Iowa City, IA to Davenport, IA

Today felt great. Its getting to the point where my legs are not even tired at all after 70 mile rides, and I literally could ride this Midwestern flat terrain all day.

We woke up at 6, had our usual breakfast, and headed out onto the road as soon as possible. We had to complete 65 miles before 11 today, not a tough task at all, but still a little bit of a challenge.

In my paceline was Jorge (George Washington), Trent (Nebraska), Rich (Iowa), Jon (RIT), and Chris (Michigan State). We were cruising just fine. We got a little frustrated at Jorge, who I felt was a little lazy today, and kept telling us to slow down. We’re going on literally, the flattest terrain ever today, with really good roads. We could go at 25 mph with not problem, yet we only moving at 13 mph…see my frustration.

Regardless, we kept on pedaling, and ended up getting there a half hour early. We arrived at our lodging, which was at a Clarion hotel, greeted by a few organizations that serve people with disabilities. There may have been a little over 100 people to greet us, and served us caramel popcorn, so it was a pretty sweet arrival. We put our stuff in the hotels and got ready for lunch.

For lunch, we walked to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, called Happy Joe’s Pizza. It was a lot like Cici’s pizza, and was pretty good. I wasn’t too hungry, so I didn’t eat too much, but what I had was pretty good.
After lunch, we went back to hotels to relax until our friendship visit at 5. I ended up getting a buzz cut from one of the crew members, and watched a little bit of a movie on TV, before taking a nice hour long nap.

At 5, we headed to our friendship visit, which was at the local pool. When we arrived, it was packed with people, most of whom greeted us at the arrival. Because of my wound from kickball yesterday, I decided not to swim, and instead worked on my tan.

It was nice to just sit and relax, and mingle amongst our sponsors. Our sponsor for lunch and dinner today, was a graduate of University of Toledo, and was a diehard U of Michigan football fan. Finally, somebody that understands my pain from the past two years of the mockery of the Michigan tradition. Hopefully things change,…please, not again, Rich Rod.

After a couple of hours, we finally had a quick dinner, of walking tacos (basically beef and taco condiments on a bag of Dorritos), we headed back to the hotel.

I ended relaxing in my room until bed time. Overall, a pretty good day.