Day 1 Friday, September 15: Nebraska City to Glenwood, Iowa; 34.5 miles

to Arthur Hotel, 707 S. Locust St.

 

 

After a delicious gourmet breakfast on the wrap-around porch, unpacking and setting up the bikes, and posing for Jeanna to take our start picture, we were off.  We first crossed the  Missouri River from Nebraska City into Iowa, smoothly making two tricky turns.

Friendly Iowans, for examples: There was Reinhardt who exited his pickup and then waited for us to make our turn and tell our story; there was the ex-army-airborne and jeep hobybyist who (though likely called by a neighbor because we were hanging out in the shade by the once auto-repair shop where he told us he has two of his jeeps) offered us some good advice on roads to take.

We learned that Google can fail to distinguish gravel roads from asphalt when suggesting bicycle routes. Also, this part of Iowa is returning some asphalt roads to gravel and happens to be laying down some large, crushed-rock that challenged us. 

Despite this, we were afforded beautiful views of farms, the Loess Hills, and the yellows of the sunflowers, golden rods, drying soybean plants.

We found ourselves on portions of Adventure Cycling's Lewis and Clark bicycle route. 'saw signs of recent floods and high winds.

Predicted rain never came. Temps in the high 70s. Both sun and overcast.

Marney saw a praying mantis on the highway

 

Loess Hills scenic byway

Day 2: Saturday, September 16 to Omaha, NE, 29 miles [63.5]

 to Embassy Suites by Hilton, 555 S. 10^th St.

 

We awoke to dense fog, slow to clear; thunder began followed by rain. 

We dressed for rain but wisely decided to wait. The rain stopped and the fog lifted. Starting late fit our mood. We enjoyed beautiful weather the rest of the day.

 

It was all up-hill (not really but nearly) from Glenwood. We were still in the Loess Hills. The narrow shoulders were rumble strips. We took our place in the car lane. Courteous drivers gave us a wide birth, sounding the center rumble strips as they passed--not a bother but a helpful sound cue. This describes most of the first 18 miles or so of the day. After that we were mostly on bike trails in Iowa and city streets in Nebraska.

At one point a flashing red light appeared in Marney's mirror. Police? We stopped and waited as a funeral procession of cars with lit headlights passed us. !!! 

The Omaha-Council Bluffs bike network is maturing. We were able to cross the Missouri River bridge back into Nebraska on a separated bike trail. Multiple bike trails lead us to the bridge, and over and under roads and railroads. It is a mature, well-engineered approach to a city . It must have required extensive planning and funds. 'not yet perfect, but already impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even sampled a few miles of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail that we will cycle on Monday. The ground stone surface, in this area at least, is quite conducive to comfortable cycling.

We had routed ourselves to the Lauritzen Gardens (Omaha Botanical Garden) but arrived too late and too tired to sample much. We were also too late for the cup of coffee we had both been craving all day. Admission was free because of our membership at Gardens On Spring Creek in Fort Collins. Marney did do a quickie circuit of a couple gardens and the conservatory. Bob enjoyed the ambience of the main building.

We know this is a must stop for a longer visit.

Our nice urban arrival from the Gardens to the Embassy Suites felt like "coming home" because we had stayed at the same hotel in Minnesota two years ago for the Komives family reunion. 

Sunday is a rest day for us, perfectly timed.

We have proved that we can still cycle, but we know we are still getting into shape. The end of each day feels wonderful. We judge our free drinks and snacks at Embassy Suites to be our just reward.

 

Day 4: Monday, September 18: Omaha to Malvern, NE, (Wabash Trace Nature Trail), 33.5 miles [100]

               to Malvern Depot 305 W. 5TH   

Our early morning departure (7:45)  and the crossing of the Missouri River back into Iowa provided us with beautiful views with the recently-risen sun as the backdrop. Council Bluffs, Iowa has, like Omaha,  created a beautiful, landscaped, walkable riverfront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just past Harrah's casino, we encountered an early surprise--a 1 mile detour. Unable to go under I-29, we follow a detour; it even took us onto I-29's very wide shoulder for 1/2 mile. We then followed the 8 mile route to the Wabash Trace Nature Trail easily-but-not-pleasantly (truck route).

Our next 22 miles were a pleasant, shady ride on the crushed limestone (paved with concrete near some towns) Wabash Trace Nature Trail. It is  a convertion of a railroad right-of-way. Completed in 1997, it runs 63 miles over 72 bridges through scenic southwest Iowa countryside. Special details for us were "adopted" bridges, dedicated benches, the crunch of fallen leaves and black walnuts on the trail, as well as a large 'picnic' area ,"Margaritaville." The tradition of local riders, spring through fall, is a Thursday Night "Taco Ride "from Omaha/Council Bluffs, to Mineola for dinner and back. They often gather in "Margaritaville" for a refreshment break.

After  Mineola (population 220) , we arrived in Silver City (population 245). Riding slowly around the village, we were invited to a cup of coffee and conversation with Rich in Rich's Man Cave, a former gas station packed to the brim with all his collections. He has lived in Silver City for 63 years, served on village council for 35 years, was fire chief for a while. He is a dedicated Shriner and is the proud owner of blue Corvette convertible for Shriner parades and more.

