7/21/01
From our bivouac on the side of US 20 it was only 10 miles to Correctionville,
IA where our mail was waiting. We had to hurry because the smaller post offices
have wierd Saturday hours and waiting until Monday to pick up the mail was out
of the question.
With meer minutes to spare before the 10:00 closing time, we pulled up to the post office. Brad got stuff from his mom and girlfriend. My dad had mailed me my wallet, which I'd left in the pocket of a pair of pants he'd loaned me back in Lusk, WY. Joe Lane sent us both a care package, in it was a mess of candy, some little bottles of booze, a climbing magazine, some mix CDs from a party we'd had a while back, a letter, some photos of Joe bouldering and on top of some 14,000 ft peak, a letter and two Luna Bars. The candy and booze were nice, the climbing magazine was just frustrating, the CDs were all Brad, the letter and pictures were super funny, but the Luna Bars, they were just insulting. He'd gone out of his way to send us the only power bar that's made and marketed specifically for women. Ha ha Joe we're all laughing now.
In Iowa there are two kinds of weather: hot or hot and raining. In the morning we got hot and raininq but in the afternoon we got to enjoy just plain hot.
All morninq I was bitching about how bad the roads were, how hot it was, how humid it was, how lame it was that all the RAGBRAI people were honking at us as they DROVE by in their RVs to a BIKE ride. Durinq all that bitching I determined the thing that I hate most about Iowa is they don't pave the shoulders on the roads. If you're on any kind of busy road you're either a foot out in the lane with tons of traffic wizzing close by or you'll be forced onto the soft gravel shoulder. Watching the mirror for cars all the time keeps you totally stressed out and the time and miles just crawl by.
When we finally accepted that the roads weren't going to get any better and the traffic wasn't going to die down, we gave up on our old friend US 20, and got onto the county roads that parallel it. While that did a lot to improve my views on Iowa, I still think that it's one of the worst states to ride a bike in. That's why the RAGBRAI is so popular, it's the only time you can ride across and not worry the entire time about getting killed.
andrew
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