Day 52 - 7/29/16 Sioux Center, IA to Irene, SD

No need to stealth camp tonight because there are no cops in this town.  I learned about the city park from the bartender, Linda at the only bar in Irene.  She used to work for the city council, specifically for the parks and she said there's no one that will bother me here.  I'm sitting under the pavilion, I have outlets to charge my electronics and there is a fully functioning bathroom with running water and toilet paper right next to me.  

I am in paradise. It's great to meet new people and stay with them but, sometimes a night to myself is exactly what I need.  Well, today I got the best of both worlds.  Riding down the steep hill into town, I came upon the Irene Bar and Grill.  The place was completely empty except for Linda who was taking care of Belinda and David.  They're an incredibly nice couple just passing through Irene to go to their camper for the weekend.  

The 3 of them had so many questions about my trip and for anyone wondering if I get tired of answering the same questions all the time, I do not.  If I can inspire one person to go out and do something out of the ordinary, all my efforts on this trip will have been worth it.  Anyway, David and Belinda decided to pay for my lunch before they headed out – yet another act of kindness I hope to pay forwars one of these days.  Shortly after they left, the bar started to fill up with locals.  

Boy, they could practically smell that I wasn't from the area, they could just tell something was different.  All really warm, friendly people just trying to pass the time on a Friday afternoon.  I knew if I didn't leave soon, I would've speent all night there or I would've gotten in the van with Big Earl and Matt, a couple other outsiders (not as outside as me) headed a couple towns over to play some music at another bar.  So, here I am at the park around the corner, my wet clothes hanging on my makeshift clothesline and the rest of my stuff spread out on the picnic tablea in the pavilion, just trying to get caught up with documenting this ridiculous trip.

Day 50 - 7/27/16 Clear Lake to Spencer, IA

100 miles in a day, I never thought I'd be interested in trying somethinf like that but, here I am, 100 miles from where I woke up today.  It was a perfect day for it: overcast and cool til around 2:00pm, then the last 25 miles were a bit hot and sweaty but, it's all part of the fun and challenge of this trip.  

When I finally got to Spencer, I met up with another Dan at his house.  Him and his wife are Warm Showers hosts but Susanne was out of town so it was just us two Dans.  We drove up to Okoboji, Iowa, another town with a couple lakes as the centerpiece for all the bustling restaurants and shops that accomodate the summer tourists.  

I feel pretty lucky to have visited Clear Lake and Okoboji, otherwise my perception of Iowa might've been one big corn field.

Day 48 - 7/25/16

Thank God for Jeff McIntyre.  If I knew exactly what I was doing, I probably wouldn't be using Google Maps to navigate from point A to Point B.  But I don't, so I am.  So far it's been a good way to plan my routes, I've made it this far anyway.  However, aside from directing me to take a bike path that mysteriously ended at the edge of a field overgrown with weeds, I also had the pleasure of riding on 15 miles of gravel roads.  

I've been on gravel roads and bike paths before but, these were just too funny.  I had to do my best to ride within the tire track from the last car that drove down these roads to get the smoothest surface.  Even the smoothest part of the road was like riding on rumble strips.  I had about 10 miles left on my ride before a couple quick turns to the campground and of course it was 10 miles of gravel in the hot afternoon sun.  It had been hours since I last saw a town.  I was getting to the end of my water and I didn't know what else to do besides knock on the door of the next house I saw.  

So I did.  Rolling into the driveway, I scared a dozen ducks, sent a couple peacocks running, startled a massive turkey and made a few chickens attempt to fly away.  There were birds everywhere.  Knocking on the front door summoned a thin, older man with no shirt and jeans cut off at a mid-thigh length.  This is Jeff McIntyre.  He quickly showed me to the spigot that pumped fresh, cold water out of the ground.  I chugged a liter as fast as I could and then filled up my bottle again.  Jeff asked if I wanted a beer, I said of course.  He lead me around the corner of his house to some sort of garage/man-cave, parting the sea of chickens, ducks, and peacocks.  As far as I knew, Jeff might've been leading me to his murder shack to chop me up and feed me to the birds but, the AC was on and all I cared about was getting out of the heat and getting a beer in my hand.  Lucky for me, I got a beer instead of getting killed.  In Jeff's.... I'll call it a clubhouse, was a pool table, foosball table, and air hockey table with at least a dozen TVs, probably even more speakers ranging in size from bookshelf to full-size floor speakers, a naked white mannequin and all sorts of posters on the wall.  He walked over to one of the TVs and said, "Do you wanna see my cat?"  He was standing over a blackened, almost mummified cat corpse.  He said he found it in his barn when we was cleaning.  The skeleton seemed to be completey in tact and the flesh, I guess you would call it, hardened to a nice shell.  He told me all his speakers are connected to his computer where he has over 80,000 songs and every TV set will play visuals to go along with the music.  Jeff told me he could make it so loud the walls and ceiling shake.  I didn't get a demonstration though, maybe next time.  I just stayed for one beer but, before I left he asked if I liked kohlrabi.  I had no idea what that was.  He went into his garden and pulled out a thick, green bulb, pulled off all the leaves and handed it to me, just peel it and put salt on it he said.  Before I rode away he said I should take a peacock feather too.  With full water bottles, kohlrabi, and a feather, I was ready to ride slowly over the gravel to the campground.  There might be a few morals to this completely true story despite my lack of photo-evidence: talk to strangers if you need help, kohlrabi is delicious with salt, and always take a peacock feather if it's offered.  Oh, and riding a bike on gravel sucks.

