Author: Greg Pezoldt

OK- Let’s try this again. I want to try to put in a big effort TODAY especially to make up for yesterday.

All dry again and ready to rock. It is foggy out today, but it doesn’t look like there is rain in the forecast, at least for the morning. Thunderstorms seem to arise at random in the afternoons around here.

I am again doing the “north, then east” repetition from the last many days. I am headed for Oelwein for lunch. After that, there are some opportunities for some efficient riding on some north easterly roadways. Finally.

Iowa May be flat, but there are surprises along the way.

I am in Amish country! I had no idea they were in Iowa, but then again, I really have no idea where Amish country begins and ends.

The Amish and I have a lot in common. My life on the trip is simple as are the lives of the Amish, but we are on opposite ends of the opinion spectrum when it comes to road shoulders. I want a wide PAVED shoulder. The Amish want a wide UNPAVED shoulder so their horses pulling their carriages don’t have to trot on the hard surface. Viva la différence!

After lunch in Oelwein, I thought that I might have a chance to make it to the mighty Mississippi River today. The afternoon weather was now sunny after the fog lifted, but it was starting to look like the thunderstorms might start up again. I did get some rain before getting into Elkader, but it was short and not a big deal. I would easily dry out from it.

After getting an early dinner at the Subway in Elkader I could just barely make it to the Pike’s Peak State Park just south of McGregor before dark. Right on the river! Mother Nature had other plans!

I thought that I might get around this thunderstorm, but no such luck. I rode right into the middle of it and it was a humdinger. At the first drops if rain, I pulled over by a hedge of trees. I pulled my ground tarp over the bike and myself by the side of the road and rode out the storm as best I could. It lasted about 40 minutes. I managed to stay warm, but did get a little wet.

So now, it was going to be real close if I could get to McGregor before dark. When I was about 7 miles out, I saw a sign for camping at Spook Cave. To get to a camp before dark, I changed plans on the fly and chose Spook Cave. I made it before dark and all was good.

I made about 70 miles today. I think that made up for yesterday’s inadvertent short day. I was now set up nicely for a big day tomorrow. I can’t wait.

I did feel fine this morning. My big pan of spaghetti and pesto sauce must have done the trick last night.

This morning, it was foggy. But no wind. It would be a good day for riding and I wanted to put in a big effort today. I wanted to knock out about 30-40 miles and have lunch in Waterloo, IA and then some more serious miles afterwards.

The ground is still rolling hills and nice riding. The fog is also keeping the temperature down for now.

As I headed north and east the weather turned to mostly cloudy. Still good riding weather. A brief note about the roads of Iowa. They either run north and south or east and west. No roads that run diagonal which happens to be the way I want to travel. So when I say I am riding north and east, I really mean that I am riding north, then east, north then east, etc. Not very efficient. Remind me to send a letter to the Iowa DOT and all of the counties in the state about that.

Just outside of Waterloo, in Hudson, it started to sprinkle. Sprinkling rain causes a small dilemma. Do you put your rain jacket on or not. With the humidity and warm weather, you get just about as wet with sweat and condensation under your jacket as if you just ride in the rain without it. So for now I chose to ride without. It was just a sprinkle and it wasn’t going to last by looking at the skies ahead.

I picked up a real nice bike path heading into Waterloo. It is always nice to get on the bikepath without the traffic to worry about. Just before I hit downtown Waterloo, the rain returned, a little more serious this time. I was SO close to downtown and a lunch stop that I kept going without the jacket. I was pretty wet by the time I found a restaurant but I would dry out eventually. I try to eat lunch for at least an hour if not longer just to get a rest from the bike for a while.

I kept looking out the window at the place I was eating at and the sky kept getting darker and darker. Then the rain came. And kept coming. Harder and harder.

It didn’t take much thought at that point to decide to call it a day. I met my Waterloo in Waterloo, IA. There are benefits to weather shortened days. More rest (and I think I need some extra rest) and I get a chance to do some laundry. (I know I need to do laundry). And I can get everything dried out. The humidity keeps everything damp…. all the time which has caused some issues with my bike seat interface.

