R17 22 RideOut Day 3: Alta, Aurelia, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Happy Winter Solstice Little Beavers! It is the shortest day and the longest night of the year! Don't forget to celebrate with some pagan rituals or something. 

Highway 7 Road to Heaven

There are two bars in Alta, Iowa. The Century Club and Scooter's. The Mayor thought we should explore side streets looking for another bar, but Steven and I barked him down with grunts of disgust. 

Scooter's it was. And Scooter's was nice with a cheerful barmaid who was very kind and kept the waters coming. I think I drank three of those huge Pizza Hut size cups of ice water and two beers. I was done talking for a while. 

And, it wasn't too soon after that we were back out on the road and headed towards Aurelia, slowly creeping towards Cherokee. Thankfully, the traffic seemed to quiet down and the clouds came out and that was a big help. There was a nice long zoom into Aurelia and I found the Mayor, Steven and the RM all waiting for me at the Casey's. 

Apparently the bar in town wasn't open yet. 

So, we bought a bunch of snacks and went up to the covered back deck of the bar, where there were nice red picnic tables. The RM joined us and we had a nice time chatting about the ride and Des Moines and politics. The only downside was the fact that the air conditioner kept roaring to life and drowning us out and reminding us that we were still hot and gross. 

 

Steven's snacks. 

Whoops, forgot one thing! 

But we were growing quite fond of the RM. They told us stories of their adventures on ragbrai and beyond. Ruth was a teacher for a long time, so we had a lot in common. 

We took a look at the map, compared it with Ruth's map, and made a plan to get into Cherokee. At this point, I tried to explain to the crew that the hotel is on Highway 59 in Cherokee, but when it goes through town it goes up a huge, curving hill that is partially blind to traffic. I thought it made much more sense to do what I did the year before and duck over to a side street and do the climb there. Everyone nodded and soon enough we were on our bikes and off for the last quiet slog into Cherokee.

Not sure where this is...but it's pretty

The country roads were lovely. Gorgeous, open landscape.

There were some long hills, but a gratifying zoom downhill onto Highway 59. RM had mentioned a side street, but it never materialized, so we rode, en mass into Cherokee. 

When we got to the base of the hill, the Mayor and Steven were ahead of me and they just kept charging up. I yelled, "goodbye!" and ducked over to the side street. Steven looked back at me quickly but then followed the Mayor up the death highway hill. 

The RM were behind me and they followed me up the hill through the residential streets, then then through the K-Mart parking lot and on to the "bike trail"/sidewalk that lead up the hill towards the hotel. Steven and the Mayor were waiting for me. The hotel wouldn't let them check it without me--which I crowed about--I may be slow, but I have the credit card, fuckers. 

And with that, the riding part of day 3 was over. It was time for pool, and Mexican food, and snoozing.