Iowa...finally

CARVED FIELDS...Iowa PATH...future
Iowa state line over the missouri river....a toll bridge on a back road, with a booth collecting 50 cents per car. after i crossed it, some people informed me that this is the worst bridge in Iowa and Nebraska. all the reports come out after the bridge collapse in minnesota...
nebraska morning
looking back at council bluffs, Iowa. nice path.

this is an hour before sunset with a bit of humidity. in real life, the sun was an orange red fireball...i was on this road after asking a parked state trooper what the best route was to the next town, and of course he was a bicyclist/beer drinker who had just done RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa). so he told me the shortest way, but the thing about it, an hour down the road he pulled up next to me to check and make sure i was on the right route! now that is midwestern hospitality.

interesting thing about a trip like this...reminds one why they moved to colorado. and that one would be me. two major reasons, no bugs and lack of humidity. i know i am riding a bike and talking about the landscape, how it is changing throughout the day and as i move further east. but i find myself wondering, as i sit on my bike for hours, what kind of bug is biting me on my back that i cannot reach and swerve all over the road trying to swat it off my body. i know, i should probably just pull over and get the thing out of my jersey, but then all the bug reinforcements would move in (i honestly believe it is a planned maneuver) and my body would be covered with all sorts of insects...and sometimes i do not know if it is actually a bug or just the sweat dripping down the ravines on my body, acting like the water in the landscape and always moving to the lowest elevation possible.

which brings me to the Iowa (does not look right if it is not capitilized) landscape. hilly with no flats. no kidding...at one point i was counting the hills on this stretch of road, i gave up after 10, what you need to know is that these are 7%-9% grade hills anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 mile long with a creek at the bottom (remember what i was saying about the sweat dripping off my body, just different scale). a polite way to describe the landscape if i was driving in a car, rolling farmlands lush and green with the august harvest at hand...

on a bike is another story.

now tom and dean and blaine and zach, do not think that i will not be writing about you guys...just letting my stay in council bluffs settle in a bit.....