So I lost half a day on my planned ride through Iowa. Life will go on and I think I am still on pace to finish the ride in early October. I hope!

Sure enough, it was raining when I woke up this morning. A wet tent was the least of my worries at the moment. I was concerned if I was going to ride at all today.

The rain stopped about 8:30 so I decided to chance it and took down my tent and packed up. The weather forecast was for decent weather in the morning and chances of thunderstorms in the afternoon. If I could get at least a few miles in today it would be better than sitting in the tent all day. A few miles might be all I have in me today anyway. My legs are really tired as I started pedaling. Sometimes it starts off that way and you end up feeling better as you get warmed up. Hope that is what happens today.

First I wanted to get to Ames and find a bike shop. I never really got a good measurement on my air pressure in my tire from the flat I got in Columbus to feel comfortable so I wanted to top them off with a good floor pump. Ames was a madhouse today. Freshman registration day! Students and parents everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It took forever to get to and then through Ames. So long as a matter of fact that I ended up having lunch there after only about 10-15 miles.

Finally leaving Ames, I headed out east again for Marshalltown. The land had now turned to rolling hills on my way. And I was watching the horizon for those predicted thunderstorms.

I finally got to Marshalltown, but something seemed odd. There were lots of demolished buildings. I mean a lot. And there was just this smell that did not seem right. Then a guy on a bike said that they had had a huge tornado back in late July and that I was seeing the results of it. It really caused a lot of damage. I saw even more evidence of it as I left town.

Trees that were broken like twigs and trash EVERYWHERE. It was a sobering experience. I have seen and read about tornados in the paper but to see the effects for yourself brought new meaning to the terror that goes along with them. I wish the people of Marshalltown the best as they rebuild.

Well, as bad as that was, I still had about 16 more miles to cover today. The rain never came so that was good. The bad part was that I started to “bonk” really for the first time of the whole trip. For those of you who do not bike, bonking is when you just run out of energy and you can barely turn the pedals. The French call it “Meeting the man with the hammer”. I guess that tired feeling from this morning finally caught up with me. I did eat a power bar and that really helped.

I arrived at Union Grove State Park about 7:15. Much later than I had hoped for, but still in plenty of time to get my camp set up and eat dinner. I felt fairly recovered as I set off for bed. I hope that is the case. I would like to avoid the whole “Bonking” thing tomorrow.

Camping at Swan Lake, I was worried about the morning dew and condensation on my tent again. I guess I was set up far enough away from the lake. My tent was nice and dry this morning. Go figure.

The sky was overcast this morning. And significantly cooler. It could turn out to be a nice day for cycling. Well, I mean almost every day is a nice day for cycling, but today might be even better than the last few.

My goal today is to try to get close to Ames, IA, home of Iowa State University. Actually, I have a plan to camp at Ledges State Park just outside of Boone. It is about 10 miles from Ames. The terrain again is pretty flat and the overcast skies seems to keep the wind down. So far in Iowa, the wind has not been much of a factor. Mostly it has been calm or just a very slight breeze. Nothing to really affect my pedaling…..yet anyway.

I am still riding on Hwy 30. It has been pretty good for cycling. It generally has an adequate shoulder and light traffic. That is starting to change now that I am approaching the larger city of Ames. I think I better start looking at an alternate route and abandon Hwy 30 for something with much lighter traffic. As a result, I took the next cross street to get off the Hwy so I could consult my map. The road was Hwy 169 and it looked like it would go about where I needed to go except for one detail. The roads was closed for construction.

Here is the thing about road construction. Sometimes it is your enemy and sometimes your friend. It is your enemy if the surface is down to gravel and it is your only route, etc. Sometimes you just end up walking. But, it can be your friend if the road is closed so the contractor can save money on traffic control such as flagging and pilot cars, but at least one lane of the pavement is intact. Then sometimes the contractor will let bicycles snake through. And this is the case with Hwy 169 today. The contractor has scarified the pavement getting ready to do an asphalt overlay of the pavement but the surface is rideable. And he lets me through. So not only am I out of the increasing traffic of Hwy 30, I now have the road to myself except for a few cars and pickups of the local residents. For 5 miles. Then, I need to turn east again, but this road is barricaded to keep traffic off of Hwy 169 so there isn’t much traffic on this road either. Sometimes things just work out.

