Day Thirty: Onawa, Iowa to Audubon, Iowa

July 9, 2019

It was raining when I woke up early, so I went back to sleep. A little later I awakened again to find that it had stopped raining, so I got up and did the mundane morning chores. One of them is a very cursory examination of the bike. I usually give each tire a quick squeeze. So far this tire check has not resulted in my getting the pump out and putting more air in.

The chocolate milk I'd purchased yesterday evening had almost frozen in the over-achieving refrigerator, and was now like a milkshake. That was a pleasant surprise.

I ate some oatmeal in the motel lobby and rode out. There was a little traffic getting out of the interstate area, but it thinned out in a few miles.

There wasn't much in Turin, population 68. The view of the Loess Hills was nice, but I failed to take a decent photo there. The ride to the first real town, Soldier (population 174) was pleasant, although there was some truck traffic - more than I expected. Interestingly, there were almost no cars - just trucks carrying grain.

I stopped in Soldier at a convenience store and observed a few customers wander in and out. Everyone was moving slowly and seemed tired. The woman working at the store was nice, but a bit clueless: She asked my why bicyclists ride with traffic, instead of against it; she was under the mistaken impression that riding with traffic was a recent development. I decided it was best not to engage her in a discussion about this, and about how "real" cyclists like me disparage bikers who ride against traffic as "salmon", etc.

I was surprised to see a bookstore in tiny Soldier, but a sign on the door said that it was no longer in business. The shop cat still lived there, though, and appeared at the window as I looked in. I hope it isn't lonely.

I rode on to Dunlap, population 1,042, where I went into a convenience store that had tables to sit at. I wasn't especially hungry, and only bought a "monster" cookie. A group of six or seven 30-something men came in, talking about agricultural-related matters that I didn't understand. I wasn't going to join their conversation, but one of them asked me where I was riding from and to. They seemed most interested in my answer to one question: What would I do if I was caught out in a storm? I just shrugged and said I would either ride through it, or get under something.

I continued on to Earling, population 412. There wasn't much in Earling, but the town had somehow obtained the money to replace all the old, crumbling sidewalks. I asked one of the workers if there was any place to get food in town. I must have looked dejected by his response as I walked away, because I heard him tell one of his coworkers "That biker is hungry!"

The next town on my map was Irwin, population 318. Google Maps said that Irwin had a convenience store, which was an exciting prospect at this point. I really wanted to sit in a cool place with cold drinks. It was hot now, and it seemed to take forever to get to Irwin.

I passed a couple of "Road Closed" signs, then a "Bridge Closed" sign. I decided to take a chance, but when I coasted down a long hill, I found that the bridge really WAS closed this time.

I had to climb back up the hill, then ride a couple of miles of rough gravel to detour around the bridge work, but I was rewarded when I finally arrived in Irwin and found that the convenience store, one of the "Yesway" chain, really did exist.

The fountain pop machine was not operational, and the pizza oven had been turned off for the day, but the nice woman working there took pity on me, and turned it on to make me a small pizza.

A man came in, sat down, asked me the Usual Questions, and then told me many, many things about Irwin. He was a real Irwin Booster. The only thing I remember, though, is that Irwin's softball fields are far, far above average for a small town in this part of Iowa.

He told me that he used to ride a bicycle, but had given it up. He also told me that his father, an avid cyclist, had been hit by a car. He said this in a sad tone that caused me to assume his father had been killed, which obviously dampened my mood.

But then, when I walked outside, the man introduced me to his father, very much alive, who even joked about the "car mirror imprinted on my butt."

There were many, many rollers on the way to Audubon. Audubon is notable for one thing, and one thing only: Albert the Bull, a gigantic, anatomically correct statue of a bull. Albert the Bull resides in Albert the Bull Park, which contains a campground, which I examined, but then rejected for no good reason. Instead I rode a little farther out of town and checked into an oddly fancy hotel next to an even more oddly fancy truckstop owned by the same people. As has become my habit, dinner was a few snacks, followed by bedtime an an absurdly early hour.

Today's ride: 83 miles (134 km)
Total: 2,444 miles (3,933 km)

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