Victor Rows to Chicago - Don ends up in Court!

We're still waiting on pictures and an official report about what took
place at last Friday's Indianapolis NBG Day, where the media was out in
force and number of city officials attended but as we count down to the
ride's end this Friday in Chicago, HiTech CEO Victor Grinshtein has been
steadily rowing away. That's right ROWING. Victor has been turning heads
on his Rowbike ever since he left Columbus on July 14 with Steve Shaw
and Marshall Lafferty.

Approaching the Windy City from the West, in addition to Des Moines NBG
Day last Thursday, to Don Loomis has had one adventure after another. In
fact, Faye Saunders has been hard at work trying to keep up with him.
Besides taking his reports over the phone and then creating the stories
you have seen here about his ride for the last 6 weeks, she also scours
the web looking for applicable links and checking the spelling of those
cities and points of interest he calls out. I think you'll agree that
both she and Don are doing some good work:
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When we spoke Friday, the firs thing Don wanted to point out was the
fact that the rooms in both the Hotel Pattee http://hotelpattee.com and
The Cottage B&B http://www.thecottagedsm.com in Iowa were complimentary
in honor of his cross country bicycle tour bringing the vision of the
NBG to Americans everywhere.

I was a bit concerned when Don told me he was calling from the Sudbury
Court in Marengo, Iowa, but he quickly assured me that he was not in any
sort of trouble, but was camping at the Sudbury Court Motel & RV Park in
Marengo, Iowa.

Back in Des Moines that morning, Don had been awakened by the sound of
thunder. He looked out of the window of his comfortable room at The
Cottage to dark skies. After the gracious B&B staff had treated him to
a breakfast that included an omelet, fruit, bacon and toast, he read in
the paper that the Mayor would be doing some sort of ribbon cutting
ceremony for some pedestrian bridges and walkways that were to be built
over the Des Moines River. Little did he know that he would be a guest
of honor at it.

Don and his Iowa guide, Robert Craddick. headed off to the coffee shop
where they were to meet the Des Moines government chief. Mayor Frank
Cownie arrived dressed for a meeting. He told them his last appointment
had run over time and that he would have to go home to change into
something more suitable for bike riding. Meanwhile, a TV reporter
interviewed Don and Robert.

When Mayor Frank returned on his bicycle, accompanied by his daughter,
Suzie, Don noticed that the mayor's bike tires were quite low and
proceeded to pump them up for him. Suzie told Don that she plans to
attend Santa Clara University in the fall, which is very close to Don's
home in San Jose, CA. The four of them rode then rode, in the summer
rain that had forced everyone else inside, to City Hall. Once there
Lorna Davros, the Mayor's scheduler, helped them get in to the City
Council Chamber for the NBG proclamation ceremony, which included a
speech by Don.

Once this ceremony concluded, instead of going across the street to the
barbecue that had been planned, they rode even more rain to the
ceremony that Don had read about. There, symbolic of a groundbreaking
ceremony for a new trail center, called the River Walk , that would be
built on an old rail line, Mayor Frank used a chainsaw to cut railroad
ties. By the time the Mayor was finished, it had begun raining very
hard. The governor, a former senator, and a representative from the
Army Corps of Engineers all spoke. When it was Mayor Frank's turn he
introduced Don and talked about the NBG Mayors' Ride. There were more
umbrellas than bicycles present, however.

Because rain had cancelled their cookout, when the ceremony was over,
Robert and Don retreated back to Robert's house where they had a
"bratfest" of their own. There Robert invited all the cyclists he knew
to help them eat the hot dogs and drinks a grocery store had donated
and the 80 bratwursts that Lewirghts deli http://lewrightmeats.biz had
also generously provided free of charge.

According to Don, Robert has a collection of bicycle history items that
he carries around in a box that he calls his "museum in a box". It
contains memorabilia such as books, buttons, old lanterns, etc. Robert
also has an cat with a unique talent -- it fetches.

Don left Des Moines around 5:00 pm after the rain had subsided. He
biked through downtown before hooking up with the Heritage Bike Trail
which would take him in a northeasterly direction. He found a great
dinner special at the HiVee grocery store -- a meatloaf dinner for only
$3.50. He then rode on until he arrived at the County Park around 8:30
pm. There he had a nice campsite complete with showers, always a plus.

Since his intention was to arrive in Iowa City to spend the night with
the parents of a friend of his from church, he rose before dawn and saw
a very beautiful sunrise while pedaling away. The sky was a dappled red
color with the sun coming through a small sliver. That's one of the
advantages of getting up early, and he was glad he did, since the rest
of the day he saw nothing but clouds in the sky. It was a bit cooler,
in the 70's, but he did not make Iowa City as planned due to a strong
headwind and quite a few hills.

The next morning he decided to try the another HiVee for breakfast, this
time in Newton, where he enjoyed some Missouri peaches. Later, he
couldn't resist stopping at a lemonade stand run by three little girls.
They were making made-to-order fresh squeezed lemonade. What a treat!
One of the girls talked about her dad who had hiked from Iowa to the
west coast, probably before she was born. Later, in Grinnell he met
some young ladies who had just seen a Winnebego pass by and were
discussing what fun that would be to tour the country in one, when Don
rolled up and convinced them that it would be much more fun to tour the
country by bicycle instead. He invited them to join him, but they
didn't have bikes and couldn't go today.

In La Dora, he met the owner of a small store there called The La Dora
Stora. Ironically, she and Don were both born in Oregon and had lived
in California. They discussed the upcoming RAGBRAI bike race as she was
stocking up on supplies, even though her store isn't on the main route
of the ride. Don assumed she would be stocking up on sports drinks and
snack items like nuts and fruit, but she said she was stocking up on
beer -- it's not really so much a bike race as it is a huge moving party.

The mosquitoes are "almost vicious" where he is now in Marengo. He
called me from inside the building where he was protected, but when he
is outside they swarm the only unprotected parts of his body, his face
and hands. Even DEET doesn't deter them for long, but the sun
protection pants do work quite well as mosquito repellent. There are
big black clouds in the sky and for the first time, Don felt a chill.

The plan is to visit with the people in Iowa City that he was supposed
to have spent last night with and he would also like to visit the nearby
Amana Colonies, which consists of a group of cities settled by Amish
people from Europe. He plans to be in Chicago on July 27th.