Day # 30
Miles Covered Today: 84
Hours on The Road: 9.5 (including breaks)
Miles Traveled Since Beginning: 1,703
Where We Are: Atlantic, IA
Day Overview:
After a fantastic stay in Des Moines with Susan and Todd – a pair of wonderful Airbnb hosts I’ve had the pleasure of staying with – it looks like stops in the next few days in Nebraska will be composed primarily of motels. As some brief Google Map research has shown, there’s not a lot of opportunity to be picky here –frequently there is just a single motel for miles and miles.
Fortunately, some of the motels seem to sympathize with this traveler’s predicament and approach the issue rather philosophically. For example – the It’ll Do Motel in Atwood, KS.
The It'll Do Motel .... I guess it will, if necessary.
Hey, after an 80 mile day, it really will do! Especially when the route takes you through “minimum maintenance roads” like below.
The minimally maintained roads of Iowa off I-80 are their own kind of challenge
I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised by just how many of the roads that were encountered today were unpaved gravel or dirt roads. I can understand why, of course – when the Interstate 80 is going parallel, there isn’t much need to have a fully paved or even tarred road right next to it. But for a cyclist, it does make the going a bit slower. Fortunately, even with a gravel road for half of the way today, there were no flats or any other issues – fingers crossed for the next week and a half!
Next Scheduled Event: Omaha, NE on May 8th at 5.30 pm with Omaha Bikes. See full schedule of future stops.
3 Responses to [Road Brief] Day 30 – The Back Roads Will Do