Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Elkader, IA

Day 28 (24 June 2014)
Wyoming, IA to Elkader, IA
Day: 80.00 miles, Trip: 1858.04 miles

In the morning we had breakfast provided by the United Methodist Church in Wyoming, IA. It was amazing. This was followed by a slow start to Cascade, IA for the first stop. From here is where the day gets interesting. It started out as Richard, Jen, Caroline, Kristen and myself. We hit Farley Rd (Y13) and found it closed. I called all the route leaders but nobody answered, I eventually got through to Michelle and her pass on the message to have everybody else take an alternative route. Luckily we reached most people and they all would end up beating us to the next rest stop. 

The 5 of us pushed on anyway, I mean how bad could it be. After 2 miles we met a farmer who told us the road got much worse further on. This was enough for Kristen and Caroline to turn back and take the highway instead. The 3 of us figured why not just keep going. It did indeed get much worse. in 2 spots we got off and walked the bikes. The second time involved walking the bikes through a soy bean field since the road was missing due to the digging of a new culvert. Eventually we reached Farley and took the Heritage Trail to Dyersville. While in Dyersville a couple of people went to see the Field of Dreams location but most people decided to skip it.

Riding with Kristen

It was an uneventful ride to rest stop 3 in Colesburg, IA, at least or me. Caroline managed to crash at the rest stop and scraped her knee. One of the route leaders took her to the hospital to get it cleaned. As I was riding on to the final destination of Elkader, IA (pop 1250). I was cruising down a hill around mid 30s and had a near brush with a black Cadillac. I almost missed the turn for Elkader too, luckily Mike was there and yelled so I could stop and get the turn. Tonight we staying at a First Congregation church and had showers to use at the local pool. Once clean, dinner was at Fennelly's Irish pub (where we got to meet Eric's mother. I missed out on laundry but I am tired and decided to save it for another time.