I think I may have angered the Hawkeye gods

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[Gloves, sure I got a pair. What do you mean I need new ones?]

Today we ended our trip through the Hawkeye state and none too soon. I think it must have been bad luck to wear my University of Minnesota Gophers bike jersey in Iowa. We were here three days and two of them had lots of hills, heat, and head winds. Guess which jersey I was wearing on those two days. Yep, Goldie. Today, while not nearly as bad as Wednesday, was still exhausting. It was already 77 degrees when we left Cascade and had reached the mid-90's by the time we finished. The west wind that had been forcast the day before turned out to be more of a south wind which blew steadily, although not terribly hard, in our faces all day long. The hills...oh, the hills. I had always been led to believe that Iowa was one big, flat corn field. And quite a bit of it is. Not the eastern part, however. I don't think we made it much more than a mile all day long without encountering a significant hill. They weren't enormous, but they were big enough to drop you way down into granny gear and they were EVERYWHERE! Last, but certainly not least for a guy whose rear end was already not feeling top notch, the roads today were in terrible shape. We didn't have a nice smooth bit of pavement until we had gone nearly 70 miles. Painful. And that's all I've got to say about that. On to the good stuff. We were "forced" to stay in a motel (air conditioned!) because Muscatine did not have any campgrounds within 5 miles of the city. While more expensive, this was not all bad because, as I mentioned earlier, it's damn hot out. It will be much easier to sleep tonight. Futhermore we will have a lovely complimentary breakfast waiting for us after we wake. I can't wait! Finally, once again there was a Pizza Ranch where we indulged ourselves for dinner. What a wonderful place. Well, I hope tomorrow is easier riding. It's only supposed to reach 96 degrees afterall.