08.02-03.2023 - iowa

iowa has greeted me with storms.  a fine 'how do you do?'.

it's been lightning, thundering and raining since just after midnight.  radar shows this lasting till around noon and then more in tonight.  fortunately, i can hold up at my warmshower till the majority of the rain passes, but i'll need to get going sometime.  then i'll have to worry about where to spend the night, no warm shower tonight.  tomorrow's weather looks good, followed by three days of potential rain.  could be a messy week, could be a hotel looming in my future, but i need to try to hold off on that till when really needed.

the weather did finally break, and i was back on the road by 11:30.  15 mi north up the valley on the t-bone trail.  overcast skys and lower temps made for a better ride.  

rolling into audubon, i was greated by  albert the bull, 'world's largest bull'.  then found a wonderful little cafe, the bakery, on broadway in the desolate downtown. panini, coffee cake, and chai. rain threatened but never materialized.

next, 20 mi east on roads across rolling hills, up and down, into a slight wind.  corn fields to the left of me, soybeans to the right.

finally made it to the small community of bayard and sparky's one-stop, a sinclair station, where i could at least get some ice tea.  and then onto a really nice trail, the racoon river trail.  iowa figured out how to pour smooth concrete.

certain songs just get in my head and repeat play.  same playlist day after day and some of them i don't like at all   'here i go again' by whitesnake?  uhg, even had to look up who did that song.  some are road songs,  some more obscure, like big brother and the holding company with janis joplin  'take another piece of my heart' or paul simon's 'i know what i know'.

through jamaica and dawson to the sportsman camgroung, a nice county campground complete with showers.  quiet, with only one other camper.

and the next day, threw in some gravel riding. 

it must be getting more civilized, cause i'm finding more coffee/tea shops in small towns, this one in perry

and then the high line trestle.  located halfway between ames and des moines, it spans the des moines river and flood plain.  at night there are led lights on the metal elements, each a diffrent color.  in the daylight, not quite as spectacular a display but still a neat crossing of a pretty broad plain.

and the depressed rural economy.

rolling up and down through iowa farm country, i eventuall made it to marshalltown blvd., a 4-lane divided highway heading northeast, with a parallel paved bike path.  i road that path up to timmons grove county park, where i camped for the night,  on the banks of the iowa river and just nw of marshalltown.