Day 39 -- Davenport, IA

Iowa has no shoulders on the roads. Add fog, a light drizzle, small country roads, and semi-trailers and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Even with a bright orange jacket and a blinking back light, there were a lot of near misses today. On top of that, we had a pile up in the morning when I fell because my front tire slipped off the road and into gravel, causing me to fall over sideways. The two people behind me ended rear-ending me and flipping over me. Luckily, none of us were hurt and none of the bikes were damaged. It wasn’t a comfortable day on the bike. Worse, right as we were rolling into the town of Davenport with a police escort, I hit a pothole and got a double flat. Yes, both my front and back tubes popped at the same time. Since my tires had more than 2,500 miles on them, I decided it would be a good idea to buy new tires (Kevlar reinforced) to replace them and hopefully last me the end of the summer. Other than that, we are staying at a hotel (Clarion) for the second night in a row, a rarity, and we had a friendship visit at a local pool where I had 9 sandwiches for dinner.