Greetings Iowa...

Getting up and at it this morning proved harder than usual. Waking up in the 5 star cabin and looking out the window to see the ground covered in frost was not the motivator I was after. But the show must go on. After the best sleep I have had in a long time, I hit the road about 9:30am. It was around a 2km walk back to where I had left my tent. I reached the main part of the little town after maybe 20mins and immedietly was hit by a mouth watering smell of a bbq! I followed my nose aroound a corner to find two blokes out the front of a bank cooking up a storm. When i asked how much, they told me to go into the bank and ask the girls. Upon entering the bank I had to do a double take that I had walked into the correct place, it looked more like a diner than a bank, but that suited me just fine!
I met the lovely ladies there and explained what I was doing and that was that, they alomost threw me into a seat and starting piling food in front of me. the specialty of the day was brat (is that how you say it, big sausages anyway), potato salad, chips, onion and root beer, what a start to the day. I might not have smelled the best to someone in a deep and meaningful conversation, but these days while walking I have learned to put that down the list of important things to remember, food and energy first for me these days!!! Anyway, after all this I hit the road around 11am, which is not the best start to the day but with what was on offer, I can not complain.

After another long day (covering around 38kms) I have ended up in the city of Dubuque which is in the state of Iowa. I swear this is the city of giving, I have been stopped four times by people driving past and trying to give me money, the word has travelled at a rate I did not expect and it seems people everywhere have heard about what I am doing. I have explained to all these people that they have to donate online but they insist on buying me my next meal and do not take no for an answer. I gave them the name of the blog so hopefully they will head back home and chek it out too!

I best bet going, it is 7:15pm and I have not found a camp site for the night. I will have to walk a few more kms out of the city to find one so best get cracking...

P.s Today was also a day for the biggest hills in the world, I survived again and am looking forward to the more level state of Iowa...