I woke to the sound of a vacuum cleaner as the custodian of the church started his work for the morning. As I packed up to leave for the morning, the church's Bible study let me have cookies and muffins for breakfast. I bid them, the church staff, and Pastor Benson farewell and thanked them for their amazing hospitality. I met up with Jim who brought me an Iowa license plate along with tomatoes, carrots, and some other vegetable I can't remember the name of but was really good. I bid Jim farewell and continued the trek east.
I jumped onto Highway 20 where I'd spend the majority of my day. I was told that the shoulder got significantly better at the town of Early 20 miles down the road. It was this glimmer of hope that fueled me for the start of my day as I reluctantly trudged across the gravel. Pretty soon the traffic thinned out enough so that I could run in the lane for some pretty good chunks of distance.
As I got to Early, the shoulder widened as promised. Approaching the on-ramp from Highway 71 a policemen sounded his siren at me and motioned for me to stop. After realizing I didn't have a baby he let me continue racing a storm front to Sac City. Even without this delay, I wouldn't have even come close to beating the storm as the the rains started about five minutes afterwards. Nothing can come easy in Iowa. Just when the paved shoulder gave me a glimpse of smooth sailing I got completely soaked. It reminded me of home in Oregon as it was a constant rain without any lightning. That doesn't mean I enjoyed it.
I turned off Highway 20 and ran the final three miles to the Sac City Motel. My mom offered to put me up in one for the evening after seeing the tornado and flood warnings for the night. The owner, Sky, gave me a large map of Iowa that showed all of the paved roads. I desperately needed this since the internet-which has been my map-does not work on my phone in this state.
I finished the evening before the major upcoming storm at Hutch's diner. I talked with a guy from England who was visiting his home in the area that he had bought on eBay awhile ago. When I got back to my room, I got a call from Sky at the office telling me someone was at the front desk to see me. Kim, from the Lions Club that had just had a meeting at the diner, wanted to meet me and offered me a ride around a bridge that is out on the old Highway 20. I politely declined as I was going to head back to the new 20 to run to Knierim. She was from Knierim, a town of 50, and offered me a place to stay tomorrow night. She also said she could try to get places for me to stay for the rest of the state.
What the sky looks like a few hours before a tornado and flash flood warning
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