Day 113 - ending near Manchester, IA - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

September 4, 2023

Day 113 - ending near Manchester, IA

Day 113 - Clermont, IA to Manchester, IA *Note: The GPS shut down just before I arrived at the park.*

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I woke up this morning to my alarm set for 5:00am. Worked some more on yesterday's "evening report." I was getting behind again on journal postings, and would need to take a day off to get caught up. But I was anxious to get home. I'd given that some thought last night, and decided I would suspend posting journal entries until I arrived home. That should work if I take good notes along the way. With that decision made, I packed up and left Skip-A-Way Campground at 8:07am.

Bailey's Ford Park south of Manchester, Iowa was my planned destination for today - 51 miles away.

It'd been so long ago since I made these getting-close-to-home routes, I couldn't remember what roads I'd be on, so each turn was a 'surprise' to me. I did remember however that I was going to leave Clermont on a bicycle trail heading southeast. First though, I stopped at Casey's for breakfast. The Casey's in Clermont this morning had a full crew of workers - more than needed to run the store. I asked one of them, and then saw before I left, that they were going to unload a semi truck trailer today. The worker wasn't looking forward to it because it was going to be hot today. The trailer was parked at the front door with a roller conveyor set up from a side door of the trailer through one of the propped-open front doors. This Casey's doesn't have any indoor seating nor even outdoor seating. I was going to sit outside to eat my breakfast, then thought there must be a park somewhere in town that would be more pleasant than sitting on the ground next to all the commotion. Before I even crossed the Turkey River I found a park, and enjoyed breakfast at a picnic table in the shade of a pavilion. As I'd done once before, I called my wife and talked with her using the phone's speaker feature as I ate. Lots of talk about our cute grandson and his tired parents.

After crossing the river, I walked the bike farther uptown to check out the tractors used in the movie "The Straight Story." This time I was able to get a better picture of the red Rehd's tractor featured early-on in the movie. I wandered around town a little more looking for the start of the trail. I started down Union Street, the road the trail was supposed to be on. Just like yesterday, I glanced to my left and saw the trail was over there and I had missed the start of it.

At 10:04am, I was on the trail where I was supposed to be. The trail brought me to Elgin at 10:50am. I stopped at Guppy's gas station/convenience store for chocolate milk. More than half the area inside their store is devoted to places to sit and eat. I hadn't been able to find an unused water faucet for filling my gallon jug this morning at the campground. Guppy's had one on the side of their building, so, after asking, I got filled up there.

I left Elgin going south on CR-W51. I was seeing hills ahead. But I had a paved shoulder - until I crossed over IA-56. I was pulling over now and then when cars came up from behind. I finally arrived in Wadena at 1:05pm. I decided it was time for a break when I came to a park in town. There were two pavilions in the park. The one closest to the highway has outlets but they were turned off, so I walked over to the second pavilion. Its outlets were powered, so I charged my phone some while I ate cookies and drank Gatorade and water. While doing that, Suzanne, a local resident, walked over with an ice cold bottle of water for me! It was very good and didn't last long. Suzanne has done RAGBRAI a few times, once with her mother. She'd also found a way to avoid the party side of the event and had a good experience. She wished me well with getting up the last two hills that I would have to go over before I was in flatter territory.

The first hill south of Wadena I had to walk up, but the second higher hill had much less slope, and I was able to ride that. At 3:30pm I passed the sign at the edge of the next town: "Arlington - Where Hills Meet Prairie." I'd done the hills and was looking forward to the [flat] prairies. I took IA-187 southeast once I was through town. It was flatter. But I wasn't on it for long. I turned east on 70th Street when IA-187 curved south. This is one of the 'surprises' I hadn't remembered: I was riding gravel roads at a diagonal to get to the next town - Strawberry Point. For some reason, I guess because I was coming up to the town by way of gravel roads, I thought Strawberry Point would be a very small town with no services. I was completely wrong about that. Strawberry Point has the feel of a tourist town. And they have a Subway in a gas station, which worked out well for supper. The only problem now was it was 5:30pm and I wasn't ready to go again until 6:23pm. I had 22 more miles to go, and sunset was only about an hour away.

I rode IA-13 east and south, putting in a little more effort than my usual leisurely pace to get to the next town, Manchester. The highway is flat and has a good paved shoulder. Traffic was fairly light. I was making good time in the evening light. I stopped long enough at the side of the road to get a sunset picture. It was almost an hour later before I reached Manchester in the dark.

Towns have a different look and feel when I ride through them at night. I'm sure I missed several interesting sites from not being able to see them. But I did pass another movie theater, and being night, it was lit up! Following my waypoints through Manchester and over US-20 was easy enough. I'd turned on the backlighting for both my GPS units. That's sure easier for seeing than shining my pocket flashlight at them every once in a while. I had both bottle generators engaged, so I wasn't worried about the accessories battery voltage getting too low. Being it had been such a hot day, riding in the later evening was a pleasant change.

I arrived at the self-pay check-in station for Bailey's Ford Park Campground at 9:32pm. I needed to select my site before I could complete my registration. Finding campsites in the dark is a little more challenging, but I think I did OK tonight - site #40B, which has electricity but no water. I was ready to get set up at 10:10pm. I went without the tent's rainfly tonight. I was having trouble with the zipper for the tent's door. It was unzipping after the zipper pull passed by to zip it closed. With all the mosquitoes this wasn't going to be good. The zipper actually has two zipper pulls. I tried using the other one and it worked well. So I have a good zipper, just one bad zipper pull, fortunately.

I wrote a very short evening report stating I was here. But it wouldn't send with the weak cell signal I had. After eliminating the last of the mosquitoes in the tent, I was ready for sleeping at 11:40pm.

Jeff

Spent: $14.27 (breakfast items) + $11.42 (Gatorade, Clif Bars, cookie) + $3.58 plus $0.42 (chocolate milk) + $11.86 plus $2.37 (supper) + $8.87 (next morning breakfast items) + $15 (campsite) = $67.79

Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 4,225 miles (6,799 km)

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