Today was another difficult day, and my body is starting to wear down, but I still have a positive mental attitude. There were more winds, more hills. Iowa is surprisingly, even startlingly beautiful; manicured, polished and green, the sort of landscape you imagine on a movie set. I wish I had more time to look at it but it's flying by. At the end of today I got chased into camp the last 8 miles by a rainstorm mixed with thunder which scared me a little bit. I managed to beat it, though. Our mileage estimate for the day was wrong by about 8 miles so I kept thinking camp was right around the corner.
Elkader itself is surprisingly nice. We had dinner at an excellent little Algerian restaurant, of all things.
The highlight of the day was stopping by the Field of Dreams, which is where they shot the movie of the same name. It was a really nice little spot; they have kept it just like it was in the movie, and avoided commercializing it too much; it's free to just walk up and swing a bat. We rode our bikes around the bases. Iowa really is the best of middle America; what rural America aspires to be. It's a shame we're working so hard that I feel like I can't fully enjoy it!
