Missouri Valley to Onawa: a Headwind Story Problem

June 3, 2018

Today: a story problem for the physicists and mathematicians out there.

Jen and Ron left Missouri Valley on their touring bicycles at 6am and arrived in Onawa at 2pm. Their average moving speed was 7.3mph, the average headwind speed was 14mph, and the distance traveled was 44 miles.

If there had been no headwinds, how much earlier would they have arrived in Onawa?

Not being a physicist or a mathematician, my guess is 12pm.

We've already done enough bitching about headwinds, so I'll just say headwinds-shmeadwinds!! The uplifting part of today's story was our strength and determination ... We rock!

This is us at 0600 before 25 mph headwinds entered the picture

We both stayed on our large chainrings through it all. And even though I shredded the back of my ankle/calf on my pedal pegs (whoopsidaisies!), I laughed it off and kept riding. Ron was an admirable EMT and had the wounds cleaned and dressed in 17.5 seconds.

We stopped at the nice city park in Mondamin, where there are large flags erected every 20 feet. 87% of their budget goes to flags. Either they REALLY love America or they keep forgetting where they are. But the park was nice and people waved

This looks like Scott and Rachael Anderson's scenery.

Note: the headwinds are very audible in the video so maybe turn the volume down.

To celebrate our ass-kicking day, we stopped at the grocery store in Onawa, bought some Blue Bunny ice cream, and found a nice park for an ice cream picnic 2 blocks away.

From there we continued on another 6 or so miles to Lewis & Clark State Park. There were no tent camping spots, so we had the youth camping area all to ourselves. We set up the tent, washed out a few stinky clothes, and rode over to check out the keel boat replica. Imagining what day-to-day life was like for Lewis, Clark, and their crew reminded us how lucky we are to have the many conveniences of our journey. A few things they did not have: places to seek shelter during storms, trail angels and gracious hosts, maps and satellite navigation tools, bug spray, grocery stores, roads, lightweight technical clothing and gear, awesome bicycles, and Blue Bunny ice cream!

Ron plotting to steal the Lewis and Clark keelboat for the rest of the Grumbys' journey

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 188 miles (303 km)

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Scott AndersonAwesome. This is the first day that made us think we’d like to do this too. You guys rock alright!
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