Last night I met Brian Wilson. No, not THAT Brian Wilson. Him and his buddies were staying at Elkader to go trout fishing. This morning as I was packing up, he came back to talk to me. After a bit, his fishing buddies came over too (I think they were wanting to go eat so they could go fishing). I had a great time talking to all of them (mostly Ron and Brian, but a little with Mel and Larry). I gave them all blog cards, and told Brian I'd send him a postcard when I got to Bar Harbor.
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| Elkader and the Turkey River |
I was on the road a little later than usual, but still by 8:00. My goal was Cascade, some 63+ miles away. The weather was perfect, but the wind was coming up again. I resumed riding the rolling hills of Iowa on backroads. I went through S mall towns such as Elkport, Colesburg, and Petersburg. Petersburg had the first consecrated church in Iowa. It was quite the showpiece.
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| Petersburg church |
I rolled into Dyersville around noonish. Brian and Ron (and my map, it turns out) told me that the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams" with James Earl Jones, and Kevin Costner was filmed in Dyersville. The actual ball field was still there. I had a choice in Dyersville. I could stay on the route, and go right by the Field of Dreams movie site, or I could take a rail trail called the Heritage Trail. The Heritage Trail would save me about 1 1/2 miles over the route. I was going to do it, but then I thought, how often does one get the chance to see a movie set about baseball in, of all places, Iowa? Well, pretty much never was the answer I came up with. So, I stayed on the route.
At Lansing Rd (the farm used in the movie is owned by the Lansing family), I turned to go to the movie site. It was about 1/2 mile off the route. The field, the house, and everything is still there. You were allowed to run around the bases if you so desired. They also did tours of the house (for a fee, of course). Having seen the movie, but not being a die hard fan, I didn't feel it was necessary to do the house tour. And, since I'd already ridden over 40 miles, I didn't run around the bases either. But, I took some photos, and bought a postcard for Grayson.
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| Field of Dreams |
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| The ball field |
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| The house |
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| The memorabilia |
The next town was Farley. I stopped and picked up a few groceries, and wrote and mailed Grayson's postcard (the grocery store and Post Office being right next to each other--handy!). From Farley I had about 12 miles to go. The wind was still whipping like mad--mostly a crosswind, but on lucky occasions an awesome tailwind. There had been lots of fluffy white clouds all day, but some not so fluffy and white started to move in. They even dropped a bit of rain. I just kept turning the pedals. Then the clouds decided, in addition to the rain drops, they would let loose with some thunder and lightening. I just kept turning the pedals, but a little faster now. It seemed the direction I was heading looked better, but I did keep my eye out for a farmhouse should I need to take shelter.
I managed to make it to Cascade without being struck. My map says there is camping at Cascade Legion Park, but I'd need to call the city police to check in. I arrived at the park, but didn't have service. I borrowed a guy's phone and called the number. They told me they had no idea about staying at the park, but gave me the number of the Cascade office (the number on my map was a dispatch number not located in Cascade). I called the city police office, and got a recording. Okay, well, I tried. I'm staying here anyway. To round out my baseball themed day, there is a high school baseball game here. So far, the home team is far better than the other guys. They scored 4 runs in the first inning alone. Now it's 12 to 0. I'm not sure what inning it is. An advantage of having this game going is there are concessions. What's a ballgame without a hotdog? They're only $3.00! Sounds like a cheap dinner to me!
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| Dinner |
Once everyone clears out, I'll set up my tent (maybe on the pitcher's mound--just kidding--besides, it wouldn't be very flat). It's my first night of free camping!
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| Tilmann watching the game from under the bleachers |
Update: There was a second game last night. This was the older high school age boys. I thought the game would never end! They went 11 innings before the opposing team finally scored a run. I wasn't able to set up my tent until about 10:30. So, a short night of sleep.
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| Sun is going down, and still no end in sight. |
Total miles for today: 67
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