Iowa - Land of Bike Paths

 Fri 06/24:  Overnight in Stuart. 

Thunderstorms in the early morning.  Boring little town, but nice bike paths to Des Moines.

Paved and flat

Rode to Altoona, IA.  This is a tourist attaction town with a large amusement park.

Saturday 6/25:  Rainy day.  Rented car to get to Iowa City.  First stop was Jimmy John's, my favorite BBQ joint in Iowa City

Sunday 06/26:  Iowa City

Returned car to Cedar Rapids airport in the early morning, then met Dan and Lisa Katz, and their daughters, Lauren &Natalie for lunch at Poe Rooftop in Iowa City.  A good time was had by all.  Then a couple of hours in the very nice Iowa City Library, after which, I took the scenic route up to Dan and Lisa's house for a visit.   A really nice day with a really nice (Iowa Nice) family!

Monday 06/27:  Iowa City to Clinton IA

A long 85 mile ride with a fair amount of rolling hills.  Clinton is on the Mississippi.

Tues 06/28:  to Rockford IL

Mississippi River from Clinton IA

Started out the morning by stopping at Krumpets, a really nice, homey bakery/cafe in Fulton, IL.   Then a 90 mile ride to Rockford with a stop for lunch (Liver and Onions) at Brother's Restaurant in Lanark

Wed 06/29:  to East Troy

East Troy is a village about 30 mi SW of Milwaukee.  It's has a village green in the center and a really good pizza place (Sauced)  

While I was having my dinner a kid at the next table found a painted rock.  Apparently this is a thing that the kids in the town do.  They paint up small rocks and hide them in plain site.  This particular rock was painted in 2018.  The kid who finds it then re-hides it.  It's sort of like a perpetual easter egg hunt.  Pretty cool!

They say I'm over the hill!

Friday 6/17:  Steamboat Springs

Arrived around 3PM.  Had lunch at Back Door Grill, a pretty good burger joint in the downtown area. 
Arrived at my hotel just before the thunderstorm started.  Then went to a grocery store and picked up some Ramen YakiSoba for a late hotel/microwave dinner.  

Sat. 6/18:  Across the Great Divide to Walden

Rode up to+ Rabbit Ears Pass ... but was so engaged in the book I was listening to that I neglected to stop at the Continental Divide sign for a new pic and didn't realized I had passed it until I was already about a mile beyond the top.  There's a good pic in my June 23, 2015 post titled "Across the Great Divide" which includes the same scene from my first Rabbit Ears Pass crossing from 1985.   After the pass it was a fairly easy ride to Walden, the small town in the middle of nowhere, where I'd stayed twice before.

Had dinner at a the All Smoked Up BBQ, where I ran into Pete and Susan, a pair of bicyclists about my age from the Sacramento area, who also happened to be in the room next to mine at the motel.  These intrepid souls were biking from DC and were about heading northeast into Wyoming where, if they hadn't encountered enough headwinds yet, were sure to encounter more through Wyoming and Montana.

Sun. 6/19:  The High Point of the trip!!

The up is not too bad... 

Walden to Cameron Pass.  2,218 ft climb over 30 miles

and there was still some snow near the road and lots more on the taller peaks.

The ride down is splendid, along a rushing river (Cache le Poudre) ... although there was some rain.  I sat out some of it in a cafe in Rustic, about 1/2 way down.

Cameron Pass to Ft. Collins:  5,400 ft drop over 67 miles!!

Dropped into my hotel in Ft. Collins after the 99 mile ride and slept like a rock!

Mon. 6/20:  Just Visiting 

Rode down to Doug's Diner in Loveland to meet my cousin Debbie for breakfast.  There was a wait, so we drove to a nearby donut shop and spent the next 2 hrs catching up.  

Then biked another 20 miles down to Longmont to Stan's house.  He was an owner of  the local rep company that I worked with when I was with 2 different semiconductor companies.  He also bicycles a lot, is my age, and we had very similar career trajectories. 

He and Stephanie fed me a nice lunch with home-made soup.  It was great to see him again! 

Stan and Me. 
I take terrible selfies!

Then we biked down to Louisville together, and I went to stay at my cousin Lee's house for the night.  It'd been a while since I spent quality time with Lee and her husband, Jeff... so it was great to be with them.

Tues. 6/21:  Family, Friends, and Amtrak 

Late breakfast at Jeannot's Patisserie & Bistro, a very nice place nearby that only opened this year.  Lee also gave me a quick car tour of Louisville to see some of the devastation from last year's fires, which destroyed a large number of homes in communities nearby.  Lee and Jeff had to evacuate, but the fires didn't hit their development directly.

Around 2PM, we drove down to meet Fred and Sherry at the Thirsty Lion, next to Denver's Union Station.  They drove up from Pueblo, where they had recently moved from Allentown, PA to be closer to son and grandchildren.,. so the 4 of us were all Allentonians.  Unfortunately, Lee left before I remembered to take a picture...

Fred and Sherry et. al. at Thirsty Lion in Denver

Then I got on Amtrak's California Zephyr to Omaha... which was about 2 hours late.   The Zephyr was fully booked, as it was when I took it from Sac to Reno on June 2.  In fact Francine, the grumpy conductor from the Reno trip, was on the Zephyr for this trip too.

