Monday, June 10, 1996
Day 30
South Sioux City, Nebraska to Blackhawke State Park, Iowa
Today's Miles: 90
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 1971
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Terrain: Rolling Farmland
Find of the Day: Albrecht Cycle Shop, Sioux City
and Dan, the vet, in Danbury
Nebraska and Iowa use the Missouri River as their dividing boundary line. We've traveled along the Missouri since leaving Three Forks, Montana, and it looks like it will be with us until it empties into the Mississippi.
Lee and I started out across the the Missouri River in search of the route to head us east into Iowa. Dave Wallace busted two spokes yesterday, so he and Donna went to find the only bike store in Sioux City, Iowa, population 80,000. That's when they hit the first find of the day, Albrecht Cycle ShopBack in Sheriden, Wyoming, a place called "The Bike Stop" treated us so well that they became the first find of the day that wasn't related to food. Well, Albrecht's took one look at Dave's wheel, replaced the spokes, trued the tires, repacked the bearings in the rear wheel and then sent Dave on his way WITH NO CHARGE! Albrecht's has been in business since 1924. With service and hospitality like this, you can see why. Thanks for the help, guys. We'll be seeing you our next time through Iowa.Albrecht's was our introduction to the bike-friendliness of Iowa. Everyone knows about cycling here. There is a ride across Iowa each year called RAGBRAI that has over 10,000 bicyclist riding from the west coast of Iowa on the Missouri River to the east coast of Iowa on the Mississippi River. It's a six day ride, the small towns along the way get a horrendous amount of business for about 4 hours and everyone in the state has a grand time. There hasn't been anyone we've run into here that hasn't known about the RAGBRAI, especially the people in the town of Danbury.When we got to Danbury, David and Dave went down to Sam's Steak House and Saloon while Lee, Adam and Ken hit the local cafe for a quick lunch. While at the cafe, Tom, the local veterinarian came over and introduced himself and was extremely excited about what we were doing. Evidently he's a hard core rider, knew all about Albrecht's in Sioux City, had done the RAGBRAI and wanted to write an article about us to put in the local paper. Tom was great. He gave us access to the phone lines at his office so we could post the journal for the day and pick up our e-mail.The town of Danbury was indicative of the type of people we are meeting in Iowa. It's probably the most consistently, bike friendly place we've been. Now if they could just do something about the flys...This is farming, cattle and pig country. There are flys EVERYWHERE. You can't stop by the side of the road for too long or you'll get swarmed by them. The campground at Blackhawke was so infested that we all went to our tents early just to get away from them. I think we all agree, though, that it's a small price to pay for the people we are meeting while traveling through the state of Iowa. As the sign said at the border when entering the state, "Smile, you're in Iowa."
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
1-800-738-7271