July 24 (late entry)

We made our way from Lake View, IA to Sioux City. We had a stop in Ida Grove, one of my favorite towns. A rich German baron apparently settled here and designed all of the architecture in town to look like German castles. Well maybe he wasn't a rich German baron, but he was the owner and founder of Midwest Industries, a company that manufactures small farm and marine equipment and he liked castles. It is quite a site in the middle of the Iowa cornfields.

From the drive along Highway 20 into Sioux City, I am gazing at the hills that lead into Sioux City knowing that I will have to climb them tomorrow. The good news – we had a tremendous thunderstorm early Sat morning and the weather has broken and it is now gorgeous. The highs for Sunday are expected in the low 80’s. I will be able to climb these hills as long as I don’t have to fight a headwind.

In Sioux City, we stayed with my good friends Pat and Janet Beck. Pat is the only other person I know who went to Iowa State for underground, Iowa for medical school, and then was my fellow resident in pediatrics at Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. We both then headed back to Iowa. Pat practices general pediatrics in Sioux City.

We had a quick trip to the bike expo in downtown Sioux City where I was on a mission for a more comfortable bike seat. The seat that came with my beautiful road bike was not going to do. I ended up buying this new technology gel seat. I got my sales pitch from a 14 yr old but he seemed to know what he was doing. The girls stayed for the concert and we hung out with our friends and enjoyed the company and beautiful scenery.