I crossed the Des Moines River. It offered the only real topography of the day. I had a nice descent to the river through a tree filled valley only to have to climb back out of it again. But this also meant I was getting close to “The Ledges”. Just a few more miles and a couple of turns to go now.

When I got there, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anyone else there. And I was also surprised that I hadn’t really even seen a sign on how to get here. I had just followed my map but usually there are signs along the road too. There was a guy on a tractor moving some tables around so I flagged him down to ask if I was at the right place for camping. He informed me that the campground was closed and had been closed since December. So, sometimes things just don’t work out. He said I could camp in the public fish and wildlife area about a mile away, but there weren’t any facilities there. He said my other option would be to go up across the Hwy and camp at the Boone County Fairgrounds. This was backtracking a slight bit but sounded like the best option. So off to Boone I went.

Right when I got there it started to sprinkle. I set up the tent quickly because if you can set it up in a dry condition, then the inside of the tent will stay dry. If you set it up in wet conditions, the moisture gets everywhere and can be damp inside. Once the tent was set up the rain got a little more serious. But not bad….yet. Now onto cooking. There wasn’t a picnic table at the campground but there was a covered grandstands for the rodeo arena that looked like a good place to cook.

With dinner out if the way the only thing left to do was get ready for bed. Once in the tent, I now listened to thunder in the distance. It could be one of those nights!

I am learning a lot about geography on the trip. For instance, today I cross into Iowa and the first town I will come to is named Missouri Valley. This strikes me as an odd name for a city since it is not anywhere near Missouri and I don’t think the Missouri River is any where near here either. Wrong!

It turns out the Missouri River makes up the entire western boundary of Iowa! It does’t look anything like the portion of the Missouri I am familiar with at it’s headwaters in Montana. It is a big, slow river that you cannot see anywhere close to the bottom. Both because it is deep and because it is brown water. A far cry from the clear trout bearing river I know.

I crossed the river about 2 miles into today’s ride and was now in Iowa.

I was not amused when the adequate shoulder I was riding on changed to a very wide, large aggregate gravel shoulder! I was going to have to find a new route other than Hwy 30 if this continued. I was going to have to deal with it for a while though. I needed to get to the Iowa Welcome Center in Missouri Valley to get an Iowa map to see what my options were though. And it was 13 miles away. Luckily, a narrow paved shoulder appeared after only a few miles. Not great but better than gravel. Whew.

In Missouri Valley, I got my map. Actually, I got a nice Iowa Hwy Cycling map! It shows the traffic volumes and shoulder widths for all of the hwys and county roads. It is a great resource. Hwy 30 has a 4-6 foot shoulder for much of the way through Ames so I will maintain course for the time being.

After some initial rolling hills, I find myself riding through the now familiar flat terrain of the rural Midwest farm belt. I am also riding in the now familiar heat and humidity. There is an interesting phenomena. I am not very up on my thermodynamics, but I am a lot cooler when I am riding than when I stop! When I stop, I just start sweating more and feel the heat more intensely.

My goal for the day is Denison, IA. It is about 55 miles and a decent sized city. The camping options are a little unclear. When I got there, it was about 5:30. It was still hot and I decided to go ahead and ride on to Carroll, IA. It was 27 miles past Denison and about 2 hours more riding but there was a State Park to camp at. It sounded like a good deal to me.

I got to Swan Lake State Park about 7:45. There was still plenty of daylight left so my plan worked out fine. 87 miles for the day was a bit much so I will be curious how I feel tomorrow. It makes 529 miles in the last 7 days. I am pretty sure that is an all time record for riding in one week for me.

Way back in North Platte, the guy at the bike shop I visited said that I might consider not riding Hwy 30 between Columbus and Fremont due to the heavy truck traffic from the gas industry. Well, today’s ride is to Fremont. It is Sunday so I am going to bet that the truck traffic will be light due to the weekend and chance the Hwy 30 route.

