Off to Minnesota: Day Two

I stretched and moaned my way out of bed. The pain of the previous day was gone and simple soreness was left in my muscles. After a "breakfast" at the Super 8, we took off for Dyersville, Iowa. The first thing we noticed was NO WIND!!! It was the most pleasant day of the trip regarding weather.

The morning took us through Bennett and up the Hoover Highway to Lowden. We had a great breakfast in Lowden at the Arrow Cafe. The waitresses were very nice and curious about our trip. They said that many bikers come by the cafe. Our breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and coffee really hit the spot!

After passing through the tiny town of Massillion and the Wapsipinicon River, we rode in to Oxford Junction. We took several pictures here and came across a very unhappy store clerk. Our first unfriendly encounter. We think it had something to do with the heavy metal music playing and all of the patrons including the clerk being over 65 years of age. It was an odd match. But after some air in the tires and a Snickers bar, we were off.

We were looking forward to passing Wyoming, Iowa; because a nice man at the Arrow Cafe had mentioned that the landscape flattens out after Wyoming. This became the mantra of the day especially after we passed Wyoming; the landscape did not flatten out. In fact, there were more hills and they were longer and steeper. So, as we would be climbing a large hill, one of us would yell, "It flattens out after Wyoming!" The man had clearly never been past Wyoming or at least he had never been past Wyoming on a bike.

We had lunch in Cascade which clearly had money in town based on the houses on the south side, the nice parks and amazing school for such a small town. Then we pushed on to Dyersville. I was looking forward to our stay in Dyersville, because it meant a visit to the "Field of Dreams."

It was a five mile ride out to the field. It is nothing fancy, just the house and the field. The corn was just emerging so no ghosts from baseball's past were present. But it is amazing that this Hollywood symbol of America's Pasttime is still so frequently visited. In the guest book, there were at least 75 names for that day from all over the world. There were visitors from Japan, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin and Alabama. It is my opinion that there is very little that symbolizes America better than the game of baseball. The setting of the Field of Dreams epitomizes the Americana of baseball. It is set in the heartland of America. It is tucked away between rolling hills, and on this particular day the sun was shining with a small breeze. It is our game, and it is in our setting.

After showers, dinner, a short walk and a call to our wives to tell them everything is good, we had a good night's sleep in Dyersville.