Day 19: Mt. Vernon, IA to Vinton, IA and Day 20: Day off (J's Version)

This is what it looks like when I track G.

Good morning!!! It's almost 3 weeks into our journey! We are just about half way done! G estimates dipping his front wheel into the Pacific around Aug. 2nd. Today, is our day off after 6 straight days. Currently, G is working on updating the past three days' adventure from his end. Man, no offense to Iowa because there have been some guardian angels as G will tell you, BUT we will be glad to be out of here hopefully in two more days. After Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming are next and both are huge states. I'm slowly getting more worried as we approach N and W because the further we go west, the more desolate the area is. For example, I drove about 25 miles yesterday, and there wasn't even a gas station. Also, cell phone service is getting worse and worse. Oddly enough though, this is the first time we've seen porta pottys in fields. I think G took a picture of one.

Yesterday, I explored some of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was in the big city center, so that gave me some time to catch up on bills and errands and made me feel like there were more to Iowa than just miles and miles of corn. The Starbucks was great because even though it was filled with people everyone was busy on their laptops doing work, so it was quiet; however, I did wait 7 minutes for my very complicated black iced coffee drink. I was the only person in line. This particular SB has a huge drive thru clientele, and all of the baristas (Apparently, the Blogger dictionary has not accepted "barista" yet as a word) were focused on the car orders.

After I got settled there, I booked our NYC excursions for my birthday weekend in the middle of August. There's SO many cool things NYC has to offer, and I didn't even know you could do these adventures until I did some searches. So, if you're looking for something different here are the links for Flying Trapeze Lessons and a Segway tour of the city in Battery Park. Tell them J sent you.
NYC Trapeze School
NYC Skyline Segway Tour

I left Cedar Rapids around 4 and caught up with G on the road and provided him with a blueberry Starbucks refresher caffeine drink for fuel. When I saw him, there was a cloud of these little fruit fly type of bugs around his head. Iowa is notorious for these bugs, especially right next to the fields. We are thinking the bugs are particularly attracted to the new Neutrogena sunscreen that he used on his face. He wanted me to drive 40 miles ahead to check out the town of Traer to see if there was any place to stay. It was already 4, so if there was a place that would mean G wouldn't

Reminds me of Back to the Future

get there until about 8. I drove to Traer and there was nothing, and I kept losing service, so I was worried that I wouldn't even be able to tell G. Finally, I found a spot that worked, and he told me to drive back about 25 miles and stay in Vinton (because I had seen a hotel there). He was about an hour and a half from Vinton at that point. Unfortunately, I lost service again and was not able to use my GPS and my actual old school GPS was not working right either, SO I had to rely on the old noggin and road signs to get back to Vinton. I did have a map as well which did help a little.

5th Street Koffee Haus

Once he got here and settled in, we went into town for dinner. Vinton has a cute, blue collar town feel to it. There's pretty much everything you need in a 3 block radius. Surprisingly, when we went out this morning for breakfast, we found a quaint coffee shop. As we went inside, a flock of ladies having their morning ritual all of a sudden became quiet as we approached the counter. Being foreigners in a small town raises eyebrows and many questions."Who are they? Why are they here? Is that the famous cross country cyclist we've heard so much about? 

G's Mexican meal last night. He had Chili Relleno and a ground beef burrito. The burrito is cut up with melted cheese on top. When you burn a million calories each day, you can eat like this.

Shrimp and rice

When you don't burn off a million calories each day, you eat like this.

In honor of "Throwback Thursday" i'll entertain you with a few vintage photos of us.

Happy with my grandma (R.I.P xoxo). 

Dancing at his brother/sister-in-law's wedding.

G will have his updates by tonight!!! Have a great day!!!