June 11, 2021
Day 37: Dyersville, IA to Marquette, IA
The Heat Is On!
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Climbing Today; 2,804 ft Climbing to Date; 59,921 ft
We had continental breakfast fare at the Comfort Inn then were rolling out at 06:00. A cyclist Doc met yesterday was up and we chatted with him a bit - he is riding in all 48 of the continental states - his wife drives a car and sets up supply points for him every 10 miles or so. So he rides a lightweight road bike and he has no risk of running low on food or water or of dealing with adverse weather issues or - well, really, he has no risk of much anything at all. And he doesn't carry any gear with him, of course, since his wife carries everything in the car. But when he is done, he will have accomplished the feat of having ridden a bicycle in every one of the lower 48 states. Whatever. I don't mean to sound callous, but - well, never mind.
Long before reaching Petersburg you can't help but notice the magnificent church spires of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church. We stopped across the street to take a phot0 - that's where the bar is, and we met Larry who was heading to breakfast at the bar. Larry bragged about the beautiful church, which was definitely out of place in this small town. The church was built in 1868 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. A lot of money was spent to build this magnificent structure in this little town - the Catholic Church is obviously overloaded with money. Maybe not so much now since they have paid out more than 3 billion dollars to settle child sex abuse claims. That's just in the U.S., I don't know what the worldwide total is - that's probably just a drop in the bucket to them. Maybe if they would use some of that money to do actual good instead of building lavish churches and raping kids... But I digress, so let's get back to our bicycle adventure.
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Larry (remember Larry?) is a retired farmer and we talked about farming and such. Farmers are apparently doing pretty well in this area, as any property that comes up for sale is hotly contested, and a recent auction sold farmland for $17,000 per acre. Larry says that most farms around here are multi-generational and are long-established business entities that own their land and equipment. And that includes Larry's farm - since he has retired, his sons now run it.
Larry also told us that were heading for the hills. Great - we are expecting mid-90's temperature, high humidity that puts the heat index over 100, a high mileage day, so we may as well enjoy a lot of hills too. Today we need to be very careful with our energy management. The miles are much cheaper when bought in the early morning than they are in the afternoon, so we need to roll on.
Roll on we did, and we took a quick break in Colesburg where I had a donut and ice tea. We were able to sit inside at a table - a few minutes off the bike in A/C is a great recharge, but we didn't want to stay much longer cause we had a long way to go yet.
We rolled on to Elkport and it was obvious that the hills were going to be an issue. I had a chocolate milk and got a Powerade to go at the local convenience store. The local old guys club were all congregated in the store at the only table, solving all of the world's problems. I've seen this same movie in small towns all over America. These are good folks, misled and confused by Fox News and other purveyors of political propaganda. But I re-digress (is there such a thing?) so back to our story. We had to climb from Elkport to get out of the Turkey river valley, and then it it was a long hot ride to roll the 12 miles to Elkader. We stopped at the Burger Barn in Elkader and I had a chicken salad sandwich and fries and large iced tea. It was almost noon and the heat was already pretty overwhelming now - honestly, that's an understatement. We knew we had to be careful as we rolled on into the afternoon.
Leaving Elkader we found ourselves climbing out of the Turkey River Valley once again. The heat and humidity were intense. Shortly after we topped out, welcome relief came as clouds rolled in, and then a light rain commenced. The rain felt so good that I didn't even put on my raincoat. The shower was short-lived, however, and we soon found ourselves back in the heat. We marched on to Farmersburg, and were disappointed not to find a convenience store for a cold drink. But there was a bar, and we needed cooling off and some cold fluid to keep the bicycle engines from overheating, so we found ourselves to be the only customers of the place. We each got a gatorade, the bartender gave us a glass of ice, and we consumed the drinks and chatted with the barkeep for a bit.
Then it was time for the next leg, and so we began the ride to Monona. It was a bit unpleasant; there were several steeper climbs on roads with little to no shoulder, and the traffic was increasing. We were glad to reach Monona, and we stopped at the Casey's store for a final cold drink; I drank about 1/2 of a 32 ounce ice tea and poured the remainder into a water bottle.
The push from Monona to Marquette was surprisingly pleasant. The sun remained hidden behind afternoon clouds, the terrain was basically flat with a slight downhill trend in our direction since we were headed back towards the Mississippi River, and there was a great downhill run at the last as we came down the escarpment to the river floodplain. So the riding day ended quite pleasantly for us - we felt like we deserved it after the hard morning and early afternoon. I mention the names of some of the towns we roll through. They are mostly all small towns, but some are truly tiny.
Everyone is talking about the crazy heat. We are experiencing it firsthand, and it's tough - this heat is a killer. Can you spell global warming? We still have one political party who denies the reality of climate change, so we still have about half of Americans living in ignorance. But everyone recognizes the immediacy of the hot days, even those who refuse to accept that it is part of a changing climate. Adventure cyclists need to plan for the extreme heat, and so we are. We passed several clear streams today that looked really inviting for a cooling swim. Thirty years ago I'm sure I would have jumped into at least one of them - but now we are afraid to waste the energy during the cycling day.
I hope you are able to stay cool this summer. We are safe and inside tonight with A/C to cool us off. One night at a time is how we roll - one night at a time is all any of us have - I hope you stay safe and cool this night. Good night all...
Today's ride: 71 miles (114 km)
Total: 1,911 miles (3,075 km)
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