Saturday, November 16, 2013

Iowa so Far (Sept 13 through Sept 16)

After my excitement near Omaha (Trinidad called me a day or two ago to see how I was) I treated myself to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs (I went mostly for the penny crusher to get some souvenirs for Miss Katelynn Earnest).  After that I picked up the Wabash Trace bike trail, rode it to the town of Malvern, picked up route 34, and kinda stalled out.  It turns out that Iowa highways don't really have berms, at least not very large or very consistent ones.  I plugged on east till I got to a truck stop near the town of Emerson that first day before making camp.

The next morning, while having coffee at said truck stop at a table in the back and looking at my maps, I made the acquaintance of the "Unofficial Emerson Ladies' Morning Coffee Club".

These six wonderful women not only gave me good company for what must have been at least two hours of conversation, one of them actually drove home and obtained for me a copy of the Iowa State Cyclist's Map.

I had tried with limited success to download the map to my phone.  The paper copy has been invaluable, as it shows each road by amount of traffic and berm width.  It also shows all of Iowa's bike trails.

Since then I have been picking my way along the paths and back roads of 34, occasionally riding for a few miles on the loose gravel berm of 34 itself when faced with little alternative.  When traffic is light, I sometimes take to the paved lanes of 34 but prefer not to if possible.

This has slowed my progress some but I've made Ottumwa now with only about 80 miles or so more to the Mississippi.  The storms ended up all missing me today (Nov 16) but the wind is strong so I thought I would finish my writings from this morning anyway.  Ride when the weather is good, I guess, and write when it's rough.

The weather isn't that rough, though, and it's quite warm despite the strong wind (a southern crosswind for those wondering), so I feel the need to get going.  I'm hoping to make at least Fairfield tonight or maybe even Mount Pleasant, but Iowa is often slow going (lots of very hilly back roads).

Less than 1000 miles to home! More posts soon. :)

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