Dubuque, IA – 20 Miles of Rain

July 23, 2010

This morning started with a visit from Lolly as she made her way across Iowa to head to a wedding this weekend in Ohio. It was nice to say one last goodbye before we part for the next few weeks. It was cloudy as we rolled out of the parking lot, and we ended up having 20 incredible miles in the pouring rain! At first it was just wet, but after a few miles of riding the rain came down hard. Some of us in the back of the pace line were joking that we couldn’t tell if it was raining, or if we were just getting hit by the constant stream of water the guy in front of us was kicking up. We probably had the most fun on this ride, and were all in an incredible mood despite the terrible weather. Unfortunately, around mile 20 the lightning started flashing, and we took to the vans to wait it out. We wanted to get back out on the bikes, but the lightning wouldn’t let up. Then we found out that all of the known routes into the camp we are staying at were flooded over. In the end, it was decided that we were to drive to camp, but only after someone found a new route there!

Once we safely made it to the camp, the rain seemed to let up, which was good because we had plans to visit the Field of Dreams. I know I’ve seen this movie at some point, but can’t really remember it at all. I thought I would be pretty bored here, because it’s just a baseball diamond surrounded by corn, but managed to find a few guys to joke around with while others enjoyed a bit of baseball.

Our day ended with dinner at camp, but unfortunately all the campers are already home from the week. We did get a chance to interact with some of the counselors though, and found out a little bit more about the camp.