Is Iowa flat?

Pedaling along this morning, I was thinking to myself that I would write to those of you who think Iowa is flat and tell you that I agreed with you--I was actually seeing some flat country. How nice it was to cruise along without all the hills to contend with. That is, after the hill we had leaving Ottumwa.

We were camped on the west side of the Des Moines River last night and I admired the picturesque bluffs that were the part of the town on the opposite side of the river. Little did I know that in the morning Ottumwa's parting goodby to RAGBRAI was to send us through the part of town that climbed straight up those streets on the bluffs across the river. Wow, what a climb that was.

Then, like I said, it seemed that the land finally was flattened out for a bit. It was a bright, sunny day and the pedaling was pleasant. The map showed that we had quite a few towns to stop in. As it turned out, though, most of the towns were so small that if you were following the route on a regular map you might not even see a town. One town, Germanville, that I meant to stop at in the afternoon I passed right by. I never did find out what was there that I missed seeing. We were in Amish country and someone had said something about there being good Amish pies so maybe there was a pie stand that I missed.

I did have the best pie of the week this afternoon in Lockridge--strawberry rhubarb and it was delicious. Of course, maybe that was because by that time in the day I felt ready to collapse. I had gone much further than I had planned on that stretch because of the town I missed.

Well, in any case, what we ran into today was some difficult hills again and, worst of all for biking, the howling headwinds hit us when the ride turned south for the last 25 or so miles. "Brutal day" was a comment that I heard from more than one person. I can tell you, I was sure glad to get here.

I probably won't see much more of downtown Mount Pleasant than what I saw as we came through. They have us camped on the far side of town in the Old Thresher's Museum park and there are many hills and dirt roads to contend with to get back into town. Everything we need seems to be here so I may just settle in here for the evening.

One more day to go and the last day is traditionally a short day--43 miles this year from Mount Pleasant to the Mississippi River dip site in Burlington. Hard to believe that another RAGBRAI is almost over.