After stopping at a store for some prévisions, I hit the road headed for Fremont. I would say my assumption about the traffic was accurate. The truck volume was not too bad today. I wasn’t trilled by the shoulder width in places. The Hwy started off as a divided road with a nice shoulder. It then ended and the shoulder got pretty narrow. It just so happened that the state was constructing a new roadbed to continue the divided section. At one point, the toad was completed but not open.

Seizing an opportunity, I decided to use this new road as my own personal private bike path! So much for the narrow shoulder width. As a note, they build a lot of Portland Cement roads her in the Midwest. I am not used to them, but they are smooth and result in a lower rolling resistance.

The rest of the ride into Fremont was uneventful. As a matter of fact, it was so uneventful that the ONLY hill I encountered was an overpass on the outskirts of Fremont.

I was uncertain on where I was going to stay in Fremont and it was still pretty early so I decided to ride on to Blair, NE. It was 23 miles past Fremont. It was rolling hills and a pleasant break in the monotony of the flat Platte River plain.

In Blair, there was an RV park run by the city where I could pitch a tent for $10 and included a shower. I like it when I can take a shower!

Baring a major calamity, this will be my last day in Nebraska. I pushed pretty hard through the state. 360 miles in 5 days for an average of 72 per day. So I wonder what Iowa will be like?

As expected, my tent was again soaked with the dew from the night. I guess I might have to except that this might a new reality for me. I am not sure how I will deal with this on a daily basis. But I will.

My goal today is to ride east on Hwy 92 until I intersect Hwy 30 again and follow the Platte River to Columbus, NE. A nice 68 mile day.

Heading back toward the Platte, the land is again pretty flat. But today, something is a little different. There is a slight wind, but today it is a tailwind. A quartering tailwind to be exact, but it a welcome change. Easier pedaling is always welcome.

There are no real towns on this stretch of Hwy 92. There are a few that are off the route by a couple of miles so I decided to ride past them today. I would ride 30 miles before turning north east on Hwy 30 and hoping to find a cafe there.

Turning into Hwy 30 turned the wind into a pure tailwind. Not a strong wind by any means but still great (finally). Plus I found a place to eat after only 3 miles. So after lunch, I cruised into Columbus. Well I guess I should say I cruised right up to the outskirts of Columbus. As I approached the city limits, I hit a really nasty rumble strip and flatted with a double “snakebite” pinch.

Once that was fixed, next was to figure out dinner and where to camp tonight. Dinner was easy. The Gottbeer brewery. Where to camp, not so easy. There where places nearby but I would either have to ride 5 miles out and then back in the morning or negotiate a long gravel Road. So I am in a hotel tonight. I get to get everything dried out and can get an earlier start in the morning. I am not sure if I will get to Iowa tomorrow but my days in Nebraska are getting short.

When I woke up this morning, my tent was soaked in dew. It must be the humidity. I don’ really like to pack my tent wet so I got a late start waiting for everything to dry out.

I am thinking about a easy day. Not a rest day but maybe dialing back the mileage. There is a campground near Loup City at Lake Sherman that is about 40 some miles away. That sounds about right for the day, but we shall see how the riding goes.

It is another day of rolling hills. The wind is also slight to non existant. Again I am struck by the nice cycling that the back roads of Nebraska has to offer.

Arriving in Loup City, I found out that the Lake Sherman campground is 7 miles out of town on a gravel road. Since it is still fairly early in the afternoon, I am going to ride the next 25-30 miles to St Paul and camp at the Loup River State Campground instead. So much for the easy day. It wasn’t too bad though. The terrain is again flattening out again so it wasn’t extremely hard cycling. It was just pretty hot out and the humidity never really goes away making you sweat that much more. Finally at St Paul, I pulled into the first diner I came to. I am not sure what my servers think at these various places I eat at. I am just so thirsty that I usually have about 3-4 refills on Coke or 7-Up and they just keep serving them up and I just keep drinking them. St Paul was no different.

After my dinner, I still had to ride north about 3 miles to the campground. It is Friday so I am hoping that it isn’t filled up. There are only 10 camp sites there.

I crossed the Loup River just before the campground. It is

pretty wide but must be really shallow.

