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.