Category: Bicycling

Joe had given me some routing advice to go east out of the city. I was glad to get his advice on that, since according to the map there were not many roads going in that direction. It was already in the high 70s and really humid when leaving Joe’s at 7 AM. The heat…

I got an early start at 7 AM and went to the breakfast place in town. Soon thereafter, my hosts from last night showed up, and I was invited to the “regulars” table. About half of today’s ride was on bike paths. While I believe that the safety claims of bike paths vs. roads are…

I hate it when I forget to mention something in a previous report! Yesterday, I got my first horn honk in Iowa. At that point the road had a straight through and right turn only lane, and apparently the driver behind me didn’t like my presence in the straight through lane. After he passed, I…

Gary cooked up some eggs, pancakes, and bacon for breakfast, so naturally I had to stick around for that. I thanked them for their hospitality before exchanging e-mail addresses and taking off. On the way out of town I spoke with someone who has lived in Storm Lake since 1955. The recent use of immigrants…

I used the RAGBRAI bike ride route for today, it’s available on the internet at (dead link). The hard part was finding my way out of Sioux City. I followed a city street which I thought would become a paved county road. It instead turned into gravel, and I had to get down to US…

At 6 AM I was already packed and ready to leave the motel at first light. Apparently someone else had the same idea – I waited for them to leave before doing so myself. I found the Super 8 motel further outside of town – they had a room already available at 7 AM, so…

The first half of today’s ride was rolling hills and cornfields. The first cafe was 40 miles down the road in Newcastle, which made a good lunch stop. After that the terrain flattened out, and after Ponca – ten miles down the road – the highway widened out and traffic increased for the approach to…

I got my package at the post office shortly after it opened at 7 AM. It had arrived in the post office on Monday. The postmaster didn’t bother asking for ID since this was the only package that had been sent via general delivery in a long time. The time spent getting the package, mailing…

Since I had planned on getting an early start today, Barb (the hotel owner) had left some cereal out for breakfast, since they didn’t officially open until 7:30. I got up at 6, ate, and then looked outside to see lightning in the direction I had planned to go. So I went back to bed.…

Got a late start out of Valentine, as I needed to borrow the pump from the bike shop, which didn’t open until 9:00. It was actually a really well stocked bike and kayak shop – they had Gary Fisher mountain bikes and even a Santana Sovereign tandem. Coming out of town on Highway 12, there…