July 24, 2009
Day Six: Ottumwa to Mount Pleasant
This morning we crossed the Des Moines river on South Market Street and headed out of town on North Court Street. I would've taken pictures of the very beautiful, very large, restored Victorian homes along the way, but the road was too steep to do anything but pedal.
Here are some pictures taken along the route today:
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What a bonehead!
There were a lot of interesting team names, most of which I don't even mention.
This guy skated the entire distance across the state, INCLUDING the 100-mile route yesterday.
We had a tailwind to Hedrick, a crosswind through Martinsburg, Pekin, Packwood, and Pleasant Plain to Brighton.
Here are three members from Team Pez:
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More pictures:
Team NumbNutz...
Here are "Sexy" and "Tasty."
I particularly like the first picture of the "Sexy" scratching his butt in one picture and picking his nose in the other. RAAAAAaaaar.....
To be on the Air Force Team you have to be willing to stop and help anyone you see on the side of the road. That, and of course, be in the Air Force.
We stopped in Brighton (pop 687) at a friend's house for some ice water, where we sat on the front porch for a long time watching the bikers pass. Gene and his wife, Barb, had been there since 10:30 that morning looking for me, and had seen all kinds of interesting costumes and bikes.
Leaving Brighton was hard. We turned into a strong, hot headwind for about 20 miles. Normally, 20 miles isn't a big deal, but the combination of already having pedaled 40 miles, plus the hills and the wind and the heat, made it really difficult. We stopped a lot, and drank a lot, and ate a lot.
This guy looks like how we felt. One of his shoes is off, the other is still on.
Just as we crested one particularly difficult hill past Germanville, there was a tent set up where they were selling ice cream sandwiches. The sandwich part was made of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and extremely delicious.
By the time we arrived in Mount Pleasant (pop 8,751) we were REALLY tired. This is our last night of camping before our last day of riding, and our charter company had free BBQ for everyone. Unfortunately, they stopped serving at 7:00 and we didn't arrive until after that. We set up camp and walked to the shower where, because we were later than most people, there was no hot water left. Nor were there any towels, "but you can stand in front of the big fan in there," I was told by the guy who took my $5.00.
When I finished I sat outside and waited for Heather. And waited. Eventually, a young woman pulled up on a bike and went in. I asked her if she'd see if Heather Bingham was still inside. She came out a minute later and said, "She is sooooo close to being done," then pedaled off. So I waited. Finally, I stood in the doorway and called for her. No response. I called several more times, and the janitor, who had already locked up the men's, came down to lock the women's. He called out, then went inside. No one was there, and there's only one door. That was just weird.
I walked back to the campsite where I found Heather and Samantha. She had sent someone into the men's to look for me and he came out saying there was no Mark Bingham there. Go figure.
We ate, and when it was time to climb into the tents we noticed that everyone was going into the church gym next to our campsite. As it turned out, there was the possibility that a severe storm would be blowing through, with winds between 50-90 mph, so we carried all of our sleeping gear inside. Everyone slept along the inside wall of the gym.
Distance 78.10
Average speed 11.6
Maximum speed 30.0
Time 6:42.02
Cumulative 412.79
Climbed feet 3388
Today's ride: 78 miles (126 km)
Total: 414 miles (666 km)
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1 year ago