Last night I woke from a deep sleep at about 11:00 p.m. I can thank my wife, The Feeshko, for that. She called me at that time and, for the life of me, I can't remember a thing we talked about. All I remember is that it took a while for me to get back to sleep, and during that awake time I came up with a funny little play on words. Okay, to be honest, it was a HILARIOUS play on words. I couldn't wait to use it in my journal the next day.
So, now that it is the next day and I have successfully escaped the 7th most dangerous cycling city in the U.S., I can share my clever pun. Here it is: "I'm sure glad I didn't meet my own Waterloo in Waterloo!"
Moving on, I have decided to present my day a little differently than I normally do. Once I navigated my way out of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metro area I had 50 continuous miles of almost nothing but peaceful farm land. In order to introduce you to this beautiful part of the country, I've arranged today's pictures into three distinct sections.
SECTION I: The Animal Kingdom of Rural Iowa
I can't explain what it is about me that makes animals sit up and pay attention. Sure, I'm loquacious and entertaining, but I don't speak their languages all that well.
I can't tell you how much I liked this horse. She was extraordinarily patient with me as I smiled, waved, winked, neighed, whinnied, snorted, and stared.
Unfortunately you can't see the pigs inside this pig barn, but they were looking at me with interest as well. Another unfortunate thing is that you can't hear them grunting and squealing at me. The good news is that you can't SMELL the odor coming from that place.
I almost ran over this thing. I turned back and made friends with it. He looks and behaves like a wooly bear except that he's not brown or orange like most of those caterpillary animals.
Yes, my route took me on some some roads with very low traffic, but also very low variation in landscape. Fifty miles of corn, soybeans, gently rolling hills, and two very small towns. It was AWESOME! Slightly less than awesome was the steady crosswind from the south, which made it more difficult for me to ride with no hands on the handlebars.
I post this picture to demonstrate the sameness of my day. It's nice to be able to predict the scenery will be just as awesome 5, 10, 15, or even 50 miles up the road.
