Cedar Falls, Iowa to Largo, Indiana
.jpg)
Thursday, July 23, 1998 - Day 42 - 60.0 miles - to Cedar Falls, Iowa.
What a day, sunny skies with wind from the north. There were some afternoon clouds but the cloud over us was getting David's bike fixed. As I was worried when I found the cracks on my rear rim, which could end the tour for me if it broke down while on the road, I am sure David was just as worried. Just a note here, I found that I was getting more and more cautious so that nothing would happen to spoil the tour. The same thing happened to me when I hiked "The John Muir Trail" in 1977.
Not wanted a break in our tour, David carefully rode to the next overnight town, Cedar Falls. He avoided the largest freewheel cog as the cage was hanging at an angle and could have been caught by the spokes.
David had ridden ahead and I was riding with some of the other Arrows. There are many things one must experience to fully enjoy or understand what makes RAGBRAI. One which was mentioned, most often, was "you got to have a porkchop." Today was the day for my porkchop. The porkchop man is about 20 miles out of town each day. "There he was" was I ready for him? I parked the bike and got in line, soon I was next. I gave the man $5.00 and received the biggest and most wonderful porkchop. This was not your run of the mill porkchop, this was an Iowa porkchop. I enjoyed every bit. I then continued on without many stops to catch up with David.
Prognosis for David's bike: they replaced the derailleur with a Shimano LX. Amazingly, it still indexed with the SunTour down tube shift levers, a kind of miracle! The rear rim had a permanent kink. They had no 27-in rims that would do, no big surprise, but did find a 700C with 36 spoke holes. This was a Mavic MA2 rim, the same rim that was used on my bike. Being very busy, they did not offer and David did not ask them to rebuild the front wheel. So he finished the tour with one 700C and one 27-in wheel. To their credit the wheel stayed perfectly true for the remaining 2,400 miles and did not even need the usual 100 mile "adjustment." My wheels also stood the test of time. The total cost was $185!!!
Friday, July 24, 1998 - Day 43 - 100,2 miles - to Monticello, Iowa.
Everyone was up early as today would be 100 miles. To David and I it was just another 100 miles but all the other rides had not been on the road for 42 days. It was another very nice Iowa day. The 100.2 miles took me 7:37 hours, which is about normal for me.
RAGBRAI has been written up in many articles and is known as a fun event. A crowded fun event which David wasn't sure I would like. I had ridden 6 Cycle Oregon's which has 2000 riders, I once did a run with 12,000 others and I did several Triathlon with 1000 others, so I was use to a crowd. But, we had a lot invested in our half-done coast-to-coast tour and I wanted no minor disaster to prematurely end it. So, while I enjoyed RAGBRAI, I also played it very cautious. At my age, it is not certain that I would get another try.
As we rode the last three days of RAGBRAI we, camped, partied, ate, explained the Arrows, told the story about our tour, made new friends, and (David) met old friends. One of those old friends that David met was Eileen from Clinton, IA. She was riding this one with a friend Ron on their new Easy Tour recumbent's. They liked them very much. After RAGBRAI, we were going to swing SE to rejoin the Adventure Cycling route. Clinton was a convenient overnight in this direction and Eileen was gracious to let invite ourselves..
Saturday, July 25, 1998 - Day 44 - 97.44 miles - to Clinton, Iowa.
Saturday, the last day of RAGBRAI was about 75 miles. A TV crew interviewed us at the finish of RAGBRAI. We will never see how it came out as we were moving on. We said our goodbyes to our Arrowhead friends packing for their drive back to the Twin Cities. David and I loaded up the bikes and then rode south on the Illinois side to a bridge where we cross the Mississippi into Clinton. David only asked to camp but we were not too surprised to be invited in the house. They even took us out for dinner, at a place that had an oversize hamburgers. Mmmmmm good.
Sunday, July 26, 1998 - Day 45 - 89.38 miles - to Bradford, Illinois.
