Day 22: Berkley, IA to Earlham, IA

July 7, 2012

(By Jeff)

We rode away from Joy's Mom's home onto very quiet roads early this Sunday morning. Unsurprisingly, it was already hot and humid. We were carrying about twenty pounds less of gear than when we started the trip, having left a bunch of stuff, notably Joy's 15F sleeping bag, back at Joy's Mom's place. Joy was now going to carry one small bag on her rear rack, and I was going to carry the rest of our stuff.

I don't believe we saw more than one car by the time we got to the little community of Rippey, which has a grain elevator, a store, and a library. We stopped at the store, where a man mentioned RAGBRAI. I assume that will only be the first of many times we'll asked about the famous ride across Iowa during our time in the state. For the record: Joy has ridden it twice, while I have never done it. And this tour is NOT a training ride for RAGBRAI...

Several pleasant and traffic-free miles later, we stopped at the church in Cooper. Last summer Joy and I did a fifty mile ride in this area, and it was at this very church that Joy resolved to buy a recumbent later that day, having finally grown weary of the discomfort caused by riding her Trek. The recumbent has worked well for Joy, and there were no tears at the church this year.

Also at Cooper, we got on the Raccoon River Valley Trail, on which we would stay for the next 25 or so miles. Not long after getting on the trail, I heard my second RAGBRAI reference of the morning when a cyclist on the path yelled out “Just one more week!” Maybe they thought we were riding to the start of RAGBRAI (in the western part of the state.)

The Raccoon River Valley Trail was very well maintained, and except for the lack of shade in many sections on this hot day, was a pleasure to ride on. By mid-morning it was already ridiculously hot, and we stopped for the first of what would be several water drenching sessions, which help Joy a lot. I'm not as bothered as much by the heat for some reason (it's traffic that gets me down).

Nothing too exciting happened on the trail, except that some bastard of a bee or wasp stung Joy on her finger. That son of a bitch! After that, there was an amusing incident while we were resting at a picnic table. A sort-of-clueless family was riding on the trail and stopped near us. I overheard the parents providing various pieces of misinformation to their son and daughter, my favorite of which was, when asked by the boy what my panniers were for, the mother's answer that “they were to keep food cool.”

Later we left the trail and got on a few hilly roads, it got even hotter, and Joy made the pleasant discovery that she had miscalculated the distance to her brother Philip's house, and it was actually a few miles CLOSER that we expected.

After a nice dinner prepared by Philip's girlfriend Danielle, we watched a little TV, played with Twinkie the cat, soaked up the air conditioning, then set up our little mattresses on the floor, as near to said air conditioner as possible, and were asleep by 9:45 or so.

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 922 miles (1,484 km)

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