Some of our lovely temperatures from early on the ride on the East Coast returned and we had a day with a high temperature of 70°F in Iowa. We continued to ride almost directly West and at the end of the day made a visit to our friends (or foes depending on the most recent sports game) at the University of Iowa. As you will see, the shorter mileage made for a good afternoon to explore a bit of the campus town and have a bit of recovery after 97 miles yesterday and another 80 or so tomorrow.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 61.5 miles
Elevation: 1,867 ft.
Points of Interest: University of Iowa, Quad Cities, Cornfields, Jeff’s Market x2
Tales of the Trail
A Sunday on the road and leaving from a church meant we had some onlookers while we were getting ready in the parking lot with curiosity and smiles once they figured out why we were there. Davenport was a bigger town than I had originally thought, and so it took us a few miles to really make it out to the road we spent most of our time on today. There was a road closure just before and we thought it may be another day defecting from the route, but instead we just made a right and left instead of staying straight and connected right to where we were supposed to be. At least, most of us did. The conversation of the day was centered around one of the ride groups who took two rights and went the wrong way for a few miles. I’ll spare them the embarrassment of sharing the names here, but they know who they are. This left the two forward teams on the road anywhere between 30 minutes and 90 minutes ahead at any given point throughout the day, a nightmare for coordinating forward progress. When all was said and done, the teams took their own breaks to allow for more time, but it was hilarious to look back and see one team at the last rest stop when the next two were at the next one.
Although Cole had good intentions while writing this to not ‘out’ the culprits of the accidental detour, I am volunteering myself, (Parker), as one of the culprits. While I can attest that at any given moment we were at least an hour behind the other teams, our group did not let our mishap of the first part of the route keep us from having the most amazing day of biking. Our team name today was team vibes, and I would say that is pretty evident in the day that we had. I would just like to tell a “short” tale of our side of the story for the day, although I will let Cole fill you in on the two other groups. After gaining about 5 extra miles we finally got back on the route. With these extra time gained from our wrong turns, by the time we hit the first rest stop our group was starving. In a short-lived attempt to try and catch back up to the other teams we tried to keep the first rest stop relatively quick. Our efforts to catch the other teams were long forgotten however as 6 miles down the road we saw a diner and decided to stop for lunch. As you can imagine it is quite a sight for four college aged kids in biking jerseys and bibs to waltz into a diner in a small town of maybe 1000 with their bike helmets still on. As the restaurant was full, but relatively smaller this led to us having a conversation with the whole restaurant! We kept getting questions from different tables all over the room and it was wonderful to share our story. We even got a few in person donations! When we finished eating we called the van to see how far behind we were and as it turned out both of the other teams were waiting at the second rest stop and we were 15 miles behind. The rest of the day we tried our best to be efficient on the bike so as not to get further from the other groups, but this again did not last long. Our last shenanigan of today was stopping on the side of the road when we saw two cows, an emu, and miniature goats. The two lessons I learned from all this are: enjoying the ride is sometimes more important than just “getting it over with”, and sometimes it's better to pull off and double check the route. If I could go back in time and do it again I would still choose to be on team vibes, even if we were not always on the right path.
Our first rest stop was in the town of Durant, Iowa at the sight of the first Jeff’s Market on the road. We found out there was a second when looking at the location of the last team and figuring out where they were. Seeing Jeff's made it feel like they were back where we had left them, but instead it was one town over in Wilton, Iowa where another Jeff’s existed. Who knew Jeff had two stores? More snacks had been donated from the community in Davenport and at this point it feels like we are trying to eat our way through the drawer and boxes in the van packed with snacks. This is a good problem to have!
In case they weren’t mentioned already, the winds through the Midwest are going to be a big part of the conversation each day. A headwind or crosswind can make the miles on the road a real struggle and no wind or a tailwind can make for an awesome day that feels like we are flying. Today was one of the former: a crosswind. The crosswind today was particularly tough because of how strong it was. Drafting only really worked when right beside the rider in front and any time we fell into a straight line, those not at the front were reminded just how hard the leader was working to pull the rest of the group through the wind. The only way to be saved is to find some trees or occasionally a hill that blocks the wind just right. Everyone was thankful for those who sacrificed their legs to get us through.
