So yesterday was the ride from Marshalltown to Ames, Iowa. It was about a 45 mile ride, and we got to sleep in till 7am, and we were having such a short day partly to get to Skunk River Cycles in Ames, which was giving us a discount on parts and free service, and had all of the resources we needed. We were also riding with a former Bnber who rode on this route last year, he had lots of neat stories about where to visit and which rides were the best and of course about past riders. I was lead yesterday when suddenly we saw the road turn from pavement to gravel, and we called Gabe in the van to ask what to do, and not too long after most of the other riders showed up, and we were told just to ride the next six miles of the gravel. It was sort of packed dirt and small stones in places, and it got a bit better, but six miles of hilly gravel was still sort of nervewracking.
Shortly after the gravel I had to spray another very playful dog that was chasing me, it wouldn't give up; I must have used about half a bottle it was ridiculous.
The rest of the ride was really fast and fun and we got in before noon and got our bikes checked out (you need to replace your chain and brake pads and tires etc around 2000 miles) and got sandwiches at this awesome really cheap deli nearby, and unpacked the trailer, hung out, Sam and I hit up a thrift store to get rocking clothing for a Bnb party that night, and also to get some rags donated to clean our bikes with. Then a very serious and indepth conversation with a pharmacist about chammy butter and chafing and saddle sores and other fun things. Sorta hilarious, she was so serious about it and we joke about it so much.
And we had a bnb dance/club/ridiculously themed party with everyone wearing hiphop-glamour-themed outfits from the thrift store in order to celebrate "love don't cost a thing", it was great.
But today was not such an easy day - the saying 'forty miles is the new off day' was definitely no longer true. The ride from Ames to Carroll was really hot, and it is just this long persistent boring dry hot heat that feels like an oven and the wind was just whipping all day, not gusting very much but a steady really really strong blustering, but just buffetting with more hotness, not really refreshing at all. Oh and also for the first ten miles I was really struggling and couldn't figure out why - my brake pad was hard against the left side of my back tire the whole time - no wonder 12 mph was impossibly hard...felt so stupid but the riding after was really quick. Chas and I had a pretty good series of conversations the whole time and it was really interesting - guess that's what you've got to expect from a philosophy and cognitive science major, though. So that was fun.
But we had SUCH a crazy headwind for a lot of the day, especially the second half, and it was just way too hot, we both are rocking the heat-rash right now. Pretty hard to find a comfortable way to lie down right now...oh right but we did both survive the 85er and got in around 2, and now I'm laying on the ground sort of twisted around in air conditioning on the floor of a church in Carroll, thank goodness. Headwind are just really disheartening, but the five or so miles of tailwind were awesome!
Location:Carroll, iowa
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