DO YOUR BEST.
Do your best is a phrase that I have heard many times in my life. I enjoyed hearing it on Sunday, and think it is an appropriate title. Bits of stories were told about being in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa but the one that made me part of this trip started something like this..
They couldn't find a place to stay so called home to their webmaster to get on the warm showers website. Fortunately they found someone within a reasonable distance. The down side was that it was late in the day and most people want a bit of a notice before showing up to camp in their yard, and it's a holiday weekend. The guy they were going to contact listed "do your best" for length of notice requested. It's 8:00 pm and they needed a place to stay tonight. that was the best they could give today.
At this point in the story there was a dead end trail, a hard city to find your way through, a scary neighborhood, and a really steep hill on a gravel road.
I came into the story the next morning when I received a message from my friend and fellow cyclist who is their warm shower host, "The touring cyclists are taking a day off, I will have company today, stop over sometime." Being the social butterfly that I am, I headed over when I was done at church. We visited for a while and swapped bicycling stories then set out for our day.
There were two main goals for the day: 1) to find a specific book, 2) their host needed to purchase a belt for his mower. As you read on in this story you will see that I won't mention making either of these purchases. Of course if you look at the top of the Biker Beans Blog the third line explains this perfectly.
I will attempt to spare you all of the fine details and hit the highlights of the day.
We visited the Sergeant Floyd Welcome Boat in Sioux City. Here we found free cookies, candy from Palmer Candy, and education about Lewis & Clark and the history of Sioux City. I enjoyed being there as they experienced a Twin Bing candy bar made by Palmer's. This is a local favorite that I have known my entire life, but for many it is a new experience. We also learned there are four speeds at which this boat once operated, Full, Half, Slow, and Dead Slow.
Next door is the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. The dog out front made for some fun conversation! This is also where we met another touring cyclist, Derek from New York.
We headed to the mall to attempt to reach the goals for today. At the mall we introduced them to our bike shop friend, looked for tires, looked for the things we needed and left with no purchases.
We would grab a quick snack before going for a quick boat ride. Taco John's experience #1 was good. I like the fact that when the manager came to see how they liked their first TJ's experience I thought to ask about free stuff. She hooked them up with some free taco coupons!
Back to the river for a quick 15 minute boat ride up the Missouri River. Another cyclist from Sioux City took us out on his boat. We headed up river, and floated back down. Although we were set up for a quick tour, two and a half hours later I was glad I had the time to relax.
We went to pick up some chlorine for the hot tub. He left the keys in the truck and I had to take the opportunity. The Biker Beans sat innocently in the back seat, I moved the truck..
We ate dinner at El Fredo's Pizza. YUMMY! You can't beat The Works at El Fredo's.
Back to the host house for relaxation and wind down time. I left at 10:30 pm - I am sure glad that I stopped over after church. I had an incredible day!
Kathy Roberts, McCook Lake, South Dakota
Dave and Heather on the river.
Jeff getting tired of listening to our stories.
