106 miles in 12 hours – Max Speed 25mph
I got going very early, and was on the road at 6:30. I went back down the three mile side road that took me to the campground and then had to make a decision when I hit back up with route 2. I could either turn right, and climb back up the hill for around a mile to Bedford for breakfast, or I could turn left and continue East, but it looked like it may be 20 or 30 miles until I hit somewhere that might be large enough to have a restaurant. I decided to take my chances and go East.
So many hills...
I did a pleasant two hours on the road with no traffic, during which I listened to the Art of War in it’s entirety (not a very long book), before arriving at Mt. Ayr, IA which had a Subway which was open. A quick aside. It seems like Subway really is the number one fast food place in the Midwest, even more so than McDonald’s. Almost every small town has one, and there was a more obvious difference in Nebraska. While all of the other fast food places always were on the interstate, the Subway was always on the 30, as if they were going after the locals. It was an interesting difference.
Anyway, after subway I continued on past I-35 and through the town of Leon. I stopped for a snack, and then had another small snack stop in the town of Corydon. I made it to the town of Centerville at around 7pm, where I looked around for a room. I went to a cheap motel first, and saw they had a sign that said no vacancy on the outside of the door. Rats. I then went up to a Super 8 (always seems a little expensive to me), but they also had no vacancy. I asked what was going on, and the lady said that there were two weddings going on in the area, and that there was no way that anywhere had vacancy. Drat.
Sometimes there are days where there isn't a whole lot to take pictures of. Luckily sometimes there are dinosaurs in people's yards that help my plight somewhat.
Sorry. There really wasn't anything interesting at all today, so I was just grasping for straws here.
I rode back down into the downtown and ate dinner at a Hardees (a.k.a. Carl’s Jr. East – quite tasty) while I planned my next step. I looked around on my cell phone, and saw that there was a state park with 8 campsites just two miles up the road. I figured that I would give that a try, but since it was Saturday night I wasn’t too hopeful.
I got up there at around 8:30 and rode all the way back to the campgrounds. When I got there, I saw it was empty. Excellent. No running water though, which was a bummer. I set up and went to bed without a shower for the first time in a long time. I lay awake listening to freaking raccoons (my least favorite animal… EVER) opening every single metal trash can in the entire park.
A quick aside. I got chased by more dogs today, I would say around 8 in total. For me, what I did is if it looked like I could outrun them, I did. If it did not, I would get past their property, and then dismount and stare them down. I have never been someone who has ever had problems with dogs, and I think that they can tell if the person is someone that they can mess with or not, and they know that I am someone that they cannot so, after some barking, they just would turn around and wander off. I do think that you need to try to get past their property though or it will take longer for them to wander off. I know many bike tourers use much more forceful and mean methods of dealing with dogs, but it really isn’t in my DNA to do those sorts of things (I don’t even kill mosquitoes or flies (though I do dream about killing raccoons) – so I am not about to blast some dog in the face with pepper spray or something worse), and all in all I didn’t feel I was ever in danger from a dog. This was the last day that I got chased by a dog on my entire trip. I guess it is just something about Southwest Iowa.
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