Bike & Blog: August 2009

Day 27- Marshalltown, IA

Mt. Vernon to Marshalltown- 93 miles

There are hills in Iowa. Did you know that? Nothing compared to Connecticut, but hills nonetheless. Saskia and Alie (your narrators for this journal entry) were sweep on this long drawn out day. Our goal was to make as many stops as possible and go as slow as possible, yet still make it in at a reasonable time.

First stop, Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. We followed the sound of hokey music to an adorable bakery called The Bohemian. After picking out or Kolaches (Czech pastries) we spoke to the waitress about the floods from last summer. She pointed to the light fixtures on the wall to show how high the water had been. The floods hit the area pretty hard, causing few businesses to come back to the area. They used the flood as an excuse to essentially “makeover” their business and change it from an antique shop to a restaurant.

Back on the road, we decided the pass the time by singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. At beer 78, we hit not just gravel roads, but hilly gravel roads. Now, we couldn’t stop singing the song since we were in the middle, so we kept going; despite being out of breath and tired. When we finally pulled off the gravel road for a shade tree (Southern word of the day) and a snack, thinking we were alone in the middle of cornfields, we heard a deep rumble. One hundred and fifty motorcycles zoomed by taking about 5 minutes from beginning to end. We were happy to watch and wave as the motorcyclists passed, relieved were off the road at the time.

When we stopped for lunch around mile 39, we met up with Raj, Chris and Susanna. Sadly, every place that is an ideal lunch spot (shade trees and cool) is also a favorite spot for flies. Several flies met an unfortunate end by getting stuck to the honey or trapped in a cooler.

Some miles later, we saw chalking that read “3 B&Bers – DOORS!” Slightly confused, we eventually figured out the riders had been excited about the fake swinging saloon doors of the Elberon General Store. Scanning all two blocks of Elberon (population 200) and seeing no bikes, we assumed the enthusiastic riders had forgotten to chalk that they had moved on. We were ready for a break, however, and escaped to the air-conditioned “general store,” which turned out to be a bar and diner. Enjoying the atmosphere of a small town bar with a group of men having a few cold beers on a hot Saturday afternoon, we decided to stay and order our favorite drink – a mint chocolate chip milkshake (we aren’t allowed to drink when biking). We were shocked when a group of four B&Bers wandered into the diner. Natalie, Maggie, Jonathan, and Beth had stopped to explore the town earlier, and had accidentally fallen asleep in the local park for an hour. After filling our Camelbaks, we set out on the road once again.

At this point the hills really started to hit us. And though we were going through the same stuff we had seen for the past week (corn), it was a nice change in scenery with the rolling hills and winding roads. We powered through the last 30 miles with a brief detour at a winery (to use the bathroom, of course) and arrived at the church just in time to miss showers. BUT fortunately, the pastor’s wife invited us to her house to use the shower. Another hose shower avoided.

Successful day.

-Saskia & Alie, sweepers extraordinaire