Ride time – 4 hrs 49 minutes
11.6 MPH
We are now 509 miles from Dorchester and 969 miles from International Falls, Minnesota.
We can remember from last year that we had some tough miles ahead of us today so we decided to leave the hotel at 6:30AM. We crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa and the first climb started right out of McGregor – probably about a two mile gradual climb that we were able to grind out in granny gear to the top of the bluffs. At the junction of business 18 and Hwy 18 the road leveled out and we had easy going for the next 10 miles. Little did we know that the climb out of McGregor was going to be one of the easiest climbs of the day with two tough climbs ahead of us.
This morning as we were slowly pedaling out of McGregor I (Kathi) was thinking about home and that we had a Buick Lucerne with a 4 liter V8 and a 4 speed automatic that will get us down the road and over the hills at ease. It also has 4 brand new tires, plush leather seats that you can adjust forward, backward, up and down, and you can even recline. The car has a CD player along with a radio and here we chose to leave that car at home and head out on a 2 wheel, 2 seat bicycle pulling all of our luggage behind in a B.O.B. Here I am climbing up this hill and thinking there is no where I would rather be, no other mode of transportation I would rather be on, and with no one other than my best friend and husband. Life is certainly good for us!
Around 9:00AM we arrived in Garnavillo and stopped at the local restaurant and had a fantastic breakfast. We definitely got our money’s worth at Thoms Dairy Bar Café.
From Garnavillo we continued on Hwy 52 to Guttenburg. Just before Guttenburg we stopped at a beautiful scenic overlook overlooking the Mississippi River. We took some fantastic pictures of the area and ended up flagging a guy in a jeep with a St. Bernard down to take pictures of us. So Guttenburg is down in the valley so after a great downhill we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us climbing back up to the top of the bluff again. We continued on to Millville and once again went back down into the valley and had a long long uphill climb out of there.
Yesterday when we went to church we had a couple come up and talk with us after mass. They had indicated that they were driving to Dyersville today to visit with some relatives. So here we are pedaling along between Millville and Luxemburg and a car pulls over in front of us. Here it is the couple that we had talked with at church yesterday. It was nice visiting with them on the side of the road. They had indicated that they had gone on our blog last night and read what we had written.
The scenery today has once again been fantastic. Kevin and Peggy Cordes - you would have loved the scenery today. Just a few miles out of Froelic, Iowa we got to a high point where you could look to the southwest and overlook at least a 3000 acres stand of the most beautiful corn we have seen so far. No sign of drought in that area.
We arrived in Dyersville about 1:20 this afternoon and checked into the Super 8 (we stayed hear last year on our way to Bar Harbor, Maine). We are just “plum” tuckered out so we showered and will spend the afternoon watching the football game and just relaxing.
Tomorrow is another day!
You do realize that one strong wind gust and your bike would be over the edge--I would have gone for the photo, also! Your bolog is looking great and we are enjoying all the photos. We are praying for calm weather and all down hill for you guys tomarrow.
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