80.6 miles, 2881 ft of climb

Iowa map. Tama-Toledo to Coralville routeIowa map. Tama-Toledo to Coralville route

A tour bike standing at the curb in front of a brown brick early 20th Century one story municipal building.
Chelsea (pop 229) City hall
A tour bike leaning on a outside brick wall with a touched up yellow Viscomotor oil ghost sign.
Viscomotor ghost sign in Chelsea. A quick search for Viscomotor info yielded this exact ghost sign. According to the comments in a flickr user’s post it was touched up by the former owner’s daughter who was uneasy on the ladder, thus the original top half.
Numerous cyclist riding and standing on a main street with an uninterrupted canyon of late 19th Century buildings
Belle Plaine (pop 2332)
Me with cyclists and service tents along an uninterrupted block of late 19th Century downtown buildings.
A string of park bikes alone an uninterrupted late 19th Century downtown
A cyclist towing a trailer holding a dog standing in front of a mock horror scene roadside attraction.
Belle Plaine, roadside attraction. For a donation they’d take a pic of you with the scene. I can appreciate the old school PT Barnum aspect of it, throw something up for the out of town rubes to gawk at. Since they had a water station too, I donated but told them I had the pic I wanted.
Me looking at the camera in the shade with a field behind.
Amana (pop 388) rest stop. A town founded by a 19th Century German small religion. Nitya and I have been here before which means I got tons of pics of the buildings already, plus it was too hot to lollygag.
Cyclist on the left riding out of town into the distance with a small set of late 19th Century storefront and flats to the right.
Oxford (pop 722). Poor Oxford, like Colfax yesterday, I have absolutely no recollection of you. Notice the self contained cyclist bottom right.
A closeup picture of two cyclist on a state road passing a pro Republican limited government sign in front of federally supported corn fields.
Last rest before Coralville. Clearly the zoom on my phone is no good. There were a fair number of local citizens that didn’t mind telling you where they wrongly stood. “Our Forefathers Had It Right. Limited Government. Vote Republican” By which, of course, they mean “limited” to the federal corn subsidies given to them for the corn field that sign is standing next to.

Day 1 – Sioux City to Storm Lake (72.2 miles, 3592 ft of climb)

Day 2 – Storm Lake to Carroll (57.3 miles, 1778 ft of climb)

Day 3 – Carroll to Ames (86.1 miles, 1564 ft of climb)

Day 4 – Ames to Des Moines (54.5 miles, 1242 ft of climb)

Day 5 – Des Moines to Tama-Toledo (88.9 miles, 4218 ft of climb)

…

Day 7 – Coralville to Davenport (71.2 miles, 1892 ft of climb)

Contact CBA for custom guided rides through Chicago’s neighborhoods and for gift certificates for the cyclists in your life. Also, have a look at The Map, where you can plan your own ride, run, or walk around Chicago.

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