Eileen and Ron escorted us via the river bike paths to Albany, IL for breakfast after which we said more goodbyes. At breakfast I ordered a Denver Omelette, which arrived without any ham in it. When I inquired for the reason I was told that Denver Omelettes never have ham in them. Of all the hundreds of Denver Omelettes that I have eaten, over the years, this was the first without ham in it, life will go on.
Finally, we were on the route east and once again alone. Just short of Kewanee we again picked up the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route which we deviated from so long ago, it seemed, in Devils Lake, ND. Somehow, we fully expected to see other coast-to-coast bikers around every bend and rise and indeed did meet one within a few miles. This was an anomaly, however, as he was bike touring but not coast-to-coast nor did he even know about the Adventure Cycling route and maps. Unlike the West, we were pretty much the lone cyclist and decided it was because bikers had many choices in the East: our route, across Upper Michigan, and across Lake Michigan (by ferry.)
The Adventure Cycling maps directed us through a maze of nice back roads, which Adventure Cycling is famous for, through flat to gently rolling and attractive countryside reflecting the pride of the farmers. Some areas were still flooded from recent monster storms but most were planted and well advanced for the season. Corn was eight and more feet high and some borders between the road and crops were beautifully mowed grass. We could ride along easy and talk about our previous lives and the philosophy of it all.
Our first overnight in Illinois was Bradford. It was about the right distance of 83 miles and a larger town, but the Adventure Cycling maps said nothing about camping there. We searched for and finally contacted the local police (he found us) who said the city park was not appropriate but we could camp, out of sight, behind the grammar school. I went looking for the swimming pool to see if they were open for a shower. I found the pool and asked about a shower, they said sure but it is 6:50 PM and they close at 7:00 PM. I rode the short block to Casey's convenience store to get David. We were not finished with our shower by 7 but they stayed open for us. Nice people.
Now for dinner. The only place open on Sunday was Casey's which had a pizza take-out service. We ordered one and took it down the main street to the city park to sit and eat on this nice warm summer evening. It was one of those memorable meals. While eating, one boy and one girl of 13 to 15 came over and sat next to us to ask about our travels. They were mildly interested in us. We lost our interest in them very quickly as the boy periodically spit out a juicy wad on the ground between us and the girl while she described her limited view of life and how it should be led. Well, it was their town and their park. It did take the edge off our appetite and it got worse.
The two told us there were "bad" kids in town, known to egg and spray-paint tents of bikers staying in the town. Some slightly older youths came past en-route to the nearby basketball hoops. The spitter said there weren't the "bad kids" and yelled to one "these guys biked all the way from Seattle." The immediate response was "that's dumb." The vehemence and conviction behind that response left us a little speechless. We talk, between ourselves, about the narrow and sad lives they live.
After eating as much pizza as we could stomach, we gave the rest away and biked over to the grammar school behind which we had earlier pitched our two tents. As we approached the front of the school there were about a dozen kids and their cars, talking, milling around, smoking, getting in and out of cars and driving around the town and returning. They were trying to stay one step ahead of the police, who were trying to keep the group for getting bigger or from just hanging out. Were these the "bad kids ?" Rather than going to our tents and revealing their location, we pulled up to the throng and engaged them in conversation. They spoke about their dislike of the town and specifically the local police. We did not ask them about their throwing or painting skills, but, just hung around and vaguely and untruthfully answered questions about where we were staying. Soon we could make it behind the school to our tents without being seen. David did not sleep well this night, I was my usually "out for the night."
Monday, July 27, 1998 - Day 46 - 83.5 miles - to Odell, Illinois.
We woke to a nice day and rode to Casey's for a pre-breakfast, donuts and chocolate milk. The donuts were better than the pizza. We rolled through the country side on our way to Henry, IL, an attractive riverside town. Here we found a real breakfast and postcards that featured the Henry school, swimming pool, church, a local factory, etc. They were black and white and cheap, ten cents each, and we bought lots of them. We had some difficulty finding postcards as often as we would have liked due to being on so many back roads and non-tourist towns.
