Sooooo, we're back from our bike adventure and it was AMAZING. John did a great job of mapping out our route. We started at around 9 am on Monday morning and headed toward Lone Tree. John had his iPhone strapped to his handle bars, so he could check out the map as we went along.
And we did some stopping to make sure we were on the right track. It was a beautiful ride.
We hit Muscatine and we had never ridden there before. We were thinking we should do an out and back there some time. It would be about 44 miles and they have restaurants with good Mexican food.
We hit Muscatine early. We had averaged about 18 miles per hour and got there a little sooner than we thought. Traveling with light bags on worked out really well. I just brought them into the restaurant with me, so I didn't have to worry about anyone taking all of my stuff.
We had lunch at the Missipi Brewing Company. As far as we could tell, they don't really brew any beer there, but the food was fine and the service was great.
We took off after lunch and headed to Burlington. the first part of our route was along the Mississippi River. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.
We rode over this cool bridge and decided to take a break and eat some food and check out the beautiful scenery.
The "Road Closed to Through Traffic" signs were our best friends...Until the last one. We could ride down roads with almost no traffic, but they were just recently paved and they were as smooth as a baby's bottom. When we were pretty close to Burlington, we hit some construction and we rode to it and one of the guys working on the road told us the bridge was out and we wouldn't be able to ride it. he was nice enough to tell us which way to go instead. So, we headed to Mediapolis and then we hit a big highway. There was a little shoulder, but not much and the road was so busy. After a rock feel off of a truck and almost hit me, I told John I'd rather ride gravel to Burlington.
We found a little gravel road that would take us. At first the gravel was pretty thick and not so easy to ride with slick tires. My other problem with gravel is that there are more loose dogs on gravel roads, and not all of them are friendly. At one point, I was going up a big hill very slowly, when I heard a dog barking. Man, did I pick up my speed and pass John up the hill. John said that if he ever wanted me to pick up my pace, all he had to do was start barking behind me. So true.
98 miles later, we finally made it to the Pizzaz Hotel in Burlington. We immediately took showers and ate food down at the bar. I ordered one margarita and was just going to have that one drink, when the woman behind me kept sending her drinks back. The first one she said she didn't want salt and the second margarita she decided she didn't want ice. I figured the third one she wouldn't want it in a glass, but we never got that far. Instead, the bartender kept giving me her unwanted drinks and not charging me for them. Who was I to say no?
We went to the water park next. Tequila and water slides? What could go wrong? Actually, nothing did. We met a little girl of about 8, who took a shine to us and asked us to race her down slides or to take turns riding on the rafts with her. Her dad was a little embarrassed and said, "She's so shy..." But John and I loved that she was so outgoing and happy. We played in the water park until they shut it down at 8. Then we checked out the casino. Neither of us are gamblers, but John put 5 dollars down on the slots for me to play. I had no idea what I was doing. I just liked to pull the arm thing down. Sadly, I didn't win anything and had I flushed the 5 dollars down the toilet, I would have had the same result. Sigh.
We also did the go-carts. Another first for me. Surprise, surprise, I was very cautious the first lap, but got faster each time I went around. I had a lot more fun with that than I did with the gambling thing.
All in all, it was really fun and so luxurious to stay in a hotel on our touring bike ride. I highly recommend it. John and I both passed-out as soon as our heads hit the pillows. 98 miles on a bike, a water park and go-carts. Wouldn't you?
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