Day 28 – Elkader,IA to Lansing,IA

Date: 26.05.2018

Altitude: 2516.4 ft (767 m)

Distance: 57.62 mi (92.73 km)

Total Altitude: 50308.4 ft (15334 m)

Total Distance: 1809.83 mi (2912.65 km)

Today was a really short day for me, I reached my destination Lansing,IA after not even 60 miles. Nonetheless it was a demanding day, due to the heat and quite a few climbs on my route. Today the temperatures climbed again over the 90°F mark. My bike computer showed temperatures of up to 104°F (40°C) in the sun. But it was still a beautiful day with no clouds in the sky, after a heavy storm last night. I wouldn't have liked to be on the bike in this kind of storm.

Because I didn't had to go too far, I started a little bit later today. But I actually should have started earlier, to enjoy the cooler morning temperatures for a bit. The ride today, went through a beautiful scenery. The first half of the route was similar to yesterday and went again with a slight up and down through farmland. After about 30 miles the scenery changed when I went down to the Mississippi River and the town of Marquette,IA. From now on, I had the Mississippi to my right and the route went through a forest area. Just as in Muscatine, there where always railroad tracks between the river and the road. So there were only a few spots where I could access the riverfront. I didn't stay right by the Mississippi the whole time, a few times the route moved away from the river and that usually meant I had to go uphill for a while. After a few of those climbs I reached Lansing around 1:30pm. So I still had some time until I could check into the B&B. So I set down at a restaurant, got something to eat and some ice cold mountain dew and waited there until I could check in. The B&B is really nice, it is a shame that I have to leave again tomorrow.

Although the scenery was really nice today and the weather was great, I didn't really enjoy the ride. Almost for the whole day there was lots of traffic, probably because of the holiday weekend, and the roads had for the most part no shoulder or only an unpaved shoulder. So I had to stay on the road and most cars passed me quite narrowly, because there was so much traffic in both directions. I constantly felt like I'm in the way, especially on the climbs where I was going really slow. I hope after the weekend the traffic will get better again.

Today I met for the third time a fellow bike traveler. I met Paolo (I'm not sure if the spelling is correct) from Italy, at one of the spots where you could actually access the riverfront. We talked a bit, although that wasn't so easy, because he spoke only some English. It was still nice meting him. I was quite impressed by his journey, he started in Seattle and want's to go all the way to New York in just 42 days.

Conclusion for the day:

The traffic on holiday weekends is terrible.