I see lots of sand bars but my biggest clue is that the few boats I see on the river are “air boats”. These are the boats that I thought were only used in the Everglades where they are shallow draft flat bottom hulls and powered by an engine with a big airplane propeller on the back. Interesting.

I found the Loup River Campground deserted. It is really nice though. There are large oaks and walnut trees lining the entry lane and nice grass areas for the tents. But as nice as it looks, it is right on the river and it is REALLY hot and humid. And more than a few mosquitos. But I did enjoy the fireflies.

That last interesting thing about the campground is that there is a fee to camp there but no place to pay. I what to pay my way but it looks like this is going to a free stay.

This morning I had to make the final decision if I was going to keep following the Platte or try something different. The Platte route goes a little south from here and I don’t really want to go south only to have to go back north again. I have decided to travel to Broken Bow and stay north on some secondary hwys. Plus I will see some different country.

I took off in a north easterly direction on Hwy 83. I quickly found myself in hills! Nothing too steep but rolling hills that generally were more up than down.

I got to Stapleton around lunch so stopped there. The local cafe had a senior lunch that I qualified for. All you could eat buffet for $4.00. The deal of the century. That was the good news. The bad news was that I did not study my map very well and had to backtrack 4 miles to get back on route 92 to Broken Bow. That meant 8 extra miles on the day. Instead of 74, I was now looking at 82. Oh well. Lunch was worth it (I hope).

Getting away from the Platte River really was a nice change of scenery. Green fields and rolling hills as far as the eye could see.

The traffic on the secondary Hwy was light as an added benefit. Really nice cycling country. Some challenge with the hills but not overwhelming either.

Also as I got away from the Platte River, the humidity dropped. But it was also getting pretty warm. At one stop, they said it was 92 degrees. The amount I was sweating would confirm that. I think I stopped in every little town to buy a Gatorade.

Eventually, I came to the town where I would get on Hwy 2, the last 9 miles to Broken Bow. I finally was done with the hills and had a generally downhill ride into Broken Bow which was welcome at this point in the day.

They had a city park which offered camping and a shower. Then I went in search of the Kinkaider brewery which I had heard about in North Platte. I had several beers and dinner there. All very good. And I will sleep really well as a result.

I woke last night to the sound of thunder! Unlike Bob Segar, I did not wonder how far off as I sat and wondered. It was right on top of me and I had a Chinese fire drill getting out of my tent and putting up the rain fly in the rising wind at 1:00 in the morning!

The storm did not generate much rain but it sure got my attention.

In the morning I set off for North Platte, NE. It was going to be a 62 mile ride today again along the So. Platte River. I had to actually negotiate a few hills yesterday in the late evening to get to Brûle, but today was again going to be more flat terrain.

I stopped in Paxton for lunch and stayed there for over 2 hours resting. I can feel the humidity rising as I ride along the river. My clothes feel clammy and they don’t seem to dry out like in dryer climates. I vaguely remember this from living in Texas. Don’t get me wrong though. This percent of humidity is not oppressive like Houston was. Just annoying.

So far, riding through Nebraska has not been a bad choice. The state is green and the abundant fields alternate between corn, cattle pasture, and land lying fallow. Really quite nice.

There is a lot of corn though!

I have been struck by the thought that riding through the mid-west is beneficial if you just love cycling. Not really caring about much except the joy of being out on your bicycle churning out miles. If not, one might get bored or even a little dejected over the lack of iconic destinations or variety of landscapes. So far, this has been a good cycling experience.

Arriving in North Platte, I found a bike shop that was open. I inquired about some route options for riding through the rest of Nebraska. I have lots of options to consider. Finding an open bike shop was not as easy as I thought. It was late in the afternoon and between the city of Ogallala and North Platte I crossed into the central time zone and did not know it at the time. I guess that is another milestone to chalk up!

I camped at the big city park, Cody Park. It cost 5 dollars and was a nice facility. It was also right on the bank of the North Platte River, a much more impressive river compared to the South Platte.

The confluence must have been just out of town but nearby.

I had a nice dinner and went to bed with the thought that I would make my final route decision tomorrow on which direction I would take from North Platte. It would be based on camping alternatives and the distances between towns. So tomorrow we shall see where I am going. No matter where, it will be interesting.