A New Normal

lifejunkie_admin July 19, 2017
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A pretty normal day as days go when you ride eight hours a day. After a while it begins to feel like a job. Today I was riding into Des Moines and the Iowa area is under a severe heat warning. I wanted to get an early start and kind of get ahead of the heat, but when it is topping 90 degrees by eight in the morning it is impossible. So Google Maps did it to me again. It sent me down a major interstate highway for about 20 kilometres. This will explain the following. I heard a siren behind me and turned and I was being pulled over by an Iowa State Trooper. Turns out that people were calling 911 about this psychologically challenged bicyclist who was riding down the highway in this heat. Turns out it isn’t illegal in Iowa to ride on the shoulders, however he took all of my details just in case a semi accidentally smushed me, and he could contact my wife.

Google Maps Safe Highway!
Pulled Over By A Trooper!

Catching Up: Fact is I am tired, the heat is taking it out of me these days. Literally by nine in the morning there is not one part of my body and clothing that is not soaked in sweat. I am thankful I brought a cycling cap (thanks Flanders On Bike Henk!) because at least then the sweat drips off onto the top tube. I pressed hard and made it into Des Moines for noon and that is when the fun and games started. I was a tad famished at this point (maybe tad is not the proper word) and I needed to replan the route for some of Google Maps errors again so I went to a Mexican restaurant. This meal was absolutely perfect. Just after lunch my body wanted to be comatose not riding through the city in 95 degree heat. My legs are tired, that is the fact. I don’t often get to the point where I just want to stop but these days I am near. I know what I have read from others who have done similar rides but it does beat you down after a while. I figured two weeks in and I was good. Then the last couple days have been the hardest so far. It feels like the Tour de France in the final week, and I have another 1000 miles to go. 

Oh yes, I have crossed the 1000 mile marker. In two more days I will move into my next state (Nebraska). 

Colourful BeeHives
Iowa Campground Sunrise
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