 on bike, arriving around 6pm to Iowa City. It was a great ride, and my second to last day. Lets chat about it, shall we?
The place I slept last night turned out to work fine, no-one tried to arrest me. This means that the last place I had to pay to sleep will remain the park at the Continental Divide just before Helena, Montanna on the 3rd of July during the big thunderwhompie storm. Before that I think it was in Austin Junction in Oregon, then at an Oregon park back on day 4 and days 1 and 2. Winning! Free Sleep!
It took me about 28 miles to get free and clear of the quad cities. I jogged north of Moline on the advice of a cyclist who I met in the morning to get onto the river bike path without issue, then road south/west along the river until I found a good bridge to cross the Mississippi on, then I continued SW on the Iowa side until I was far enough out of Davenport to turn due west. My route, along with doing it on a Sunday, meant I got through the city without issue.
It was nice revisiting the Mississippi again, It'd been about 20 days and 1,500 miles since I last saw it.
From there I had a few route options, but my first one put me on gravel. Poop. Iowa has a high percentage of gravel roads, County Road Roulette doesn't work well here. The bright side is the county roads that ARE on my map are low traffic and paved. I ignored Google's suggested bike route in favor of a route that took county roads right near I80 and went through small towns, using my standard "the interstate will pull off most of the traffic" trick. It worked great!
I took my first real stop at mile 49 (!) at 12:40, flying the 20 miles after I escaped the Quad Cities (that was slow going) thanks in part to a morning tailwind that was gone by afternoon.
After a break of coffee and pizza, I pushed another 25 miles to mile 75, putting me 15 miles outside of Iowa City by 3:30. That's hella winning! I did 5 miles of gravel in that stretch, but it was good gravel and I knew it was coming. It was a small price to pay for an almost car-free route most of the way from Davenport.
I took a break of donuts and beer there, met a guy who recognized me from two years of juggling on RAGBRAI (!) and didn't leave until 5pm. Also, the town, West Branch is the birthplace and burial place of Herbert Hoover. So... That's special..?
A scenic hour later I was at my Sister's house in Iowa City hanging out with her family and my Dad and Stepmom.
I've never toured Iowa not on RAGBRAI, but I really liked it. It was much better than riding in Illinois, the population decrease as you go west makes for a better experience on the roads. I also know this state well, and likely have done RAGBRAI through many of the towns I went through today.
If you've been reading this blog all summer, you've likely noticed that I have things that I repeat to myself frequently: Be open to outcome. Never say no to adventure. Don't worry about things you can't control. It is what it is. Shut up legs, do your job. (I didn't write all of these).
One thing I've been saying a lot lately to myself that's new is "just do the ****ing miles." Since Indiana I've been trying to pick the shortest and best route to Iowa City. Often I failed, especially in Illinois. Mentally, I'm tired of trying to figure out the best route, and it's time to just pick a route and do the ****ing miles.
I dunno. I like it as a saying. I don't really control these things though, my inner voice tends to just say these things to me when it thinks I'm being a wuss. A few days ago it started saying that... a lot. Fully sane people don't go on solo 60 day 4,000 mile bike trips.
Tomorrow I take a rest day in IC to hang with the family, and then I'll try to push 100+ miles into my home town of Cedar Falls to end the trip. I'll hit over 4,000 miles, the longest of any bike trip I've done I think (I'll have to check 2003) and enough to put me into Vermont by my original route, but not by my UP route. I also could have been in the Atlantic Ocean days ago if I'd wanted. I'm glad I did the loop around Lake Michigan though, that was fun.
ILYI.
I'm going to charge you for staying here. :-)
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