Day 3: Recovery

We logged 53 miles today. Only one good climb...it was 1.25 miles and curvy. Challenging, but nothing compared to the rolling hills of western Iowa.

We are in CY-Clone Country...Ames, IA. Rumor has it Lance Armstrong rode today. I didn't see him...although, I did see a really fast blurr of yellow go by around 50 mph...perhaps I did see him.

Today was a "take it easy day." We went about 25 miles and then stopped for breakfast in a town called Ogden, IA. Ogden was a great little town! They really pulled out the red carpet for us. We had some great breakfast burritos from the people at "Relay for life." Since Uncle Jack is a cancer survivor, he got to sign the wall and was offered a free t-shirt. Pretty cool. He still had to pay for his burrito.

Our next stop was Boone...only 8 miles away. This 8 mile stretch had that 1.25 mile climb. Again, long, but not overpowering. I think if it was Day 1, I would have soared up the hill, but day 3 means some sore legs and I only averaged 8-10 up the hill.

Boone, IA was another favorite town. Lots of kids on the side of the road giving you "5" as you rode by and also a lot of sprinklers helping us cool off as we rode through town.

Then it was 19 miles to Ames. Ames is of course home to Iowa State University. I believe Ames is our largest overnight city.

Tomorrow we will depart around 7 AM. Our route is just a hair under 80 miles. The good news is there are lots of little towns in between. The bad news is we head mostly east and there's going to be a 10-15 mph head-wind tomorrow. Oh well.

I've compiled a list of my favorite Iowa cities thus far. They are, in random order:
-Boone
-Coon Rapids
-Ames
-Ogden

We will see which ones get added to my list!