Friday Bonus Post: Ride Report

Today I was supposed to work, but I didn't since I was supposed to get a stove delivered to my house today. Well, That didn't happen. But....a bike ride did! Above, check out how you navigate around Iowa's gravel goodness! Also note the ominous look to the sky. That comes in later.
I stopped to have a gel, and while looking around, I found these interesting footprints! Some say that Iowa has some cougars wandering about. I may not be any animal expert, but I think these were most likely left by a bobcat. Cool! One more thing to think about if you are in Trans Iowa!
Notice the smooth appearance of the gravel, or lack thereof, in this photo. Most of the roads I traveled today were high traffic, well....at least for gravel roads! Some places were clean of gravel across the whole roadway. Just about pavement-like! Roads less traveled have way more gravel than these. Guess which ones I picked for Trans Iowa?
Lots of rolling hills today! I felt great, and the small tweaks I made to my set-up recently have all been very positive! Lots of Hammer gel, Elete, and Power Bar Endurance mix in the water fueled me just fine for the three and a half hour trip. I came home feeling like I could keep riding even more, so that's a good thing. Sorry that no one else was along to get a snapshot of me in my blue jacket and red tights, but hey!....maybe that's a good thing! A raccoon did give me a sidelong look though!

As for the ominous clouds: well, they started to produce some snow flakes by the time I got home. Within about two hours, we had about two and a half inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground. Glad I missed that!

...........by the way, I wonder........what happened with that stove delivery? Humph!