Day 56 through 58 - Rensselaer, IN
Weather Delay
Stats:
Goodbye Illinois! Another state off the list!
I’m sitting in Rensselaer waiting-out a widespread weather system. I’ve been lucky to only have had 3 weather days so far in the trip. So, its a chance to summarize my ride from western Iowa through Illinois. When I was collecting some thoughts to describe this section of the ride, my first inclination was just to limit the description to ‘nearly endless corn and bean fields’, which would be accurate. But in thinking about it, there are aspects of the heartland that deserve greater appreciation. True, its not the scenic mountain vista, the clear blue lake, or the ocean dunes. But after riding through hundreds of thousand acres of cropland I’ve come to appreciate the millions of bushels of grain produced and the bounty of the heartland.
It’s a little hard to believe, but the routes through Iowa and Illinois have actually been pretty remote, often with only one or two towns with resources (convenience stores, cafes,…etc) in the course of 80+ miles. Obviously some of this is by selection of low traffic roads, and there are larger towns visible within ten miles of the route, but it does require some planning to select daily destinations where food and hotels, or camping are available. That’s why there was higher than typical mileage on several days.
A couple of encounters along the way. The first, happened my last day in Iowa. After a break at a convenience store, a guy who was filling up his vehicle came up and wanted to know about my ride. He relayed how his brother had done a solo ride from Montana to Chicago. He thought that was a pretty cool experience and one that he wished he could do.
The second was at my stop in Odell. After making arrangements to sleep in the city park by the pool, I headed uptown to town to Lobo’s Tap to get something for dinner. After taking my order the waitress came back after some time and apologized and offered to comp my meal since she had lost my order ticket. I told her there was no need and if she insisted, just grab another beer and call it good. She agreed. Later, after I gave her my card to settle my check she came back after a delay and said there was no charge. I started to protest and she indicated that the manager behind the bar had decided that it was on the house. I stopped at the bar to thank him and find out why…his explanation was that he thinks its pretty cool when they get cross country riders coming through and he likes to support that. It catches me off guard sometimes when I experience how generous people are.
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