We arrived in Malvern (population 1,046) about 12:45--in time for lunch at the Classic Cafe before they closed at 2. We ate good chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and left with the pulled-pork and salad we enjoyed for our dinner. (No restaurants are open here on Monday and Tuesday nights.) We are staying at the old Malvern depot which was converted to a cozy, delightful Air BnB  right on the trail. Apparently it was built to be the depot, never served as such, got preserved by volunteers, and was finally put to use as a fun AirBnB.

 

 

 

Day 5: Tuesday, September 19: Malvern to Shenandoah, IA, 24 miles [124]

to Shenandoah Inn and Suits, 620 W. Sheridan

Before leaving Malvern today, we cycled the town's walking map, seeing the public art that adds to  Malvern's charm. Woody Jones, a Malvern metal artist, has created whimsical trees throughout the town and the giant bicycle next to the trail. The Art Church, a repurposed 1873 Presbyterian Church, is the painting studio of Zach Jones, and has an Air Bnb downstairs. Art Alley is filled with murals by local artists.

Except for three other cyclists and a brief chat with the trail maintenance crew in their truck, the trail was ours for a few hours. The bikes swished through the fallen black walnuts and leaves, hundreds of grasshoppers leaped when we interrupted their sunning, and the views through the open spaces in the trees were of acres and acres of corn, and a few cows trying to stay cool. On this warm day, we appreciated the shade of the trail and the breeze. 

when we stopped for a snack in Imogene (population 39) Bob took a short nap on the grass in a lovely trailside camping area, with showers and restrooms, . We wondered if the 3 hikers we saw in Malvern, who were walking the whole length of the trail had camped there.

We rolled into Shenandoah (population 4800) around 1 PM. As the largest town in southwest Iowa (big enough for a Walmart), Shendandoah has a pleasant downtown of shops, hanging flowers, plaques with names of Iowa Hall of Famers on the sidewalks. and  a restaurant in the restored depot.The town boasts being the childhood home of the the rock duo, the Everly Brothers, whose songs we remember from our high school days in the late 50s. The Depot restaurant, where we had lunch, is filled with Everly Brothers and other town memorabilia. Leaving the restaurant we discovered that the front tire on Bob's bike had a flat. We always carry new tubes; the tire was fixed but we had not planned to spend our afternoon this way.

 

 

 

 

Day 6: Wednesday, September 20: Shenandoah, Iowa to Brownville, NE , 42 miles [166]

 to River Inn Resort, 648 A Ave; 402-825-6441

As we write tonight, we are in Brownville, NE, sitting on the deck of a riverboat/lodge where we are staying, watching the Missouri River flow by. So peaceful at dusk... so quiet except for the occasional sound of a fish jumping and the night insects in this riverside park. 

Today we began biking in Iowa, biked through the northwest corner of Missouri and ended the day in Nebraska--having crossed the Missouri River for the 4th time in 6 days. 

It was a challenging 42 mile day to get here. We had a headwind or side wind all day. The sun was intense, even though the temperature was only about 80. We rode up and down hills for 3/4 of our ride. Without electric assist, we would have been unable to do this day. (And not using all the assist we wanted to use, because of worries [somewhat unfounded] about using it up.) We felt depleted upon arriving at our destination. We passed windmills, cows scared of cyclists, silos awaiting the harvest, farmhouses with large lawns. Large trucks passed us (respectfully)--either returning from silos empty or going to silos full. We biked on asphalt and better gravel surface than we experienced on Day 1. It turns out, that day we experienced only the base layer. On top of that Iowa puts a layer of quite-rideable finely crushed limestone. There were also  a few miles on harsher gravel and hard-packed dirt. 

We passed thru only one town the whole day, Farragut (population 490), not far from our start in Shenandoah. We stopped at a picnic table on a deserted main street to eat our slices of Casey's-Country-Store breakfast pizza. No coffee shops or restaurants today; the side of the road provided grassy places to rest and eat the food we had brought with us. On one long stretch of road, we spotted one house with one tree and headed for a break under the shade of that one tree. No car was in the driveway, but three dogs were tied up outside and we could hear another in the barn, another in the house. What a noisy ruckus of the watch dogs and lucky for us they could not reach us in the bit of shade we found. We had knocked to ask permission but no answer. Fortunately we felt better after 20 minutes of shade, and the dogs quieted down and let us rest. We wonder what story the dogs had to tell their owners later.

A highlight was meeting Gary and Sherry Thompson (residents of this area for 36 years), their granddaughter, Mazie, and dog Sadie. They kindly allowed us to rest on their lawn in the shade and to add a boosting charge to our bike batteries. Because of a wrong connection, Bob's bike did not gain much charge, but happily made it to Brownville--his conservative use causing exhaustion.  That made it especially pleasing to find TJ's Tavern facing us as we exited the bridge at the end of our ride. After sharing 3 cokes, 4 glasses of water, and 1 pizza as we watched college volleyball, we revived and headed contentedly to the River Inn Resort.