Wyoming, to Muscatine, IA

Thursday, September 18, 2003
Distance Cycled: 53 miles
Total elevation gain: 1,585 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

We got started at a better time today. We were riding out of Wyoming by 8:00 AM and completed the first 20 miles before 10:00 AM. We again rode almost straight south and by the afternoon the winds were in the 15-mile per hour range again. The good news was that due to the earlier start, we did not have to face the stronger winds for as many miles. The route continued to go up and down hills but today we were not fighting the wind until the afternoon. As a result we did not use the granny gear all morning. The hills today had shorter steep grades and longer gradual grades. Several hills would start out with a short steep grade and then we would go up a gradual grade for a mile or more before we would finally reach the top. Iowa's corn farms are really dry this year.

Most of the farming is done without irrigation, so the amount of rainwater is very important.