Day 40 July 1st Audobon Society

July 05, 2021

Coon Rapids IA to Atlantic IA 51 miles (1,754)

Today's highlights included my visit to the Broadway Bakery in Audubon, Iowa and my visit to the Produce Fair in Atlantic, Iowa. Both places were memorable because of THE PEOPLE!

Here are some pics with comments from both great places:

This is Jeanne from The Audubon County Advocate Journal standing with me outside the bakery. Yes, they still have newspapers in rural iowa. Jeanne interviewed me after one of the customers told her, "That man over there is riding his bicycle across the country."

This is the customer - Matt - who told Jeanne about me.

After Jeanne finished interviewing me, a cute 85-year-old lady approached me and said, "I overheard you telling Jeanne that your last name is Christensen. My last name is Christensen, also. In fact my maiden name is Christensen."

I said, "Wait, you mean your maiden name is Christensen and then you married a man whose last name was Christensen?"

She giggled, "Yes!"

I said, "Well, if you did like many are doing nowadays you could have hyphenated your name and you would have been Christensen-Christensen."

"Oh, that would have been way too long," she quipped.

She then proceeded to inform me that Audubon is full of people named Christensen. I regret not getting Mrs. Christensen-Christensen's picture!

This was hanging on one of the walls in the bakery. I absolutely love this song by Louis Armstrong. More on songs in a future blog entry..

Everyone in the bakery was SOOO friendly AND everyone also insisted that I leave town a certain way so I would see Albert the Bull:

You can get an idea of the ginormosity of Albert by realizing the trees behind him are about 40 feet tall.

After setting up my tent in the Cass County Fairgrounds in Atlantic, Iowa, I walked to the Produce Fair in the city park, where I got something to eat. Then I sought some advice from two Old Coots:

Here they are pondering the advice they should give me regarding a problem I told them about.

I rode beautiful T-Bone Trail to get to Atlantic:

It's named the T-Bone Trail after a huge T-Bone festival that is held every year in Audubon to celebrate the work done by cattlemen.

There are dozens of bridges all along the T-Bone Trail. The whole community supports this trail, as indicated by the many signs from community organizations and local businesses.

I would not want to be on the train that rode on this track:

Before arriving at the campground, I stopped for some udderly delicious ice cream:

Shade was in short supply so I invited this family to join me at the table where I was sitting:

Jalen, Avery, Addie and Emily

This is Curtis:

He is an avid frisbee golf player. He drove up from Murfreesboro, Tennessee for a one-day tournament in Atlantic, Iowa. He drives all over the Midwest to play in frisbee golf tournaments. We were Campground neighbors for the night. Here is a picture of his yurt-tent: