Day 35: Winterset, IA to Bridgewater, IA

I took yesterday’s lesson to heart and got an early start.  Twenty minutes later I was in a rainstorm with lightning crashing down a mile to my north.  I could see blue sky ahead, so I leaned into it and pedaled as quickly as I could in the pelting downpour.  If I had just slept in for another hour, I would have completely avoided this!  When I thought I was almost out of it, that’s when the sleet began falling.  I looked for cover in case it turned to hail, but luckily it didn’t come to that.  With my head down, I doggedly pushed through the cold rain.

When things finally began to let up, I sat up and looked around.  Hey, check it out – corn!  I glanced at my passive-aggressive GPS and saw that I was off course.  I wanted to blame the blasted device, but I simply hadn’t heard it twiddling at me in the heavy weather.  I faced that classic choice once again:  go back the way I came, or take the short cut charted out by the deranged GPS.  This time I knew I’d be on dirt roads because every road in Iowa that’s not a highway is a dirt road.  Twenty minutes on some back roads seemed better than half an hour or more retracing my path.  I went for the short cut.

Two hours later I finally made it back to route 92.  I hadn’t factored in how soft the dirt roads would be due to the storm that had just passed.  I also didn’t anticipate the extra steepness of the hills off the main road.  The combination of mud and steepness meant that I was walking my bike up most of the inclines.  On top of this, I had apparently gone farther off course than I had originally thought.  But at least I got back onto the real road just in time for the blazing pre-noon sun!  I’d much rather have the rain and sleet.

Around 2:00 I came across a guy broken down on the side of the road.  I stopped to see if I could lend a hand.  Michael, an over-the-road trucker, filled me in on how his brother-in-law had borrowed his SUV months ago, then called him that morning to let him know a wheel fell off and it was by the side of the road.  Michael’s brother-in-law sounded like a real piece of work, and I got a lot more of the story than I wanted.  We talked under the glaring sun for a good twenty minutes before I begged off, letting him get back to remounting the errant wheel.  I wished there was something I could have done to help, but he had matters well in hand.  At least I might have provided him a chance to vent about getting screwed over by his wife’s brother enough that he didn’t feel the need to go home and get his gun.

What I Learned: It isn’t always the GPS’s fault, but never follow its shortcut suggestions!

Distance Today: 46 miles
Total Distance: 1,688 miles