Day 23 Urbandale, IA

June 8, 2018

The word of the day was DETOUR. We left Osceola this morning with a 53 mile day ahead of us. The weather was nice and the route looked promising - good roads to start and 28 miles of trail to finish.

We made our first stop at a little store in New Virginia and had a good time talking with the clerk whose grandfather had built the original building as a gas station some time before WWII. It has been added on to and remodeled and has had several owners since then, but part of the first building remains. She had pictures of her grandfather in the store many years ago. We left New Virginia and immediately saw a sign saying our route was closed ahead. We decided to go on down the road and see if it was something we could get through. It wasn't - a bridge was out and there was no way for us to get across. There were detours to the right and left, but both were gravel roads. Our bikes don't do well at all on loose gravel and we didn't know how long the detours were or what other road conditions we might encounter. Team A found an alternate route that was quite a bit longer, but all on roads we knew were paved. That seemed the best choice. After a 23 mile detour, we got back on route. It wasn't a bad ride, and, as Alain pointed out, we did come on this trip to ride our bikes!

Once we rejoined our planned route, we were only a mile from the start of the Great Western Trail. It is a nice, well shaded trail, but with some areas of bad pavement. We rode on and connected with two more trails as we approached Des Moines.

There is a major highway being constructed right next to the Great Western Trail

The trail surface improved after the first few miles

Once we reached the Des Moines area, we had miles of trail through beautiful parks

About five miles from the end of our route, the lure of a trailside McDonald's was too strong to resist. As we enjoyed our snacks and drinks, we played with this table with color-changing dots. I have no idea what the game is supposed to be, but we had fun exploring the ways we could make the dots change color.

Less than two miles from our hotel, we came to another detour sign. The trail ahead was closed for a replacement project.

Kerry decided since it was such a short distance, he would ride ahead and see if we could get through. The new trail surface was finished and we got through with no problem. Team A chose to take the detour. Both of us arrived at the hotel minutes apart, so it all ended well.

Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 1,091 miles (1,756 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0