I knew I was back in the Midwest for two reasons: 1) humidity and 2) the smell of corn in the air. Both were abundant on this day. Today's route was easy to remember: ride on US-20 until I arrived in Waterloo. In this regard, I thought I was in for a relatively uneventful day as far as the route went. This, however, changed. Around 9:30am, I was taking a break under an overpass just east of the I-35/US-20 interchange when a state police officer pulled up behind me. He politely explained to me that it was illegal for me to ride on this segment of US-20, because it is access controlled. In a nutshell, this means that there are no interactions with roads on this part of US-20, and on-ramps and off-ramps are the only method to enter and exit the highway. This meant exiting US-20 two miles down the road and finding an alternative route to Waterloo. Fortunately, the old US-20 route is now a paved county highway that parallels the current US-20. This road seemed to be almost forgotten, as cars seldom passed by. In fact, this absence of traffic made for a much more peaceful ride. As mentioned earlier, it was a very, very humid day. When I had concluded riding for the day and was finally stopped, I noticed that this was the most I had perspired throughout the entire trip. I was very thankful to be hosted by a couple on this evening, which gave me a break from the heat. This couple's mentality was that their home was my home. Their hospitality was another reminder of being back in the Midwest. Tomorrow's ride would be a bit shorter, and the majority of it would be on a bike trail. Furthermore, I was familiar with parts of this trail, because it is one that I often ride north out of Cedar Rapids!
