Day Fourteen- Done (Over 1110 miles)

August 3rd-

I woke up at 4 am for no reason. I looked outside the tent. It was peaceful. So, I went back to sleep to enjoy the next two hours of dreams. I was woken up by a loud boom and downpour just fortyfive minutes later. It poured for a long time, but I fell back asleep. I got up at 7 am and everything was dry, except for my bike. Oh well.

I rode for hours of up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill. People told me it's called "The Devil's washboard." I did have the wonderful luck of finding 80% of two cell phones along the side of the road. I saved them. I don't know why exactly. Maybe because I want to recycle the batteries that are inside them still.

I got sick, both literally and figuratively, of the hills. I decided that it was time to ride on the highway. Within ten minutes of being on the highway, a cop pulled me over and said, "You know you're not allowed to ride here, right?" I replied, "Really, because the Iowa State Webpage says that I'm allowed to ride on any roads unless otherwise posted. And there wasn't any sign when I got on." His response was, "Yeah, we don't post it anywhere, but you're not allowed to. I'm not going to give you a ticket. You just can't ride here." I was so thankful that he didn't give me a ticket. If he did, I would've sent it in to the webmaster of the Iowa State website.

It was incredibly hot out, but I continued to add the miles. I rode into a quaint town by the name of Altoona and saw a bike shop. I thought, "why not go in?"

Well, I'm glad I did. I picked up a couple cheap parts for the bike, if a repair might be needed. But, I also picked up two new friends; Mike (who worked there) and Jason (President of the Altoona Triathalon Club). Both of them gave me a free shirt one after the other. I told Jason that I'd love to come back sometime and do a triathalon with him. After I left, I got about two miles before I had to go back. I left my glasses in the bathroom while I was filling my water bottles. I thanked Mike again and followed his directions to the trail I was allowed to ride.

When I finally made it close to the trail it was already dark outside. That is probably the reason for me getting pulled over for the second time today. He let me go while giving me directions to the trail (even though I already had them).

I got over to the trail and was riding quickly through it, even though I could barely see the path. I came across a small park that looked a lot kinder than continuing on the dark trail. So, I scouted the grounds for about ten minutes to see if anyone could attack me in the depth of the night. It seemed safe enough. So, I set up my tent and bike. I waited across the field from where I was planning on sleeping for about thirty minutes, waiting to see if anyone would come by.

When no one did, I went in to sleep. Sure enough though, right before midnight another officer came by. I was sure he was going to send me on my way, but he liked my story and called in to the chief to persuade him to let me spend the night. He said, "This guys travelling across country on a bike for Polio. He's in a tent off to the side of the park. He has paperwork saying what he's doing. It seems on the up and up. Is it alright if he just camps out here for the night?" Sure enough, it was. Thanks to Officer D. Liska, I slept well that night knowing I was allowed.

Daily Lesson: When it comes to getting stopped by the Police; Third time's a charm.

And the usual: Please support the cause at http://www.rotary.org/en/endpolio/Pages/ridefault.aspx