26.05.2012 Eagle Grove, IA

Day 02: Bristow, IA to Eagle Grove, IA

Saturday May 26, 2012, 76 miles (122 km) - Total so far: 121 miles (195 km)

It turns out it did storm last night. I did some rearranging of the picnic tables and moved my tent towards the center of the pavilion. I am glad I did because when I woke up not much else, other than my tent, was dry. Woke up early, on my own without an alarm, which is one thing I really do like about traveling, but I didn't get up until the weather calmed down. So it wasn't until after 07:30 that I hit the road. Made much better time today than yesterday. Followed county roads which were very light and traffic and threaded them together to hit towns that looked suitable to refill the water bottles and have a rest. Most of the towns along these roads are not much more than a grain elevator, but it was still nice to have a place to take a rest. It also made them easy to spot from a good distance away and then I just had to wait until I got there to break (good motivation).

The one problem I had today was that since it started out cool and wet, I forgot to apply my sunscreen. Big mistake, but the end of the day I was pretty burnt. My arms and face don't seem bad at all (except the tips of my ears) but my legs right above the knee got the bulk of the sun. As I moved into Eagle Grove, I decided against cooking some of the too much food I am carrying and ate at Subway, after over 76 miles (a longest for me) I treated myself to air conditioning, a sub and a cold drink. I then proceeded to try and find the police (a lot easier to find when you don't want them than when you do). Did manage to find the station and asked about a place to sleep. They put me up in the county fair grounds tonight. Hot, burnt and tired after a long day, I should sleep well as long as I can sleep on my back.

25.05.2012 Bristow, IA

Day 01: Cedar Falls, IA to Bristow, IA

Friday May 25, 2012, 45 miles (72 km) - Total so far: 45 miles (72 km)

Sometimes the hardest part of any trip is getting out the door. Over the past month I have tried to get all my paperwork situated, moved out of the apartment, cleaned up the bike, gathered all my gear, planned out the first week of the trip, going to wing most of it from there, and made a sorry excuse at getting my lazy butt into shape. The result, today I carry my bike and gear out of the apartment at 10:00 (later than I would have liked) and head off on my way.
I took the pre-trip photos and headed north out of the town. For the Iowa portion of the trip I printed out some of google maps bicycle routes and will follow those as well as a state highway map. This worked out well at first since the google directions matched where I wanted to go. However, this changed when they put me on a 3.5 mile stretch of gravel roads. That is the problem with rural Iowa back roads, not many are paved. So I tossed the google directions and relied only on my state road map.

The riding was nice today, cool temperatures and off and on bits of rain (not really rain but just drops here and there). The route consisted of a lot of bike trails but also some roads and unfortunately gravel roads. The good part about those gravel roads are that the tires have proven vary effective on gravel. I am really glad I got the wider tires. When I reached Bristow, IA I stopped in the town part, under the pavilion for dinner.
Shortly after I started eating it began to rain. This was starting to look like I good place to call it a day and luckily for me they said I could camp the night in the park. They even let me into the restrooms.

Since I forgot to reset the mileage on the bike computer, I am going to follow google maps mileage for this first day. After today I will hopefully remember so that I can have more accurate measurements of the distance traveled. It should also be noted that I am starting with a good deal of food, I had most of it already and figured might as well eat it instead of letting it go bad.