Day 16 - 3rd Week Day One

In the 70's with showers throughout the day. This is the way to ride. Despite leaving us waterlogged as we rolled out of Lincoln it was a tremendous surprise to have a cool day of riding after the tortuous heat of last week.

As the skies cleared a little we hit our next milestone, Iowa. 4 states down.

Our stop today is Shenandoah, IA. Matt has done a couple interviews with a radio station there, and we're going to head down to meet them.

The riding today was fairly difficult. The rest days seem to make it harder for my body to get back into riding. Then as we were cruising through the Eastern Section of Iowa we suddenly came upon this heavily wooded area. The humidity was drastic compared to the flat plains below this steep curving hill that snaked up and around this lost rain forest. But it didn't last. Iowa has many more rolling hills than Nebraska, more of a mellow version of Wyoming. As we rolled into Shenandoah, around 5pm we found our destination the KMA 960 radio station. We got a quick meet and greet with the crew then an interview with Matt's contact Kristen Gray. The interview was fun! She asked us questions about our motivation, and how we came to be "big thinkers." Some of it was funny, for example I never really thought of myself as a big thinker. I know I like to think, I love new ideas, and to learn but I just assumed everyone is that way. I still think they are. But the best part was when she asked what she could do for us. The only thing I could come up with was helping with Mental Health Parity Legislation. It's the one thing that is nagging me on this trip that I feel like I'm not doing enough about. So I told her about the legislation and what it means to people everywhere and how it can help. In return she told me that she's going to be interviewing the presidential candidates prior to the Iowa Caucuses and that she'd ask them that question! This is huge! This is more than I could have hoped to do.

Were crashing here at the town park in Shenandoah, starting to become a pro at sleeping in these parks. We've had some ice cream and dinner and now it's time to sleep.