Iowa, I owe ya

What a fantastic day! Another 450 miles added to the odometer. This morning, my body decided that I should get my heart rate out of the double-digit range, so I went for a half-hour jog, making multiple loops around a large block that contained, among other things, a disaster-recovery service and a semi-trailer repair garage. Fantastic scenery. But soon I was on my way towards Iowa City. I resisted the urge to tour what was billed as the "World's Largest Truckstop" and made to Iowa City, where I decided to drive around the town and the University--beautiful! It's located on pretty green hills. As I visited the UI stadium, the skies opened up and I decided to get back on the road.

Another hour later, I stopped off at Grinnell and checked out the college. The campus is small but lovely, and I must have counted at least 5 buildings that have been built over the last 5 years--a gym/recreation center, a large set of dorms, a student center, and some enormous classroom-type building. So, it's a neat mixture of early 1900s classic brick with stylish contemporary architecture. Someone's giving Grinnell mad cash!! Oh--and the train runs directly through campus--not alongside campus--straight through the middle of it!

The rain storm I'd outrun on my way to Grinnell caught up with me there, so I got back on I-80 and plowed my way through a ridiculous downpour. Later in the day, I heard on public radio that storm turned into tornadoes back in the Quad Cities area!

Next, I hit up Des Moines, which has quite a highway running right through it, I-235. This sucker is 6 lanes, brand new, with brand new overpasses for pedestrians and roads. The bridge pictured is a pedestrian overpass! I saw a sign for something called "Terrace Hill National Historic Site" and followed subsequent instructions. Turns out it's the Iowa Governor's Mansion, but the site closes at 1:30PM (I arrived at 1:45PM). It's a beautiful property, so I walked around as a State Trooper eyed me from afar. I had lunch in a nearby cafe with free wireless internet. The girl behind the counter had purple hair and said "huh?" after every sentence I uttered. After identifying a bike shop in Sioux City, I hightailed it back to I-235 and met up with I-80.

In Sioux City, I pulled up to Albrecht bike shop only to find that it had closed at 5:30PM (it was 5:45PM--see a recurring theme here?). But there was a guy inside who was just pulling out for a ride, and I gathered some presumptuousness and asked to join him. Jon "Woody" Nelson and I rode for about an hour, making a clockwise loop around northwestern Sioux City, riding along the Missouri river, climbing a steep (but short) hill in Stone State Park, and descending back into the city. Unbeknownst to me, I got sand in my left cleat while stopping at an overlook into Nebraska. This rendered the act of unclipping from my pedal futile, and I fell on my ass at a traffic stop. Very classy, very graceful. Only evidence is a quarter-sized spot of road rash on my knee. At least Woody got some entertainment in return for his kindness in taking me out for a spin!

After tooling around Sioux City for a bit, all sweat-nasty, I drove up to to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I vote my "Welcome to South Dakota" the absolute worst, but I included it for completeness-sake. The drive up I-29 made up in scenery what it lacked in directional variety (i.e. straight as an arrow). On my left was a very broad Jacob's ladder--a veritable wall of light strands. On my right, to the east, was a slate-colored wall corresponding to the trailing edge of the stormfront I'd passed through earlier. Add in the endless planted fields, and you have a rich landscape that was never boring. Now I'm outside of Sioux Falls, ready for bed.