All rise for the honorable Dr. Roland Buelow!

Papa joined us on Saturday (the 28th). Here he is, in all his glory, after initiation into our gang. (Is he cool? or is he cool?)









WHAT A DISH
In the window of time before his glorious arrival and our stop in Rock Falls, we didn't get far. By that I mean we didn't get anywhere at all. Curtis and Veronica Disher were our awesome and generous hosts there and Nathan (Curt's brother - Hi Nate! we miss you already) was our obliging tour guide and chauffeur. Due to my broken spoke we spent the day on Saturday trying to fix my bike instead of biking to Moline, IL. And ya know what, we're so glad we did =) In Rock Falls we went to the farmers market and met many more of the Disher's and bought an amazing coffee cake and got to hang out and drink free chai tea. We went to the local bike shop, were allowed free reign over the work station and then (when we were unsuccessful at servicing my freewheel) Nathan drove us to Dixon and we went to their bike shop and were again allowed use of their tools and stands, etc! These people are seriously awesome.
We also saw some live Jazz and toured the murals of Sterling (across the Rock Island River from Rock Falls).
After a full Rock Falls appreciation day, papa arrived and whisked us off to Moline where we continued our journey.
In Moline we visited the John Deere Pavilion (BIG)

and then we crossed the Centennial Bridge and headed out to Muscatine.
Unfortunately, due to flooding the camp site we were going to stay at was closed so we had to bike 10 miles, backtracking, to the Wildcat Den campsite.


Nathan met up with us there to experience a day of bike touring =) Props.


Monday we had a serious bike posse (4 people) and rode 30 miles before 10 am! (sorry for shaking the tent at 4:30 am, Lara - I promise to double check the alarm next time). We made it all the way to Lowden by 1pm and then we had a sprawl session on the porch of the Lincoln Hotel (a B&B really - that was empty except for us, so we felt like we had a house in town, pretty sweet). To the right you can see Lara and Papa enjoying the porch swing and Lara gloating because she beat me to it.
As much as we loved the downtime in little Lowden, we cut out really early the next morning and made great time again (Nate, hope you got back to your car ok!) We are now in Dyersville, Iowa. Can't wait for dinner. Tomorrow it's back to camping - good, I'm starting to miss the dirt and it's only been two days inside!




Oh yes, and the event of the day was that we ran into this guy on his recumbent who was also touring, only to discover that it was crazyguyonabike!! How cool! I mean, what are the chances =) We love you man, big shout out.

Much love to you all!
Maya


P.S. Hey Martin! Here is your bike in Iowa!