Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 (Day 6)
We woke up to breakfast this morning from Betty and Dean. They were the nicest people you could imagine. Dean was looking up flood levels for western Iowa and Betty was making us toast. After taking some pictures and saying goodbye to everyone (including their neighbors who had come over to investigate) we were off.
Dean & Betty Ward were some of the nicest people we've ever met.
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Here's a pic Adam got of me while I was choosing what music to put on inside my velo. You can tell how muggy it is outside. It was hard to get enough solar power to play music on days like this.
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A lot of people ask what it's like to ride these in the rain. You get wet through the air inlet on the bottom of the windscreen, and the air moving through that keeps the windscreen from fogging. The only part of you that gets wet is mostly your face, neck, and shoulders. This pic was taken from the inside of Adam's velomobile.
My knee was still giving me problems and I was still in a lot of pain. For the first 20 miles today I was almost sure we would have to call off the trip. Luckily, after an additional 15 miles, the medicine I had started to kick in, and the pain wasn't as bad anymore.
Unfortunately, there were headwinds and it was raining the entire day, so we only made it 65 miles to Dallas Center, IA. The rain was just letting off as we got here tonight. We were completely soaked.
We pulled into the Casey's in town and made a cardboard sign that said: "We're biking across the country and would LOVE a dry place to stay tonight!" This didn't work, so Adam and I went to the police station to see where we could camp. It was completely deserted. The door was locked and the lights were off. The fire station had its garage doors open but was also deserted. The town was completely empty.
So we had no option but to camp out tonight. We found a field at the edge of town and set up our tents on top of the tall grasses and spent the night there.
Miles covered today: 62
Miles covered total: 402
Overnight Town: Dallas Center, IA
Unfortunately, there were headwinds and it was raining the entire day, so we only made it 65 miles to Dallas Center, IA. The rain was just letting off as we got here tonight. We were completely soaked.
We pulled into the Casey's in town and made a cardboard sign that said: "We're biking across the country and would LOVE a dry place to stay tonight!" This didn't work, so Adam and I went to the police station to see where we could camp. It was completely deserted. The door was locked and the lights were off. The fire station had its garage doors open but was also deserted. The town was completely empty.
So we had no option but to camp out tonight. We found a field at the edge of town and set up our tents on top of the tall grasses and spent the night there.
Miles covered today: 62
Miles covered total: 402
Overnight Town: Dallas Center, IA
