Tuesday Day 3 - Decorah to Charles City - 64 miles

After a great breakfast in the motel lobby, it was off we go on our 3rd day riding across Iowa. it was tough making a decision on which route to take out of town - the short, straight route with more traffic, or the longer, windy route with more hills ...

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 !!

Monday Day 2 - McGregor to Decorah, 53 miles

We started the day off with a great breakfast at the Bluegill Cafe in downtown McGregor.

There was a big climb heading out of McGregor and then the road leveled off - it was a gorgeous ride thru farms and forests. The only downside was a 10-15 mph headwind. It helped cool us down, but a good headwind always wears you down as you ride into it.

We stopped in Monona Iowa and asked directions to the next town. This really nice old fellow says to head right down this road, and then go up the most "God-awful hill" you've ever seen. He said he could only go 50 mph up this hill in his truck pulling his pontoon boat, and his truck "has balls". Well, it ended up we were wanting directions to Luana Iowa, but he was giving us directions to Rossville Iowa, wrong town! He was a real character, and it ended up being an easy ride to Luana, where we ate lunch.

We were planning to ride to Spillvill, about 20 miles off route to visit a neat clock museum. But the constant 10-15 mph headwind was starting to take its toll on the heavier, fully loaded, out of shape riders ( ME !!! ). We were stopping a lot to rest and cool off, and finally we made the decision to skip the clock museum and head North to Decorah.

In Decorah, we ran into crazy traffic, very scary. It was like riding on a big 4-lane truck route around town, with steep grades thrown in. By the time we pulled into tonight's motel, I was getting light headed. I was exhausted and completely worn out. Then it turned out the motel we made reservations at was a dump !!

So, exhausted, tired, and thirsty, we went next door to the dumpy motel, to the Oaks Steakhouse. The girl working there was great - she gave us ice water and salty snacks, and helped us cancel our reservations at the dumpy motel and make new reservations at the nice motel across the street !! After checking in our motel and cleaning up, we went back to the Oaks and had a nice dinner while watching the Tour de France.

It ended up being a great day, only 53 miles, but it was a tough 53 miles. I'm gonna need a good nights rest to recover for tomorrow !

Sunday Day 1 - Dubuque to McGregor 60 miles

We had a fantastic first day on the road, cycling from Dubuque, heading North up to McGregor Iowa. Man oh Man, there was some real climbing today !! Up an up we went, climbing the bluffs along the Mississippi River. We ended up riding 60 miles today.

We said goodbye to Bev in the morning and rode about a mile to a Church, where Mike went in to talk to the priest. Mike had a bottle of Holy Water given to him by a little old Greek lady in Tarpon Springs. He wanted to ask a priest to perform an impromptu "Blessing of the Bikes". So this super nice Priest lady came out with about a dozen parishioners and they blessed our travels, bikes and souls. It was a great little sermon, and ended with the Church Bells ringing loudly halfway thru our recital of the Lords Prayer. It was a very cool experience !

We made our way about 35 miles to Doug's Tavern & Grill for lunch in Guttenburg. We also took a "puppy break", stopping to pet the Guttenburg Police Officer's German Shepard Puppy.

After lunch it got pretty hot, up into the 90's, so we had to stop to rest and cool down often. The climbing was awesome, the biggest Kendra had ever ridden, and she beat us all to the top of the hardest climb !! She earned the polka-dot jersey for today.

We got to McGregor about 6:30 and ate at a nice brewery/restaurant, the Old Man River. Mike bought a growler of brew for us to take back to the motel, where we enjoyed it while sitting by the Mississippi River watching the sunset.

Tomorrow we are off to Decorah Iowa, with a fun stop at a clock museum along the way !