Day 5: Tama/Toledo to North Liberty

Miles: 76
Feet of Climb: 3,123
High Temperature: 68 Degrees
Sky Conditions: Raining in the morning, cloudy and windy all day (headwind again!)

Rainy days are never welcomed when you're on a multi-day bike tour, but I have learned something about these damp, dreary days - believe it or not, they are pretty good biking days. Aside from the winds today, the ride was good.

We started off with a great breakfast provided by our host family, which was a great surprise! After eating, we trailered the bikes in to Tama, and started riding at the main campground. Unfortunately, we wouldn't get under way until 7:00AM, but that didn't affect us too much. The rain started almost immediately, and lasted until about 11:00. Because of the rain the temperature was cool, almost chilly, especially with the stronger than usual easterly headwind, again.

Scott Colwill had another mishap with a tire. Coasting down a nice hill, he had a blow out, and had to walk his bike 2 miles into Vining, and then wait in line for bike repair for almost 2 hours! Of course this series of events set him back for the entire day.

The day's route took us through the Amana Colonies, which are great to ride through. Some of our group went through a couple art galleries and gift shops in West Amana. The first real evidence of the horrible Iowa flooding was also noticeable on the route today.

Once our group reached the destination of North Liberty, we threw the bikes in the trailer and then headed to our hotel in Coralville, about 5 miles down the road. After a nice soak in the hot tub, we found a good Chinese restaurant and had a wonderful meal.

As I write this, we're hearing that we'll have a mostly cloudy day with South winds, and possible rain in the afternoon. Hopefully the weathermen around here get the forecast wrong as often as that goofy Trobek does back in Sioux Falls.

As a post script to yesterday's ride, there was a stretch of the route early in the morning where a surprising number of people were pulled over fixing flat tires. We found out later in the day that someone had dumped thumb tacks all over the highway the night before. The newspaper reported that well over 100 people had flat tires, but luckily no one was injured as a result of any of the blow outs. The county rushed a street sweeper to the affected stretch of highway to clean up the mess as soon as the prank was discovered. High school kids must have way too much time on their hands in Iowa.

Kyle.