Wed. 6/22:  The Midwest isn't all flat!

Finally arrived in Omaha around 6:30AM, still 2 hrs late.  

1st breakfast in Omaha.  No tables, though.

Bob Kerry Bridge over the Missouri, the border between Nebraska and Iowa

People think Iowa is flat.  Well.. some of it is, and some ain't.  Today's ride wasn't.

Omaha to Avoca (45 miles).

 

 

Through Utah and 1/2 way across Colorado

Thurs. 6/9:  Ely to Border Inn wore me out, and the weather was very hot, so decided to take a day off rather than brave a 90 mile ride with nothing but desert and hills.  Caught a ride to Delta in a pickup truck and spent most of the day in the Delta public library (with A/C) writing the last blog post.

Fri: 6/10:  Delta to Nephi
Headed out early to avoid the worst heat.  Arrived in Nephi a little after noon.  Only a 50 mile, 1500 ft vertical ride.  Most of it desert.

Sat. 6/11:  Nephi - Provo - Heber City

Rode to Provo via Payson.  It's pretty flat... but stupid Google Maps says "Steep Hills" and shows a 5000+ foot cliff :

There doesn't seem to be any interest from Google to fix this and other bugs (like characterizing mountainous route as "Mostly Flat".    When a route is characterized as "Mostly Flat" the elevation profile doesn't show on the phone.  

From Provo, there's a lovely pedestrian/bike trail that runs along the Provo River for 16 miles, paralleling US 189.  That's about 1/2 of the ride to Heber City.  The trail is well-used, and since it was a weekend, there were a lot of families out.

Heber City has grown significantly since I last past through (2015).  They now have a Walmart and the Best Western I stayed at is also new.

Sun 6/12:  Heber City - Daniels Summit - Duchesne (pronounced "doo shane")

The first 16 miles to the summit is all uphill (2400 ft).  At the summit (el 8070 ft) is the Daniels Summit Lodge, where I stayed in 2015.  It's a good place to take a break after a long climb.  The rest of the ride to Duchesne was hot, but mostly downhill with tailwinds.  About midway there's a Sinclair (remember them?) station / convenience store / cafe.  Very welcome, since I was running low on water.

Mon 6/13:  Duchesne to Vernal

Vernal's a sizable town.  The main attraction is Dinosaur Land, a combination museum / amusement park.  

I arrived early and hung out in their library for a few hours b4 dinner.   The weather broke while I was inside.  When I got there it was 92°.  By 6:30, there were thunder storms and it was 58°.

For me, Vernal's main attraction is food.   Especially Antica Forma, a Pizza place with a killer dessert, 

Bacci:  Lightly fried pizza dough strips with Nutella and sugar.

Tues 6/14:  Vernal to Rangely, CO  
It was in the low 40's, so after the hotel breakfast, I went back to sleep for a couple of hours.  By the time I checked out, it was 11... so I had an early lunch at The Sloppy Pig.  

Pulled Pork sandwich and beans were both excellent. 

Green River, about 20 miles E of Vernal

Got to Rangely around 6:30.  Rangely and Meeker are on CO 164, which runs south of US 40.

Wed 6/15:  Rangely to Meeker

Meeker looks like it's a little larger than Rangely.  Both are primarily mining, and some ranching.  
Something's been biting my legs and arms on the road.  Life's getting itchy.

Thu 6/16:  Meeker to Craig

Another mining town.  Very Trumpian politically.

  

Eat Beef, Wear Wool, Dig Coal, & Go Fishing

The ride was uphill for the first 20 miles or so, and starting to warm up a bit.  I went to a "doc in the box" on arrival to get something for the bites.  Had a late lunch, so dinner was Microwaved Corn from the Walmart

Despite the Cortisone Cream, it was a pretty sleepless night due to the itching.

Also bought some insect repellent.   We generally buy the burglar alarm after we've been burglarized.

Crossing Nevada

Wed. June 1:  Drove up to Millbrae with Alexandra then took BART to Civic Center to have a sendoff breakfast at Arsicault, my favorite French bakery.  Back to the BART station, Alexandra went back to Millbrae and I went to Antioch so that San Francisco was only 1 day's ride away.  

CA 84 near Rio Vista

Nice warm ride up the delta.  Mostly flat.   From Rio Vista, took Hwy 84, which includes a ferry ride across the river.  After arriving in Sac, went downtown to Sauces for BBQ and brussel sprouts.  Downtown SAC is a pretty vibrant place.  There's about a 6 square block area with a lot of restaurants and bars.

My dinner at Sauces

Thu. June 2:  Had breakfast with Jae and his 6-year old sun Xero.  I met Jae near Pescadero while on one of my local rides from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz.   Jae was on his way to LA.  He was intending to camp at Costanoa for the night (10 mi south of Pescadero), but we had 20+ MPH tailwinds and he decided to  join me and continue to Santa Cruz.  After breakfast I headed over to the Amtrak station, and caught the California Zepher to Reno.  Stayed at a Super 8 at the east end of Sparks.

