In July 2004 I bicycled from West Bend to South Dakota. Below
is a portion
of that travel journal.
Saturday July 3rd - - Gays Mills, Wis. to Decorah, Iowa. 65 miles in five hours.
I
HEART Decorah, Iowa.
This city is unbelievable. It's a mix of Norman Rockwell
with a hip shot of twentieth-century groove.
My first stop was an antique store. It was actually in a garage. The owner,
Nancy, said she had been living out of her garage for the past 22 years. I don't
know why I stopped. I can't buy anything because I'm not about to carry
anything else.
It was torture because she had a lot of cool things like an orange ash
tray resting in a black stand with a golden antelope leaping over the tray.
A bargain at $25. There was a Saturday Evening Post of the Beatles, dated March 1964. A steal for
$20.
There were a bunch of old radios stacked neatly on a shelf; Admirals, Musicare,
Delco, Sentinal, and Silvertone. Nancy's favorite pieces were her
brown-and-white transfer ware; white dishes with intricate brown
patterns.
Nancy let me use her phone to call the pastor in town to see if he would let
me stay in the church hall for the night. After several unsuccessful calls
Nancy deemed it too much work and said I could stay at her place.
"By the
way, I'm leaving for the night so would you mind watching my place," she
said.
That was some quick trust established in 10 short minutes.
Nancy's home dated to 1910. Her husband had died several years ago and
she was going to visit friends for the July 4th holiday.
Having secured a nest for the night I bicycled around town a bit and saw the neatest things.
All the shops on
Decorah's Main Street were cool, independent businesses that tried to team with
the one next door.
LaRana Bistro was Nancy's favorite eatery - upper class
but comfortable. Wood floor and wood bar with Anchor Steam beer and Guinness on
tap. Other selections lining a glass shelf above the back bar included a
16-ounce can of Old Speckled Hen and Schell Pilsner.
The menu was mid-priced
and the dessert list started with Carmel Pecan Cheesecake.
The theme they shared with the spa next door was frogs. The spa was closed
but had a frog on the tin sign out front. The restaurant had a black door jam
in the shape of a frog and their screen door had a tin sign that read 'Ask for
Kleen Maid Bread.'
The ice cream shop in Decorah was called the Whippy Dip. There were two
bicycle shops. Mike, from Oneota River Cycles gave me a map and filled up my
bottle of chain cleaner. Both acts of customer service were on the house.
A couple blocks from the Whippy Dip were kids floating down the Iowa River
on black inner tubes. There were silver baskets of Polly wave petunias hanging
from every light pole. There were kids on bicycles everywhere. Adults too. Some
were giving me the 'evil eye' but I found out it was because I was riding in
the street. Decorah has marked bike paths on their sidewalks. It was amazing.
Downtown was the Magpie Coffee House with no charge Internet.
Wade's
Window Burgers was a window, with a menu on the wall. You could order a
wide selection of a burger, brat, taco, taco-dog, hot dog, malt or float. The
place could have been mistaken for a simple apartment window with a sliding
screen. I'm thinking it was an easy place for a health inspector to miss. There
were no customers outside Wades.
On the corner wall of Water and Winnebago was the Dolan Snyder Pharmacy.
There was a detailed, color mural of what the corner used to look like in 1898.
The picture showed Ben Bear Square, a shop with 'fine clothing'
written on the front window and a sandwich board on the street that
read: ‘This is the place to get your spring suit.’
Off the main drag I found the schools. The red brick building was undergoing
major construction. The front of the school had Decorah High School engraved
near the top of the building. Underneath, in white letters was Decorah Middle
School. Next door were a series of small trailers. On the front door there was a sign that read 'Mrs. Procter's portable 5th grade.'
Ran into a man named Lanny at the VFW. "It's short for Landis," he
said. Landis was a retired barber who reminded me of the lead singer from The
Blues Travelers. He had a round face and square glasses that magnified his
eyes and made him look like a sleepy turtle.
Landis was 61 years old and returned home to the place where he got
his first job at the age of 17.
"Everyone wanted their hair cut like
Elvis," he said. The Beatles came along and put him out of business.
"Nobody came in for a hair cut because it took them three months to just
grow it out."
Landis was sporting a white ponytail. It was pretty unkempt for a former
barber. He also had white pork chop sideburns. His whiskers blended with the
long hair coming out of his ears. Landis also had white, Nike running shoes
that probably never ran a step. He had black socks, kind of like Michael
Jordan but his doughy white legs were a far cry from Jordanisque. Landis wore
some unfortunate black shorts, a black shirt, silver and turquoise bracelet and
a straw cowboy hat.
He also clicked his teeth together when he talked. I think it was to pop
his ill-fitting dentures back into place. Miller on tap was his beverage of choice and he smoked
Marlboro lights with a rubber band for his hair wrapped around the lighter.
Landis said he felt comfortable in Decorah. He told me to go look at the
minuteman statue at the courthouse square. He said it was a target for high
school pranks. The latest was a kid who scaled the statue and put a white
baseball cap atop the minute man's head. He said the kid fell while climbing
down and broke both his arms.
I walked across the street and down the block to the statue. It was about
two and a half stories tall and on top of the gray, concrete minute man was a
white baseball cap.
After getting past my obvious obsession with my new best friend Landis I
decided to move on and notice other things about Iowa.
- Iowa likes to put rumble strips before all their stop signs. I'm not used
to that, even on the most remote country roads. Since I forgetfully stumbled
onto all of them along my route, I need to see a bike doctor to true my back
wheel.
- Iowa has pull tabs in vending machines. They're anywhere from 25 cents to
50 cents and all the garbage cans next to the machines are full with lost
wages.
- The latest book I'm adding to my littlest library will be 'Friendly Farm
Dogs of Iowa.'
- A can’t-miss hit on the 4th of July holiday celebration was broadcast all
over the local radio as a demo derby between combines, pickups
and mini vans.
- KVIK radio 104.7 FM actually had a station window facing the main drag in
Decorah. There was also somebody live in the studio. Imagine that! I ran into a
classic country show while bicycling. It wasn't my first choice, it was my only
choice. But, they did play some good music, all in a row. Keith Whitley, Vern
Gosdin, K.T. Oslin, and The Judds. If they had veered from their format and
thrown in a little David Cassidy, I may have had to throw a resume their way.
- Trying to keep up on national news. I understand Marlon Brando is dead.
Someone classified as 'Anna Kornakova with game' won Wimbledon. John Edwards is
John Kerry's choice for VP. And... Kenny Rodgers had twins. I heard he ran into
Rod Stewart in the maternity ward of the same hospital. What a coincidence. I
guess Stewart was at the hospital awaiting the birth of his next wife.
