August 6, 2015. This Is Nuts, Part II.

August 6, 2015.  This Is Nuts, Part II.  Hurrah!  We found the lake and the dunes.  They were where the ranger said they would be.  We stopped by this morning on our way from Michigan to Iowa.  Along the way, we passed through Indiana and Illinois.  We are at the Amana Colonies again tonight.  We began this trip here, and now we finish it here.  We will be home tomorrow night. 

We arrived in this area about 1:00 PM.  We had two goals; eat at Maid Rite diner and at Ronneburg Restaurant. First, Maid Rite was recommended by our friends, Carolyn and Dave Thomas.  They attended Iowa State and their love affair with each other and Maid Rite goes back many decades.  The Thomas' follow this blog and Dave asked if we stopped at Maid Rite when we passed through here two weeks ago.  I told him we'd try it on our way home.  We did.  Maid Rite is famous for its loose beef burgers.  The meat is seasoned and mixed with white onions.  It makes a tasty sandwich. 

We also wanted to sample the German food at the Ronneburg.  So, we biked from the campground to the restaurant - more about that later.  The food was plentiful and good.  I had brats and sauerkraut.  Annie had the chicken schnitzel.  The meal was served family style with refills on the side orders.  We then cruised around the colony, which took about ten minutes. 

Now, back to the bike ride into town.  Annie was hesitant to do that because it meant we had to ride nearly a mile along side the highway.  I urged her to confront her concerns and just pedal confidently along the shoulder of the road.  That worked for about two minutes.  It worked until the first car swooped up behind us and passed us at about 60 miles per hour.  It passed about four feet from our bikes and the wind from the car nearly unseated Annie from her bike.  She braked her bike, put both feet on the pavement and shrieked, "This is nuts!"

She was right.  We had started our ride during the dinner hour, thinking others would be eating and there wouldn't be a lot of traffic.  What we (and, by "we", I mean "I") overlooked is that it was rush hour in Amana.  People were rushing home for dinner and two mature bikers were a nuisance.  They didn't slow down, they didn't swerve, they just zoomed past us like a freight train past a bum.  It took Annie several minutes at the restaurant to stop shaking. 

So, this two-week trip is at an end.  We discovered that we don't like camping in July.  There are too many people in the campgrounds and it is simply too congested.  We will stick to the shoulder seasons of spring and fall.  The weather is more agreeable and the campgrounds are far less crowded. 

We'll be back at it in October.  Feel free to drop by then.  Until then, so long.