Fri. June 3:  Headed out towards Fernley on I-80 (27 miles).  Bicycles are legal on the interstates in most Western US states as long as :

• It's not near an urban area
• There are no other paved through routes nearby.

The drawback of bicycling on the interstate is that it's noisy, and not typically scenic.  The advantages are:  Smooth and wide shoulders, and you get a burst of wind at your back everytime a truck passes.

After lunch in Fernley, biked the next 28 miles to Fallon

Fallon is a non-descript town on US-50 but big enough to have a Safeway, hotels, and restaurants.   The tap water has a pretty bad chemical taste, though.  Fortunately, my hotel had a water cooler in the exercise room 😃.

Passes on US50

Many people think Nevada is a flat desert.  Well... the desert part is mostly true.  The "Flat" part is anything but.  During this ride, I went over a total of 16 mountain passes.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_50_in_Nevada

Sat. June 4:  

About 61 miles east of Fallon is Cold Springs Station Resort , which is the only place to sleep between Fallon and Austin (another 50 miles to the east).  The first half of the ride is pretty flat, but then there's about 2,200 feet of climbing.  On the 2nd climb, I got off for a mini-break and noticed another bicyclist about 1/2 mile behind.  A pickup truck stopped next to me and said the other cyclist asked if I would wait a little for him to catch up.

Arjun and I then proceeded to bike across the rest of the state together. 

We rode together, more or less.  He's a little faster than me, being about 30 years younger, but he's carrying a lot more gear...  If he had the amount of gear I carry, he'd be way faster.

 

Cold Spring Station has good tap water, food, and motel rooms.  Since I had 2 beds, I invited Arjun to use the other bed. 

Sun. June 5:  The ride to Austin was another day of up and down... 50 miles with 2600 ft of vertical climb.   Google Maps has been characterizing hilly rides as "Mostly Flat"  

Cold Spring Station to Austin. "Mostly Flat" ... yeah, right

Short ride from Hotel in Sacramento to Breakfast at the Fox and Goose.  "Moderate hill"?  

About 25 miles out of Austin we noticed some strange looking grasshoppers on the road.  Many dead, some alive.  I think they're called Mormon Crickets.   

I had dinner at the "Owl Bar".  They were having a $10 spaghetti dinner, complete with salad and a slice of Garlic bread.  The only other food in town was Champ's hamburgers, which is a food truck on the parking lot of Champ's gas station... no tables, no chairs.  Also, Austin had nothing open the next morning for breakfast, so I bought a couple of muffins, and milk, and got coffee at the gas station.  

Arjun was running ahead of me, and stopped in Austin to recharge... then continued on to Spencer Hot Springs, which is another 18 miles east, the last 8 on pretty rough unpaved road.  

Mon. June 6:  Eureka was the next target, starting with Austin Summit at 7500 ft.

 

Arjun and I met up again the next morning about 15 miles east of Austin, where the unpaved road from Spencer Hot Springs meets US50.

Arjun at Hickison Summit 

 

There was only 1 bed in my room, so Arjun camped out in the city park.  

I got a text from him at 4:30 when he woke up around sunrise that he was going to head out.   That was postponed a few minutes later when the sprinklers came on and he had to shelter in place....

We had breakfast at Eureka Depot, a lovely little cafe that has been in business for about 1 year.  Warm Blueberry Muffin was wonderful!

  

Tue. June 7:  The dreaded 4 peak, 80 mi. ride to Ely...

We saw some strange deer, and even a wild donkey along the way.  Other than that it was a difficult ride.  The downhills were fun, though... especially the 15 mile descent into Ely.

The last pass before Ely

On the way into Ely, the phone decided that we had crossed into Rocky Mountain time, so we lost an hour.  We later found out that it was an AT&T anomaly, and that we had really arrived to town at 7:15 instead of 8:15.  The time zone line is at the Utah border.

We pulled into La Fiesta (Mexican food) for dinner... there was a waiting line, so I went across the street to check in at the Ramada hotel/casino (everything in Nevada seems to have a casino).  I got upgraded to a suite, so we had plenty of room.  Meanwhile, Arjun got us a table.  

Wed. June 8:  Still under a time misconception, we arrived at Denny's (in a casino of course) for breakfast about 7:45 (we thought) which was really 6:45.  We hung out until they opened.  Then I proceeded to a laundromat across town to dry some stuff I had hand-washed the night before, and Arjun went back to the room.  

It's only a 2-pass day

I headed out for Border Inn around 10:30, figuring that Arjun would catch up.  He stayed behind for another hour or so.  

Wind farm before the last big climb in Nevada (Sacramento Pass)

I finally got to the Border Inn around 6:30 Nevada time.  The Hotel is on Utah time.   Arjun ended up staying at a park at Sacramento pass.  I was really happy after that ride to have dinner and an ok bed!

Thurs. 6/9

Arjun is going to spend a day or 2 at Great Basin National Park.   I visited the park in 2015, so I'm now in the Delta Utah library, which is  90 miles from the Border Inn (which had terrible wifi with sporatic internet connection).   Nice to be in air conditioning with good internet.