Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 34 - Iowa: Our Surprise State!

Had breakfast with mum in Milan (not quite such a ghost town as I had thought yesterday) in an old store which sold all sort of oddities as well as providing breakfast for the locals. Don't think they had had too many UK visitors! By the way it is pronounced Mylan.

Dean dragged someone out from City Hall to act as a witness and off I set back to Kirksville again with a crosswind in my face-of course! Not so bad though - it was an easy 30 mile ride and then time for lunch! The wind finally died down in the afternoon and I made pretty good time for next 50 miles - then the storm came rolling in. Amazing lightening and claps of thunder with a very strong head wind. The rain was so heavy it was hurting my arms and I couldn't see properly - it was like having my face in a shower. Just in time Dean turned up with a pizza which gave me the energy to carry on and get wet three more times.

We crossed the Missisipi from Iowa into Illinois and I was surprised at the low altitude of the river at this point - I would have expected to be much higher above sea level this far from the coast. Struggled to the end of the day through the headwind in the dark - ended up at Dairy Queen in Carthage. There was nowhere to stay there so we left the van and trailer outside the County Jail but Dean left the sheriff a note. We drove back to Keokuk in Iowa - considering we hadn't realized we were even cycling through the state we ended up spending quite a lot of time there!!

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