Day 42. Cascade CG
69 miles 2,942 feet
I left my city campground and stopped at the Elkader coffee/outdoor equipment store that opened at 6 for a hardy Iowa breakfast. I headed south with little traffic and beautiful rural scenery. Iowa's reputation for hills is accurate: elevation gain was higher than any day since the Canadian Rockies, mostly because of the up-and-down rolling hills that require low gear climbs out of the troughs.
I stopped for lunch in Dyersville, known as the nearest town to the Field of Dreams movie location. I asked the server if I could have corn with my lunch and learned the restaurant doesn't serve the number one state export—$3.3 billion in 2022 according to the US Trade Representative website—in the Dyersville Family Restaurant. Fries and onion rings, yes. I verified this with the restaurant owner and the owner of an ice cream shop in another town. People in Iowa eat corn, but don't serve it in restaurants. They get it in farmer's markets for home consumption. What happens to the sea of corn I biked through? 62% is used to produce ethanol, and 15% for livestock. Humans who love corn as I do are way down the list.
While biking you can experience the countryside in sensory detail. The green rolling hills of corn and soybeans are striking. So is the manure stench that wafts downwind from dairy and cattle farms. If you stop, or even slow down climbing out of a trough, the flies are all over you, and stay with you until your speed picks up on the downhill. The cycle repeats for each undulation.
Do you wonder how the hay in fields ends up in that white wrapper? Click here to see how it happens.
I stopped for ice cream in the warm afternoon, and continued on to Cascade. Finding places to stay in eastern Iowa is like jumping from stone to stone when crossing a river. There are some towns with campgrounds, fewer with motels, but long stretches with nothing in between. So planning a bike ride involves making sure your mileage plan aligns with a town that at the end of your planned day has a place to camp. This means daily mileage for me is a little shorter, but I have a place to stay. Cascade, where I am tonight, is a good example. It has a campground but no motels, so I'm camping and lucky to be doing so—I had one of the last 2 tent sites available! Another reason to reserve ahead of time, especially on weekends.
Tomorrow I make it to Muscatine, Iowa, where I begin traveling east again.
I left my city campground and stopped at the Elkader coffee/outdoor equipment store that opened at 6 for a hardy Iowa breakfast. I headed south with little traffic and beautiful rural scenery. Iowa's reputation for hills is accurate: elevation gain was higher than any day since the Canadian Rockies, mostly because of the up-and-down rolling hills that require low gear climbs out of the troughs.
I stopped for lunch in Dyersville, known as the nearest town to the Field of Dreams movie location. I asked the server if I could have corn with my lunch and learned the restaurant doesn't serve the number one state export—$3.3 billion in 2022 according to the US Trade Representative website—in the Dyersville Family Restaurant. Fries and onion rings, yes. I verified this with the restaurant owner and the owner of an ice cream shop in another town. People in Iowa eat corn, but don't serve it in restaurants. They get it in farmer's markets for home consumption. What happens to the sea of corn I biked through? 62% is used to produce ethanol, and 15% for livestock. Humans who love corn as I do are way down the list.
While biking you can experience the countryside in sensory detail. The green rolling hills of corn and soybeans are striking. So is the manure stench that wafts downwind from dairy and cattle farms. If you stop, or even slow down climbing out of a trough, the flies are all over you, and stay with you until your speed picks up on the downhill. The cycle repeats for each undulation.
Do you wonder how the hay in fields ends up in that white wrapper? Click here to see how it happens.
I stopped for ice cream in the warm afternoon, and continued on to Cascade. Finding places to stay in eastern Iowa is like jumping from stone to stone when crossing a river. There are some towns with campgrounds, fewer with motels, but long stretches with nothing in between. So planning a bike ride involves making sure your mileage plan aligns with a town that at the end of your planned day has a place to camp. This means daily mileage for me is a little shorter, but I have a place to stay. Cascade, where I am tonight, is a good example. It has a campground but no motels, so I'm camping and lucky to be doing so—I had one of the last 2 tent sites available! Another reason to reserve ahead of time, especially on weekends.
Tomorrow I make it to Muscatine, Iowa, where I begin traveling east again.
My city campsite in Elkader, Iowa
Eclectic junk in small gas station. Old gas pumps and London phone booth.
Dyersville is the closest town to Field of Dreams.
I passed on the tour of the Field of Dreams because of the enormous gravel parking lot, crowds, and I'm just not a baseball fan.
The sea of corn.
