Oct 2 Day 18

Another tough riding day too many hills and lots of lousy roads.  The road out of Dubuque had no shoulder and was rough in many places, once even saw grass growing on the road.  It being Saturday all the bad drivers were out, here are a couple of examples of the stupidity we saw today.

Case 1
In this case the stupidity starts while I am climbing a hill.  Being the excellent example of manhood I am and the hill being steep I am making great headway at 3.5 mile per hour going up.  There is a passing center lane and it is open and no one is coming down in the opposing lane.  This truck passes on my left in the right lane leaving only 5 inches between my handle bars and his side.

Case 2
We are doing 15 miles per hour on a flat road and red SUV passes up in the far left lane.  The driver slows down and the oncoming traffic beeps at the SUV she pulls backs into right lane and immediately turns rights.  So the pass into on coming traffic saved all of 3 seconds in travel time.

Case 3
This is the prize winner for the day.  David and I are on a huge downhill and I am going like a bat out of hell, making more than 25 MPH.  The wind is blowing across the road and I am trying my best to stay on the road.  This red mini van passes us.  So far so good just a car way down the way coming up the hill and the minivan is back in front of me in  a second less than heartbeat the left term signal comes on and the van comes to a complete stop.  Now at 25 miles per hour it takes a long time to stop, the thought in my mind is, &^%$ drive I will at least leave a big a scrape on the side before I land in the ditch.  However with some luck I just missed the van and the ditch with inches on both sides.  The mini van save maybe half a second in total travel time, this is driver I would like to speak to in a private meeting with boxing gloves.

Exciting stuff today late in the day we are sailing along the road, when the front wheel fell into a crack running parallel with the direction of travel.  The front wheel throw me out into the middle of the road.  The bike skidded twice and I caught it. I was really lucky not to have gone down David said I looked like a trick rider and I should not try to do that again.  My heart rate did not drop until I had some whiskey in the hotel about an hour later.

In addition to all of the above we crossed the river on one those open grate bridges with very low bumper on the side.  Being afraid of heights and being able to see though the bridge in combination with the very low guard rails to keep me from falling into the river I was happy to get over bridge and back onto solid land.  I am wimp despite what other people think.

We had lunch at Grandpa parlour in Bellevue IA the same spot in IA Dianne I and I stopped for ice cream before.  Here is a picture of the river from the lunch stop.

In the background is Lock 12

Notice that water over the dam is level on both sides even with a 12 foot drop in the lock.  The river is still over the banks.  We saw a home with the water up half the height of of the slideing glass door along the way today and many home that we could estimate how height the water was around it.  

Thankful for Today

I am most thankful for the fact I did not fall when the wheel caught the crack this afternoon.  Also I am thankful that none of the dumb driver hit me during the ride, even with the close the calls I am still riding and there is not damage to the bike, David and his coat or me.

Love and Kisses to all and to all a good night.

Allan and David

PS

At a  quick stop store today the cashier said David nice warm red bicycling jacket was "styling" while my old green shell was "not cool".  It took all afternoon before the shell feelings were repaired and it started to keep me warm again.