Day 51 - 7/28/16 Spencer to Sioux Center, IA

It never bothers me one bit when I don't have a place to sleep lined up before I get to the town I'm aiming for.  Something will always work out whether I resort to stealth camping in a field or spending some cash to get a motel room.  There is one pinned location in Sioux Center, Iowa which belongs to Nate and Kirbee.  Nate already said him and his wife were going out for the night and wouldn't be able to host me.  When I got to Sioux Center I was surprised to see Nate working at the bike shop.  

He sold me a seat and a couple other parts I needed for my bike.  Although I couldn't stay at Nate and Kirbee's tonight, he found me a place to stay by asking some of his customers if they would host a traveling cyclist for the night.  Sioux Center just has that small town sense of community where housing a strange, smelly traveler for the night isn't such a strange thing.  I stayed with a great guy named, Iver, his wife, Emily and their daughter, Jovi.  Not only did they put a roof over my head, they also cooked me a lovely meal and they had all sorts of questions about my trip.  I know I've mentioned over and over the overwhelming generosity I've received from people I barely know but, I could just feel it all through this town.  When while I was looking for Iver's house, I got lost and came across this very friendly guy named David sitting on his front steps husking corn, drinking a PBR and hanging out with his 2 boys in the yard.  He gave me some helpful instructions but we ended up talking for a while after that.  We talked about his time hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was my age, my bike trip, and the beauty of living in a real small town.  The way we live back East is not the same as the folks from the Midwest and I wish I knew why.  There's probably a million factors that affect the way people see and interact with the world.  I feel very fortunate see these differences firsthand.

Day 47 - 7/24/16 Manchester to Cedar Falls, IA

I was on the same road for over 40 miles today and it looked a lot like the road I was on yesterday but, the fields of green were just as beautiful as they were yesterday.  I'm staying with Mary on her family's farm tonight.  It may be her family's land but, they've been renting it out for other farmers to grow crops on their 360 acres.  

It was nice to sit around and hear Mary, her brother, Rex and his wife, Valorie talk about crops and farming and gardening – conversation you just never even think about growing up outside of Boston.  What a wonderfully different way of life, having to care for a patch of land this big.

  

After riding through miles and miles of fields, seeing the little barns and homes rising above the corn, it's really great to be able to spend the night in a place where the backyard is completely walled-off by 7 foot tall corn stalks.  No immediate neighbors, just plants stretching out into the horizon and massive pastel clouds filling the Midwest sky.  

I did some drawing in the yard while Mary read and the barn swallows flew, dove, and swooped in the sky, catching bugs before retiring to one of two barns in Mary's backyard.  One of them, she says, is going to collapse soon if a strong enough breeze comes along.

Day 45 - 7/22/16 Galena, IL to Dubuque, IA

Another state has passed beneath my feet as I roll West on Ginger's saddle.  The states on this side of the country are a bit wider so I certainky won't be breezing through any of them, especially since the wind is typically coming at me, slowing my roll.  Today was a short ride, just what I needed after 8 hours of roasting in the sun yesterday.  I was aiming for Dubuque but wasn't sure where I would stay until late last night.  

A friend of mine, Cierra found me a place to stay through Airbnb.  This is also the girl that surprised her homesick boyfriend, Adrian, one of my best buds, with a weeks vacations back home with all his friends this past winter.  Girl's got tricks up her sleeve, and when I say tricks I mean incredibly selfless acts of kindness.  

I better get out to California soon to make it up to her before she does anything else for me!  Dubuque is a cool little town.  Maybe it's considered a city, sorry if I offens any DBQ natives.  I heard it was quite the happening place back when Chicago was still being built up.  Just another example of how being located along a major water source sets up a place for success.

 

 I wish I had wandered back down by the river to see the day turn into night but, the room I eqs spending the night in was just too damn cozy with a massive cloud-like bed that basically commanded me to lay down and close my eyes.