June 17: Pleasant ride to Updog Campground

Updog Camoground at Mt Pleasant, IA

Back on the bike after a rest day, I tried my new strategy of early starts to avoid the warmest weather of the day.  I may have mentioned earlier, that most of my training rides were done in coolish weather, usually with a jacket.  But of course the predominant  weather feature of the vacation is likely to be hot weather. Facing headwinds again today, my route was simply south along US 218, a four lane high speed highway. Most of the route featured  nice shoulder riding. At times I was able to jump off the main road to take quiet roads running parallel.

The goal today was Mt. Pleasant, which is a southern Iowa community which merits its name.  Home of Iowa Wesleyan University, it’s a quiet town. Supper was inside dining at Hyvee. Stuffed myself with some   Chinese and dessert.  Updog was the first private campground of the trip. I had a great site to myself down by the water and away from the RVs.

Miles: not recorded (estimate 53)

Elevations:  High 762. Low: 611

Max speed: 25.0 

A quiet road in Southern Iowa

Iowa backroad