Day 21: Early afternoon, Cedar Falls, (not Rapids) Iowa (J's Version)

Good afternoon! We were up at 4:30 am (After 3 snoozes!) to get a jump start on the day. Unfortunately, it was raining, so G waited until the rain let up and was on the road at about 6:50. Right now, he's about 20 miles ahead of me. Today, he's aiming for about 120 miles! He's already at about 45. The weather is cool and there aren't too many hills, so it's definitely possible. 

Look what 3 weeks on the road has done to me?!

Remember, if you do have a Facebook account to "Like" us. I post updates and a few other little items from time to time. Here's the link:

Facebook Page. Like us!

I just posted a video of G buying authentic Iowa corn from a little corn stand. Here's the link:

Buying Iowa corn

So far, every day off that we've had off (there's been 3) have been jam packed. G pretty much spent four hours yesterday restructuring the route. Perhaps, you're thinking, "Now? Shouldn't the route be set?" It's NOT that easy. There's so many factors that contribute to finding the right route. I wish there was a paved, easy access type of path from coast to coast, but there's not. There's the Trans America Trail Trans America Trail Link but that's a Southern type of route, and we are too north for that. In retrospect, I wish G asked one of the Bike & Build people for a copy of their route. 

When creating our route, G had "time" as the biggest factor. What that means is that he created a route with the shortest amount of distance, so we'd get to Oregon the fastest. Believe it or not we don't have an ever lasting bank account, so we allotted about 6ish weeks for the bike trip. Plus, we still did want a few weeks at home before work starts up again. Unfortunately, Google maps doesn't take into account if the routes are in good cycling condition, safe, or if there's any hotels or gas stations around. Yesterday, our nephew, Dusty gave us a call to warn us about the isolated Idaho roads. 

Dusty was born and raised in Idaho and quite adventurous himself. He and G have gone on several

A Cycling bromance

 long cycling rides together. We nicknamed him the "mananimal" because he's hardcore. He runs a marathon in the speed of light. Bikes up a steep hill in a blink of an eye. Surfs the waves of Hawaii and even beat Chuck Norris in a thumb wrestling match.

He's visiting family in Idaho (he and his wife and son provided the Geo cache for us) this summer, so he was refreshed in how desolate the land is. He said there's nothing but desert for at least 70 miles at a time. G and I were thankful for the heads up and started thinking that safety should be our priority. 

Many many entries ago, I mentioned how the bike company, Trek, sponsors a Portland to Portland trip from the end of August to October for 45 days. Well, duh. Let's just copy their route! I went on their website, and they have a map of their route, which differs from ours because it's a tad more north. Instead of Nebraska and most of Wyoming, it goes through South Dakota and parts of Montana. They don't give the route numbers unfortunately, but their website does provide a day by day, town to town breakdown of the miles. So, if we at least have the town names we can plot the route. Here's their itinerary if you're interested: Itinerary

Trek's ride goes from Oregon to Maine, therefore we have to reverse everything. Where we are in Iowa is just the right spot for us to switch to their route. 

New Route

I just spent the last 2 paragraphs talking about safety and guess what route my husband took today? THE HIGHWAY. Like the real highway. Not the imaginary one. He claims he's safer there than on the crummy side roads. *SIGH*  I get highways and interstates mixed up, so maybe he's on an interstate, but whatever the heck it is, I was just on it, too, and it's insane.

I just saw G updated a road pic from his lunch at Applebee's. Yum! I'm currently at a coffee shop in Cedar Falls, called Cup of Joe's. As far as coffee shop names anything with the name "Joe" in it is like the Smith's or Brown's for last names. The place itself though is pretty cool. It has a retro diner meets quirky 70s living room feel to it.

G texted me earlier this morning to take a picture of a wooden statue of corn on a particular route when I drove past it. It is something! 

Stalking the statue

Oh, and I got my grade back for that School Law summer class, and I got an A! I'm excited. I got a B on that 50 True/False final. He provided the correct answers for the final, and I got tricked on so many questions. Probable cause and reasonable suspicion are different. The police need probable cause to search a student's bag or vehicle, but an administrator only needs reasonable suspicion and can perform the search. 

 Lastly, I've been trying to come up with the perfect analogy for this journey together. Sure, G is doing the intense part of cycling, but I'm just as an integral part of the expedition but on a different level. When a couple has a baby, you don't see people JUST congratulating the mother because she was the one that physically gave birth. It's a joint thing. A good husband has many other responsibilities throughout that whole process. I hope that makes sense. 

Have a great day!

This cover slip for your coffee to go to avoid burning yourself is called a Zarf, and a great Words With Friends "Z" word.