July 25, 2010

We took off from Sioux City with the 10,000 other bikers around 8AM. Our first mission was to find good coffee which we found 5 miles down the road along with great donuts. Then we started the hill climbing through the Loess hills. If you not familiar with loess, this is a special formation in western Iowa that forms the backbone of the state arising up from the Missouri river. It was formed by the winds, silt, and clay to make these dune fields associated with bluffs. The only other place in the world with this same formation is in Shaanxi, China. They are awesome and an incredible site. It was a lot of fun going up and down and fairly easy to bike.

It was pretty amazing to me that you were always surrounded by other bikers and then when you came to a town, the density of bikers was so great, that all you could do was walk. Along the ride, you stop and eat about every 15 miles and meet folks along your journey. The scenery on the bike was great as I think the rolling hills covered by corn and soybeans is like a scene from a Grant Wood painting. The best food stops are the ones set up at the farms rather than the commercial vendors.

Eventually, around 5 PM, we rolled into Storm Lake, a beautiful lake town (60 miles north of my home town). We made our way to our host home on the south side of the lake. Steve and Marcia, our hosts, have a lovely home on the lake. We were offered the bedroom and there were another 40 bikers camped in the front yard. It was quite a site to see. These amazing people offered their home and showers to all 40 of us. Kristen and Monika were able to follow the sketchy directions and made their way as well. They are doing a great job as our support people and they took good care of their tired mother and her friend.

So for now after finding food in town, we are enjoying the deck and watching one of the beautiful Iowan sunsets that stretches out as far as you can see and in this instance is out over the lake. Most of the bikers are on the other side of the lake camped out in town, and our idyllic setting has not been spoiled.

So how was the first 70 miles - well I am really, really glad I bought a road bike and my new technologically advanced gel cushion seat. I hanging in well. Only 372 miles to go! Tomorrow, it is on to Algona.