56 miles cycling, 2080′ of climbing (2778 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Another day, another wake up (a chilly one), make the coffee, drink the coffee, pack up the tent and get on the road. Winds from the NW gave a tailwind a lot of the way, but whenever we turned North, it was quite tough. Fortunately, it was a relatively short day for us and we had a Warmshowers host for the evening in Redfield which always makes the day more mentally easy.
We followed “Historic Route 6” for most of the day. As with our earlier experiences in Iowa, some of the road had great shoulders, but most of it had none. That was OK for most of the day as traffic was pretty light. It was only when we passed a high school at dismissal time that the traffic got heavy (and of course, a*#hole high school males who thought buzzing us closely and blowing their horns was great fun. That didn’t last for long, but ’twas annoying.
We arrived in Redfield and stretched our legs and walked around the town before heading up the hill to our host, Louise. She was a delight. 80 years young and showed us her recumbent trike which she still rides up the hill from town (and she vowed not to electrify until she can’t make it up on her own power — don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon). Dana and Louise hit it off right away and were chatting while they were making dinner: Alaskan Salmon, Caprese salad made with freshly picked tomatoes from her garden. Cuke salad too from that same garden. It was a feast and followed up with mint moose-tracks ice cream. In between dinner and dessert, we watched the sunset behind Louise’s house.
We did not go to bed hungry that night. I had a chance to catch up on a couple of blog entries and get our next day to Des Moines planned. A good night sleep awaited us.
