“Respect my authoritaaa”
Many of you have probably already realized this, but it occurred to me earlier this week that there is an underlying benefit to meeting the amazing people and seeing the incredible sights that I have this summer: it has been a great learning experience for me!
That theme of learning continued as I crossed Iowa last week and entered Illinois. I learned a number of interesting things in Iowa. First, I learned that highways in Iowa (except I-35 & I-80) don’t have paved shoulders…not even a few inches on the right side of the white line, regardless of how heavily traveled they are! This fact led to a second discovery: the people of Iowa are overwhelmingly concerned for the safety of cyclists; so much so, that rather than drive near you (and in the same lane) or yield behind you to wait for oncoming traffic to pass, an alarming percentage of motorists choose instead to merge completely into the opposing lane to pass you with no apparent concern for their own safety or the safety of the people in oncoming vehicles! Don’t get me wrong, I truly apreciated their incredible courtesy, but after 3 days of witnessing countless “near-misses” my nerves were shot and I made a decision that led to the biggest learning of my time in Iowa.
In order to have the luxury of a paved shoulder I chose to get onto I-35 at Ames and take it to I-80 in Des Moines and to head toward Davenport from there (all of which I did). I don’t particularly enjoy riding on the freeway (it’s noisy, not very scenic, and relatively dangerous) but under the circumstances I felt like it was the safest option. I’d been about 50 miles when I stopped to eat; as I was riding up the on-ramp to get back on I-80 I encountered a hitchhiker who flagged me down (I was thinking the guy must be crazy if he thought I was going to pick him up!) who told me that as the Highway Patrol was removing him from the freeway (it’s illegal to hitch on a controlled access roadway in IA) they asked him if he’d seen a guy riding his bike on I-80. He said that although he’d seen me a couple of hours earlier, he told the officers that he “had no idea what they were talking about”. It was good that my fellow “criminal traveller” had warned me that John Law was looking for me; it allowed me about 40 minutes to prepare for what I expected to be a frustrating conversation (and hopefully to get myself in a frame of mind that would keep me from being arrested!).
Eventually, a patrol car pulled up beside me and told me to “pull over and get off the bike” I complied and waited as the young patrolman came back to meet me. “What’re you doing” he asked; “I’m crossing the US by bicycle to raise money to fund research to cure Rett Syndrome, what are you doing” I said in my most professional tone…He must’ve expected me to be some kind of a nut because he seemed caught off guard by the fact that I could speak in complete sentences. So surprised in fact, that he stammered “uhhh, just hanging out” in response to my question of what he was doing. Before I could stop myself, I asked the obvious question “is there something I can do to help you?”…This was followed by some more stammering through which I learned that “people” were worried about me and where I was going. When I asked if those were the same people who had been swerving over the white line to get near me and honk, the officer was again surprised and said “there are some real idiots out here aren’t there?”. He went on to say that I wouldn’t be able to continue riding on I-80; I asked if it was illegal to do it (I knew that it wasn’t). The officer confirmed that it wasn’t illegal. This fact was a little confusing to me; and after a rather circular conversation I concluded that one of us didn’t know the meaning of the word illegal (in hindsight it must’ve been me because I ended up back on a road with no shoulder, watching the concerned citizens of Iowa play chicken with one another while they worked to pass me). Ultimately, I learned that the reason I couldn’t ride on I-80 was because the highway patrol said so, which made me laugh out loud (unfortunately). I was reminded of Eric Cartman (it’s ok, admit it, you’ve watched South Park) shouting “respect my authoritaaa!”.
My departure from I-80 led to a much less humorous discovery. I had the opportunity to ride through some of the flood ravaged communities of eastern Iowa. It was truly shocking to see the number of businesses homes, bridges and roads that were damaged. At one point I made a 20 mile detour due to the fact that a large section of HWY 6 had been completly washed away. It’s difficult to imagine the loss you would feel if your life was washed away by the floodwaters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
After all of this “learning” I arrived in Davenport to visit my great aunt and uncle (not before being lost…not my fault this time either; someone gave me the wrong house number, right Dad?) and I was reminded that my uncle is a fantastic story teller, so I spent the next day and a half “learning” all sorts of interesting things; some of them may even have been true! At one point, my aunt looked at me and said “by the time you leave here your head will be so full you’ll have to ride 4000 more miles to recover!”. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed seeing them (and eating great home cooking highlighted by heavy doses of homegrown vegetables).
Yesterday, I was able to do something I’ve been looking forward to for several months…I crossed over the Mississippi River and rode 100 miles along The Great River Road to beautiful, hilly Galena, IL (hometown of U.S. Grant) to meet the Oldenbergs. Tami Oldenberg is Robert Smith’s cousin and from the outset of my trip, she and her husband John have been incredibly supportive and I was excited to finally get to meet them in person. Due to a late arrival on my part, we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would’ve liked (the good news is I’ll be back to see them again in 10 days) before they hauled me off to the airport early this morning.
Today, I’m flying to Denver, where I’ll spend the next week resting and visiting friends while I prepare to race the Leadville 100 (a 100 mile mountain bike race) Saturday. I’m excited about the opportunity to catch up with friends and family and I’m looking forward to Leadville.
With any luck, on my next update I’ll be able to report that Leadville was a success (which will mean I finished) and that I got to race on the bike that I had custom built for it (at this point, that appears doubtful).
If you want to hit homeruns, you’ve got to swing big!
Scott