We ended up taking the shorter route, Hwy 52. The traffic wasn't too bad. There were some big trucks, but they all passed us nicely, not running us over or anything. We rode carefully in single file for 8 miles, then turned off on a beautiful country road, Hwy 325, that took us into the town of Spillville.
We spent several hours in Spillville, visiting the Bily Brothers Clock Museum and the Antonin Dvorak Exhibit. The Bily Brothers, Frank and Joseph, were farmers, and they started carving these elaborate clocks in 1913 Some of the clocks stand 10 feet tall. Here's a website for more info:
http://www.bilyclocks.org/
Antonin Dvorak was a famous Czech composer who stayed in Spillville one Summer and composed two famous symphonies there. Here's more info on him:
http://www.cgsi.org/news/2005/11/15/antonin-dvorak-spillville-iowa
After our cultural stop, we rode about 10 miles west to Protivin Iowa to eat lunch. We got stopped by a policeman here, and he gave Kendra a ticket for climbing the hills too fast. Actually, he just wanted to chat - he is riding on RAGBRAI next week, too. We ate lunch in a nice bar that was having "Taco Tuesday", 4 tacos for $5. They were awesome.
It started getting hot after lunch, and the 10-15 mph headwinds started up again. It was slow going, sometimes going up endless climbs at 6 mph. We stopped every 5-6 miles for Gatoraid or to lay down under a shade tree. Doc and Barbara are great tour guides - they know almost every little bar and rest stop in Iowa !
We got in to Charles City with 63 miles on the bike speedometer. It was another great day on tour !!
