Back 2 Back Centuries 5&6

I wanted to find part of my route to Ragbrai and an overnight stop so I tried out Swan Lake state park. The park is about 4 miles south of Carroll and is about halfway to Sioux City. I took The racoon river trail to Jefferson then hit the Gravel roads. My route was a little curvy and had one main problem missing bridge on E53. I seem to have big problems with missing bridges so I looked at the reroute it involved about 9 miles on highway 30. Then I realized I was right next to train tracks and that the creek is only a couple hundred yards and I can use the train bridge. This is the way freaky part of the ride the track section there is double high speed as I walked the rocks next to the tracks I watched trains on a 5 minute intervals come though at 50-60 mph so I figured I had 5 minutes to cross. The bridge had access grids on both side so I would be okay on the bridge if a train did come while I was crossing however I wanted nothing to do with that considering I was walking metal grind with no railing a hundred foot up or more. This walk across the bridge ranks #3 for terrifying bike moments right after my first mountain bike ride and lighting striking 10 foot away in Wisconsin. I had pictures of the bridge but I'll get into that a little later. The rest of the ride was very calm and peaceful and as usual I started to get tired around 100 miles. I had a nice stay at the park, very large park with swimming, fishing, camping, and showers/restrooms. The only bad part I guess was waking up a 5:30 am and realizing someone had made off with my camera and wallet. I only had $4 in my wallet and one credit card so no big deal other than I was 100 miles from home and all I had left for food was a granola bar and a slim jim. The camera was good riddance but they could have left the memory card so I would have had pictures from my ride but I'm glad to replace that piece of kodak junk. There is also my new freshly chewed wallet I got for fathers day. I started home right away (6:30) since I was going to ride most the way without food I figured use the morning as a good head start. My cell phone had got turned on overnight so the Batteries where dead I thought if I wait till I'm almost to Jefferson I might get one phone call so my wife could call in the credit card and possibly meet me in Redfield for lunch, it worked one call for 5 minutes. The trail Nazi's are bad on the RRT this year they actually blocked the trail a mile outside of yale and were checking trail permits. If I had paid this would be kind of annoying, since I had not payed it became a 10 minute lecture involving me lying about paying and the trail asshole quizing me about when were etc. I suppose I will pay for it I just hadn't got around to it. Had a good lunch with the family in Redfield fried chicken, mashed potatoes, chicken wings, and a couple $3 bottles of beer best lunch ever.

So the things I have learned :

Bags go in the Tent at night

100 miles is my distance limit with a loaded bike

carry food just in case

new camera

prepaid phone with better service area

gravel roads around Jefferson are sandy