Webster City, IA to Marshalltown, IA

Another day! Another day closer home and the finish of the first part of our adventure! It is amazing how fast this trip has gone. Cal has ridden over 2200 miles so far. I, of course have driven more than that in the vehicle. When we arrive home we will give you the exact mileges for this segment of the ride.                                                                               

I did not say in my blog yesterday that the terrain was fairly flat all day, however today we moved over that glacier morain line in Iowa.  North central Iowa is very flat due to the affects of glaciers during the ice age, but after you cross the morain, southern Iowa is hilly. Late this afternoon Cal began encountering series of hills.  It is a false assumption that Iowa is flat!! Especially southern Iowa!   However, even with the hills, Cal rode a total of 94 miles, but it was 6:00 before he stopped tonight – too late! I want him to stop by 5:00 – his muscles need that time to recoup for the next days ride.  The reason he push so late tonight is that he wanted to get into Marshalltown today - that way the next two days will be reasonable length.   

We are in Marshalltown tonight.  When I stopped at the motel, I asked for their best price.  For their best price, she gave us the honeymoon suite - hot tub in the room!!  And a fireplace - would be nice any other time of the year except now! To say the least we are enjoying the amenities and the spacious room tonight.

I also did not tell you about the wind generator farm located east of Storm Lake.  Yesterday when we stopped for a break, we counted the wind generators we could see from that one location - 140 +!!  Today east of Webster City I counted 125 generators on another wind farm.

Marshalltown has a beautiful courthouse.  The architect was the same person who designed the Iowa State Capital building.  At one point there was an effort to make Marshalltown the Capital of Iowa as it is located more nearly in the middle of the State.

Marshall County Courthouse - Marshalltwon, Iowa

We are realizing that Iowa is not necessarily a bike friendly State – all of the other State through which we have traveled, have paved shoulders on their US Highway routes.  Iowa does not.  Due to this we are taking all secondary roads – less traveled roads as Cal is on the roadway.  As everyone knows from the photos of him on the bike, he has two orange flags and a slow-moving triangle, plus he wears bright clothing, so he is very visible. 

What I find so interesting - is the way people look at Cal.  They see this strange contraption of a bike, they take a second look, and then they have this big smile cross their face. People who are passengers in cars lean out the window to take a photo of him (this has happened several times).  

Cal is in bed – so we will post the photos tomorrow.