The Final Post

We made it all the way to DUBUQUE! (which I can finally pronounce correctly, instead of Duh-BOO-cue). On our way to Dubuque we stopped at the famous “Field of Dreams” movie site in Dyersville. We spent an hour driving three miles on the RAGBRAI route through a mass of bikers--many of whom seemed to be altogether finished with RAGBRAI--and decided that we could piss people off less by blasting Journey songs out of the car’s open windows. So, with Kristen as DJ, we finally made it to the Field of Dreams (but only after an enthusiastic biker drafted off the back of our car). Next, we spent a good two hours in Dubuque, “driving” in bumper-to-bumper traffic. While not quite as terrifying as Waterloo intersections, Dubuque highways are definitely more boring (particularly after we’d gone through half of Kristen’s playlist, my leg started to cramp up from pressing on the brake, and our entire breakfast consisted of handfuls of Mike n’ Ikes.). Sadly, our car was going so slow Kristen’s mother and Fish nearly beat us to Dubuque on their bicycles. After making it to the Mississippi, we said goodbye to Casey’s General Store, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, grain elevators, consignment stores, fabric shops, corn, and towns that looked like they inspired the “Oregon Trail” computer game (and everything else that I associate with quintessential Iowa) and made our way to Chicago.