Omaha, NE to Griswold, IA

We woke up by 5:30. Today, we had a sponsored breakfast by a former pi alpha. He was really nice and brought us full bagels and full bananas, a nice change to not having to share your food. We headed out of Omaha, as I rode with Tucker (Iowa State), Alex (Illinois), Tommy (Illinois), and Brad (UNC). Tucker really wanted to get to Iowa before anyone else, so we booked it. Now the topography of Iowa is a little different than from Nebraska. Nebraska a really flat – really nice; Iowa is rolling hills – not fun. Up and down, up and down, like a roller coaster, expect it hurts. During the ride, my knees really gave me some sharp pains, not a good sign. I tried to take it easy but was still giving me trouble. Luckily, it was only a 50 mile ride so I fought through it.
Iowa’s countryside was a lot better looking than anyplace we’ve been too, so I guess there’s some good aspect of rolling hills. In fact it was gorgeous, but I was a little busy trying to figure out my knees. Once we arrived to lodging, we had to rack the last 5 miles to the cabin we were staying at. I usually totally against this, but if you saw the gravel, you could tell it flat tires was destined if we rode it.
Once we got to lodging, we met the main sponsor, who served us lunch at lodging. We gave us sandwich with unlimited meat and cheese…It was like I was born again.
After a filling lunch, over half the team took an afternoon nap. We never actually got to see Griswold, the actual town, but we were basically in a cabin in the woods. Luckily, there was also a quarry that we could swim in. So, we drove down to the lake, we were basically cooled off in the hot humid weather. It was a lot of fun, and although the water wasn’t exactly the cleanest, we made use with what we had. After a nice cool down, we had dinner, sponsored again by Dave. We had some pulled pork sandwiches and some peach cobbler.
After dinner, we headed back to the cabin where we showered. It was outrageously hot. And the mosquitoes were anything but friendly. After a long day, we called it short, where I just slept off my pain in my knees. Hopefully they recover because we got a 100 mile day tomorrow, all rolling hills.