Wildlife

I ran over a Skunk and a Raccoon, the Skunk and Raccoon Rivers that is, en-route from Nebraska, through Iowa and into Illinois. The “deer-napping-on-roadway” counter (my grand-daughter reads this) is up to 4, so far. They always serve as a trigger for hyper-alertness as they do not make good front-fender-passengers when they are not “napping” .

I covered 360 miles today. 340 of those were spent in downpours. The fact that Iowa is beautifully lush and green at this time of year makes the scenery pretty good compensation for the constant liquid sunshine accompaniment. Temps ranged from the high 50s to low 60s with a few MOMENTS of low 70s.

Jethro’s BBQ in Altoona IA refueled me with some excellent brisket. These Iowans are some right-friendly people and they do know how to slow-smoke BBQ. I wouldn’t dare insult the meat with any of the sauces that they offered. It stood alone quite well.

I crossed the Missouri River early on as I left NE and entered IA. Near the end of my day I crossed the Mississippi River at Clinton IA and am lodging in Fulton IL. Not 5 minutes after checking-in, the sky opened up with the thunderstorm that the Weather Channel app was warning me about. So wearing board shorts and flip-flops I went out and moved the bike under the cover of the hotel’s roof. Hey…I was headed to the pool anyway.

It’s amazingly karmic when you are on the road, by how stuff just seems to work out. Yesterday’s fuel search led to that photo of the bike in the middle of the farms on a dirt road (and the GPS was right, fuel was just 10 more miles up the road at a little country store). Tonight, I had a pizza delivered from a little local joint, because there was no way I was going to go out again and get my dry-clothes wet. I thought I was really rolling the gastronomic dice, but what appeared at my door is something that my Italian grandmother might have herself made. It was probably the finest thin crust sausage & mushroom pizza that ever hit my palate. Go figure.