Day 19 July 9th
Mt. Vernon, IA to Vinton, IA
Retrospect. I'm writing this on July 10th.
I didn't properly explain the "heaven and hell" part of my post from Day 18. It seems that God is an economist and he decided to economize on space by placing both Heaven AND Hell in Iowa. The heaven part is some of the most beautiful roads and sweetest people you'd ever want to meet on earth. And the hell part is some of the most awful roads and most angry drivers you'd ever want to meet!
Iowa is such a strange combination of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and upstate New York. It has NICE people like in Ohio and farms like in Illinois, and it has beautiful roads like much of upstate New York and it has the no-nonsense attitudes of Indiana.
However, the drivers, especially the truckers seem absolutely pissed off at the fact that they have to cover such HUGE distances on such mostly crappy roads. When the shoulder narrows and the road becomes two lanes as on route 30, tolerance for cyclists goes WAY down. Which brings me to Guardian Angel # 1
Guardian Angel #1&2 was a mystery man at a convergence store stop. He was a leather clad Harley dude, travelling the northwest at his leisure simply because he could. He had made his fortune managing two different corporations, which he didn't identify, and doing a job for them, which he also didn't identify. He looked to be a well-preserved sixty or late fifty ish sort that life had treated well. He asked me where I was headed, which started the conversation that eventually told me EVERYTHING and NOTHING about him. He didn't seem to be married and DEFINITELY loved the northwest, telling me in detail all the spots I should visit. He declined to have his picture taken to add to this blog and never told me his name.
Our conversation went on a tad longer than I wanted, since I was anxious to get back on the road, but things just seem to work out for a reason. As I was packing my bike, outside the store, he continued to talk to me. I was just about to break it off and actually leave, when a man came out and asked us if either of us was Bill Planter. As it turned out, the man was butchering MY name, which he was reading off my license. The license which I had left with in the restroom!!!!
Had Guardian Angel #1 not detained me with his convo, then Guardian Angel #2 would have come out to an empty parking lot. I would have traveled down the road, and ....welll....thank you Guardian Angels 1 and 2
Guardian Angel # 3&4 - I was once again leaving a convenience store and stopped at a red light. Remember the kind people from Ohio taught me to do this just because it's the right thing to do? Well it turns out that Guardian Angel #3 is the entire population of Ohio, because if I HADN'T stopped at the red light, then Guardian Angel #4 would not have been able to pull up next to me at the red light and ask, "Hey, did you leave your helmet back at that store?" I checked my head. Thankfully the head part was stilled attached to my shoulders, but the helmet was not on it!!!!
As the day went on, I thought about some advice that Guardian Angel #1 had given me about my route, and decided to get off of route 30. I picked another route that was about the same distance, but was way LESS traveled, and it turned out to be lovely.
But it was still hot. So in my ever present thought experiments that I stole from Einstein, I imagined that I could negotiate with clouds. They had provided me with lovely coverage for parts of the day and made traveling VERY pleasant when they were blocking out the sun. On this particular day, I asked the clouds to do me a favor and cover me. To be specific, I targeted one tiny little cloud that probably no one had ever spoken seriously to before, and said, I know you're not very big, but if you maneuver just right, you could give me a whole lot of help!!
You can believe me if you want, or you can think I'm crazy. But that cloud did move, and bring his other cloud buddies with him to make the rest of that day's journey downright pleasant.
One last Guardian Angel: My nephew Dusty. He called me just before this blogging session to alert me to the fact that the majority of my planned route through Idaho was through hundreds of miles of NOTHING. I'm not talking the nothing of Ohio through Idaho where all you see is farm houses. I"m talking the nothing of NOTHING...just desert.
So thanks to Dusty, I've rerouted and possibly saved myself a nasty sun burn.
Guardian angels are EVERYWHERE. You just have to calm yourself for a moment and LISTEN to them
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