Wow, I thought that 85 was pretty hot, but after 3 days in the 90's, 85 is downright cool. Throw in some nice rolling hills and favorable winds for about half the day, and bicycling becomes enjoyable - quite different from the survival sport of the last couple days (I almost got voted off the Survivor island, as many did).
As soon as we crossed the Big Sioux River into Iowa, the topography changed dramatically from flat prairie to rounded hills that had extensive crops (corn and soybeans nearly 100%), and in areas were terraced. These are the Iowa Loess Hills - similar to the Palouse of eastern Oregon and Washington, they are glacial outwash silt that has been windblown and molded into hills and are very fertile.
The hills are up to mostly only 1-200 feet high, but if you go up and down the things all day (on straight roads that just go up and down the hills), you can accumulate 5000 feet of climbing without any real change in altitude.
Talked with a woman in Rickets at one of our lunch stops: town of 1oo people, mostly old. 20 years ago a vigorous community with bowling alley, car dealer, and grocery store - now just old people mostly, including a retirement home. The family farms were all sold to big farm corporations and very few people are actually needed for the farming, so no younger folks left.
Saw something that we hadn't seen since the Black Hills: a curve in the road! Neat.
A few farms still left - they are pretty.
The hills were very pleasant riding: especially the chance to get my butt off the saddle for a climb every couple minutes.
Rather surprisingly I've survived a few tough, long days and now can seriously think of doing EFM (Every Fantastic Mile, or something like that).
8.0 hours, 206 km (128 miles), 25.9 km/hr (16.1 mph), 1755 meters (5750 feet) climbing, 3703 kJoules, HR 93, power 144 watts.
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