63.7 miles cycling, 2431′ of climbing (2964.8 total) – to read from the beginning, click here.
After the drama of last night, we got up, packed up, and rode to The Depot, the convenience store catty-corner to Casey’s. We had coffee and something to eat and then hi-tailed it out of there.
This route followed the now familiar pattern of Iowa hills and I only made one short stop until I got to the outskirts of Iowa City. Dana was ahead as usual and had stopped at a Casey’s and called me — we met at a grocery store and did a little shopping for the next day. Our Warmshowers host, Peter, had been in touch and even sent us a pic of their backyard so we would know where to go. I texted him and asked if it was OK if we dropped our bags off to lighten our load as we explored the town. “Of course, and that’s a good idea.” He gave us some suggestions of things to see, too. We got to the house and there, right where it was in the pic, was our home for the evening: a fully restored (and improved) Airstream trailer. We grabbed quick showers, dressed, and headed in to explore Iowa City.
Iowa City is the home to Iowa University and it’s a great town. We parked the bikes and walked through campus down to the Iowa River. Then back up into town where we found their very excellent Ped Mall and tooled around there, found a happy hour, had a quick one and eventually headed back to our hosts’.
And what hosts they were. Another great Warmshowers experience. Peter and Hannah treated us to an amazing Middle-Eastern meal, wine, and story swapping, including about how the Airstream ended up landlocked into their back yard (Peter lived in it after the very costly rehab was done, and when he moved in to Hannah’s house, they moved the Airstream into the backyard — now their guest place).
Tomorrow we’ll finish our personal RAGBRAI and will be heading into Illinois.
Leave a Reply