A quick and relatively unremarkable second rest stop by the side of the road propelled us from mile 40 to Iowa City at mile 60. While waiting for the last team and to pull up to the stayover together, two teams decided to go for lunch. Cole and Nishk went to get shawarma, Anthony and Aadit got some ramen, and Maaike, Lauren, and Sam stopped to get some classic American food. The first 4 went to eat outside the Old Capitol and then made the mistake of going to the stayover from a year ago. Not before getting a picture! When the last team finally rolled in they decided to go to Pop’s BBQ for dinner.
After the relatively shorter 61.5-mile day, we arrived and moved into the stayover in Iowa City around 3:30 pm and then took some showers and went out to explore. We got more food, shopped, drank bubble tea, and worked on anything we needed some additional hours to catch up on (the journals for Parker and I!) We had known about our host from stories of the night before with Oliver, a child who unfortunately passed within the last year whose mother we had a conversation with the night before. The Father had been helpful in providing support through that family’s journey and now is helping us just the same.
Tomorrow will be another longer day, but if we make it through, we have our eyes set on a sub-40-mile ride into Des Moines just the day following.
Cyclists Corner
Rider: Anthony Salemi
How are you feeling today?
I'm okay. I'm hungry and I feel like today everyone was a little bit on everyone's nerves. That's okay, and I think we got over it.
And how was today's ride?
I thought it was fine. There were headwinds. I will state that for the record. It was pretty windy, but if you're in the draft, it's pretty fine. So, taking turns pulling was... good.
Is there anything that you personally think or hope you will gain for yourself from the ride?
I have a few: for one, massive quads. Okay, okay. Not really. I don't think my legs will get much bigger from where they are now because it's a marathon, not a sprint. But really, I think it's a big mental challenge, and I think some things will just be easier after the ride having done something where you just bike all day staring at nothing for 77 days. You know, your mind will get stronger. So I think that'll happen. Also, I think, similar is the Portraits Project. I think hearing all these different voices and seeing all these different people and hearing their stories I think will also be very mind strengthening to me and give me kind of a different perspective on the world and be able to carry myself a little bit better. Especially as we get out West. This is the farthest West I've ever been, other than Houston, but that's not really West. And right now, we're in Iowa. Getting further West and hearing from those different people as opposed to people on the East Coast or the Midwest that I've had more experience with in my life.
How have you surprised yourself since New York City?
I feel like things have kind of gone as I expected for myself personally. I think what's surprised me the most is the people on the team.
Where is your hometown? If there was any food from your hometown that you could have with you at every stop along the ride, what would it be?
My hometown; I grew up in Tacoma Park, Maryland, which is a suburb just North of D.C. It's in Maryland, but the D.C. border is like it's right along the DC border. Something I always cook is a smoothie. That's what I would want to have every day. In normal life, I have a smoothie almost every single day that I put yogurt and frozen fruit in, then blend it. I wish I had that every day at a stayover. So you can see me sometimes buy smoothies at rest stops from a grocery store. That's what I'm trying to emulate.
What do you think that your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?
I became the route master for the team. I think people ask me about the route, and I think if there are changes on the fly that need to be made, even though I don't feel prepared to do that as the route master, I think that's something that, when we had to reroute I figured it out because I'm the route master. People ask me questions all the time about the route, which I don't always love answering, but they do ask me. So, yeah, and outside of the prescribed role, I think that from being one of the people who biked a lot before this, I think some people ask me questions about stuff, and how to do things during when we're riding together because of that. I think that's kind of a role I have as well.
What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?
I like the Twizzlers. They're just, like, pure sugar. We got some on sale. I did the calculations. It was 200 grams of carbs per dollar. Which is, um, I think that's good. It was better than gummy bears, and gummy worms, and several other candies at the Walmart at the time. So, yeah, the carbs to price ratio, that was just very good. I like being able to grab, like, five at once, and just taking a chunk. I like the Twizzlers. I miss the Twizzlers. I like to eat pure sugar while I'm biking and I don't want anything else. I just want pure sugar.