Eric will be doing the blog today!
So I have no clue what format he will use so you’ll just have to live
with however he writes.
Hi, Eric here, as Joel said I am doing the blog for today. It is 11:17 am on Sunday morning, July 28,
2013. I am writing the blog beside a
small pond in a city park in Coralville, Iowa.
Yesterday we biked 95 miles from Central College in Pella, Iowa to
Coralville, Iowa. Thanks to a slight
tailwind for most of the day we rolled up and down the many, many, many hills
on the route.
We had a pancake breakfast in Sully about 15 miles into the ride. Many of us did not eat breakfast when we left
Pella so we could feel in some small way what it feels like to be poor and
“live on empty.” A big thank you to the
church in Sully for a great breakfast!
Breakfast was a pleasant, but quick stop because we still had 80 miles
to ride.
We rode through several small Iowa towns that popped up through the
corn and soybean fields. At the
community building next to one of our SAG stops in Parnell they were preparing
for a wedding that evening. I had to
wonder where all the people were coming from for the wedding because it was a
very small town at a corner in the road with just a bar, post office, and a
community building with several houses around.
I walked into the little post office with another rider to mail a couple
of postcards. From the looks of the post
office it seemed that everyone in the town went to pick up their mail from a
mail cubby inside rather than having the mail delivered to a mail box by their
house.
Up and down the hills we pedaled on.
Cows and horses in the fields along the road stared at us as we rode by. Many large farm houses were built beside
small ponds. At one of the next SAG
stops we had a delicious piece of Dutch cake made by one of the SAG van
drivers. So good!!! It was just enough to give our taste buds a
kick and keep us going for the next 30 miles of rolling hills into camp.
I arrived in camp at about 3 pm.
It was a bit windy and cool so after showering at the local community
recreation facility I put on my jeans for the first time on the tour along with
a long sleeve shirt and blue Sea to Sea hooded sweatshirt. The cooler weather feels good and more like
home in Michigan compared to the heat of the desert that we experienced early
on in the tour.
In the afternoon before dinner new riders started to arrive. We are gaining 22 new riders this week. Wow!
Dinner was spaghetti and garlic bread with chocolate pudding for
desert. As evening settled in many
riders walked into town, but a few, including myself, settled down and fell
asleep by 9:30 pm. We were tired out
after a long day and six days of riding during the week.
Thank God for a day of rest today!
We had a pancake breakfast this morning and lunch will be at the city
park here in camp. At 5:30 pm we will
join will New Life church for a celebration church service with dinner to
follow. The evening will wrap up with peloton,
our large group meeting, and the next week will soon begin tomorrow with
another fun, yet long ride.
Michigan, here we come!
And now some pictures...
Bike windmill sculpture in downtown Pella
Personal Energy Transportation (PETS) wheelchairs for disabled people being tried by numerous bikers
Mom and dad got stuck waiting for the "Tractor Parade" to pass them by on the road.
Some people were wondering who passed who, the riders passing the tractors or the tractors passing the riders. I think it flip flopped depending on the wind and up/down hills...
Part of our camp set-up in Coralville, Iowa. Here for the weekend!
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