Day 29: warm showers

I don’t mean summer rain, I mean the organization that arranges hosts and bike touring riders. More on that later.

Daryl, one of the owners of Lazy Acres and I chatted about cars and stuff (he has a 1970s Chevy Vega drag car). I asked for a breakfast suggestion and Daryl’s friend told us about a new coffee shop on the way back to the bike trail. We met and had a nice chat with fellow bike riders Denise and Ruth. Denise has done RAGBRAI 27 times! That’s the most we heard of!

We talked to the coffee shop owners about the fact they didn’t show on google maps yet. He said being a new building, google thinks it’s still a corn field.

We rode on some nice trails and ate lunch at a friendly bar in the small town of Gilbertville. Suzette, the bartender served us their daily special of broasted chicken. I lamented that their rib special is scheduled way ahead of time on August 16, and mentioned “it’s a shame we will probably be in Wyoming by then”. Suzette said she would be in Wyoming too as a mounted police officer at Pioneer days. Wow!

We took the long tour of Waterloo and arrived at Mary’s farm at 5pm. Mary welcomed us with a shish-kabob of bacon wrapped chicken and fresh fruit and ice cream. We traded stories and really enjoyed her life full of kayaking and hiking adventures. What a great experience. thanks Mary for all your generosity.

Denise in blue and her friend Ruth at coffee
We hope their business grows – I think it will
Rat Rod. Friendly bumper
Trail to Gilbertsville
Lots of wood bridges
Cool part of the trail in Waterloo
Our generous host Mary. She lives on her great grandparents farm.

NOTE: Several people asked us why we are traveling east to west. Here are my 4 reasons:

We can warm up on the smaller Appalachian mountains to prep for the Rockies.

Originally, we were going to start in May and I thought it would be less humid./heat tin May vs August.

This is the way the country was settled.

I will be traveling in the direction of “home”.

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