We solved the problem of Iowa's stone shoulders by getting on the farm roads. This 1 mile grid of roads forms the state. It's like some highway engineer started at one side of the state and said, "We'll start here and make a perfect straight road all the way to the border. Then we'll do it again one mile over. After a bunch of that, we'll go the other way." It made riding really easy. We passed maybe fifteen cars on these farm roads. Now that we were getting away from the western edge of the state the roads were reliable too. The previous day we had tried these farmroads but got dead ended on a dirt road. We took these roads just about all the way to Pennsylvania.

One of the reasons why we took this route was to see Ames Iowa. My Dad and Uncle Jim went to school at Iowa State many years ago. This was a big slice of family history for me. My Dad recommended Ledges State Park to stay at. When we got there, at dusk, we found that the park was completely full. Fortunately we met Jay, Linda, Justin and Tyler, a family of cyclists. They were on a short tour. Jay and Tyler road a tandem, and pulled Justin along in a trailer. They graciously offered to share there campsite with us. I tell you these mid westerners are really good people. We cooked spaghetti with tuna and tomato sauce. Some little kid was running around the campground with a duck call annoying people. The big family reunion party next to us dragged on loudly late into the night.