Day 3: The Long and Winding Road

We got up early for day 3 of riding and regretfully left Iowa Lakes Community College and Emmetsburg. In hindsight now, I realize that was the best overnight experience of the entire week. The cafeteria had great food, there were computers available, and we probably had the most fun going to the downtown area of any other town. Emmetsburg was where we got our bikes washed and lubed at the WD40 tent, saw marines hosting a pull-up bar challenge, ate good gyros, and watched a pretty good juggling show. We took off our shoes and waded into the lake to cool off. We rode on a tiny trailer pulled by a tractor, just hanging onto a sign with one hand (aka The Party Bus).

But it wasn't all fun and games there. The downtown area was very close to the college where we camped, so the live rock band sounded like it was right next door. They played energetically and loudly until midnight. At one point I even heard the lead singer say to the crowd, "So what time do you get up tomorrow? 5?" But he kept on going. Needlessly to say, I did not go to sleep until after they were done, and even then fitfully.

So all of that to start our longest mileage day. As we got going, Mark told me to look to our left across a field of corn. A large, dark weather front was looming and moving our direction. Sure enough, the winds picked up and the sun was blocked out. An angry looking storm was sweeping in from our left very quickly. I remember Mark saying, "there's no way we're going to miss this." Well, except for some wind gusts that nearly took our tires out from under us, that front did not rain on us. In fact, two more threatening waves of storm came up from our left. But all three never dropped any rain! It did put you in awe of the strength of the natural forces God has set in place.

The overnight town we were approaching slowly was Forest City. The day was tough, symbolized by the steep hill we had to climb into the town.On top of that, the way to the campsite was not clear, which would become a pattern for the next several overnight towns. They had said it would be at the base of a big wind turbine. Indeed it was, but even that was easy to miss.

We settled down between a building and a pine tree, right next to a football field. The sun was super intense, and we were spent. I threw my sleeping bag down between the tree and building in one of only patches of shade anywhere and napped hard. Mark went into his tent and crashed. He awoke later in a puddle of sweat, as our tents tended to become like microwave ovens when the sun hit them directly.

I think this may have been the hardest day. I had moments where I thought I wouldn't keep going, but somehow my legs kept pumping. A lesson in perseverance. However, the second hardest day, and a close second, was yet to come.