It was a nice day as we rode and talked about Bradford, it's lost kids, and what that says about America, our country and it's youth. We also talked about the idea that this tour was "dumb." In some ways it was and I could think many others would think so. But for me it was a dream come true. I wondered if any of the youths of yesterday would every change their mind and find life fun.
We had a nice tail wind as we pulled into Odell, a very much different town. The downtown looked more vibrant and there was none of the menacing feeling of Bradford. The people we spoke to were friendly and showed interest in our tour. We were allowed to camp in the city park and shower at the city pool next to it, both for free. The park was very well maintained and had a very large covered area where we could clean and maintain our bikes.
While David was getting in his 100 miles for the day he discovered that Odell was on old Route 66 and there were old signs and buildings from that era. Another one of my dreams was to follow this road from Chicago to the Santa Monica, CA Pier. Maybe another year, I born in Santa Monica.
Dinner was at The Wishing Well cafe was real treat and run by people from Macedonia, once part of Yugoslavia. While David was working on his 100 miles, I also went for a little ride around town to find out what the buzzing sound that I heard while sitting at the park. The sound seemed to move around town. Every time I thought I was getting close to the sound it seemed to move a little distance away. I asked a lady who was out for her evening walk and she said it was the electricity going through the wires. I had heard electricty buzzing before and this did sound like that. But why did it seem to move around the town? What a difference 83 miles can make, from Bradford to Odell.
David was still out riding and I was at our camp written postcards. A car pulled up to the closed and now vacant pool, a man got out and looked like he was locking of outside restrooms. As he left and was driving around to the other side of the city park I was hot after him. He stopped again and got out of his car a headed towards me. I asked him if he had locked the restrooms and he said "no, I only turned on the lights for you." He them proceeded to open a room that was part of the covered area so we could put out bikes in for the night. We also wrote postcard in this room, avoiding mosquitos. Nice man.
Tuesday, July 28, 1998 - Day 47 - 109.9 miles - to Rensselaer, Indiana.
After breakfast at The Wishing Well we continued on across the narrow part of Illinois towards Indiana, after riding a short stretch of Route 66. This restaurant is also listed in the Route 66 guide as a must place to eat. It was a sunny day and traffic was both light and courteous on the mostly back roads across the border and on to Rensselaer, Indiana. We headed for the local police station in this bigger town in hopes to find a place to camp. We had stopped at a bike shop who told us if we did not find a place come back and see them. The Officer in the station was very nice a gave us our choice of two city parks. We took the one that had a swimming within it. Finding the park took us awhile, but we got there. Here, the pool personnel were not only nice but athletic and more than "somewhat" attractive. After dinner we did laundry, while David and I tied in a Ben & Jerry's ice cream eating contest. With clean clothes and full of ice cream it was time for bed.
Wednesday, July 29, 1998 - Day 48 - 109.0 miles - to Lagro, Indiana.
Another nice day, sunny and warm with the high temperature of around 85 degrees, my kind of day. Well almost my kind of day we did have some head winds. We also had some road detours and with the head wind slowed us a bit. The closest town to our nights destination, Lagro, was worse than Bradford, IL. Most of the downtown was boarded up and the kids yelled at us from both street corners and cars.
We rode to the Salamonie River State Forest campground which was pretty enough. However, we craved showers and there were none there or nearby, nor anything to eat. We ended up riding back to lovely Lagro and its gauntlet of kids, eating there, and then riding back once again to Salamonie River State Forest campground. If we had known or planned better, we should have eaten in Lagro the first time through and done one ride to the far eastern reaches of Salamonie where there was suppose to be a better equipped campground.
Summary
This week we covered 649.42 miles for an average of 92.77 miles per day. I had a great time while riding RAGBRAI. It was nice to be free of the heavy load for three days. I will never forget the lost kids we came across. Illinois and Indiana have flat roads which never seem to end, one just goes into the next.