Anamosa/Stone City Century

Yesterday was gorgeous. The temperatures were in the low 70s. It was dry. The winds were light and out of the northeast. And I had the day off. So I decided to set out on my bike towards Anamosa. I figured I'd get around a hundred miles in and get to see some new places. Numerous times I have been very close to Anamosa, but never all the way there. So it certainly held some sort of draw for me.

The route there was beautiful rolling farm land and I saw very few cars the entire ride. A few miles south of Anamosa it started to get significantly hillier. When I rolled into town I had not quite reached fifty miles and I still had some fluids so I continued north a little ways and came to Stone City. The road dropped steeply down towards town, with a quarry and and nice slow moving river. Like the name suggests, everything was made of stone. There were stone houses, farms, and churches that looked to be well over a hundred years old. They had so much stone there that parts of the road were lined with gigantic slabs of limestone. I did not have my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures. But I did find a painting of Grant Woods called "Stone City." He was born in Anamosa and used to run an artists community in Stone City during the summers.


On my way back through Anamosa I stuck to Main Street rather than the neighborhoods I zig zagged through to get to the county road that led to Stone City. The first thing that stood out was a sign for the Anamosa Penitentiary. Only about a block away from downtown, this eerily beautiful monstrosity houses numerous criminals, and has for well over a hundred years. I don't know anything about the complicated nature of the prison system, and I wont pretend too. But it was odd to think that the stone used to construct this prison came from the quarry just up the road in Stone City that most likely supplied the stone for the houses, farms, and even the churches. They were quite possibly built by the same people.

This is the view on the ride up the street.


And here is a nice aerial view to give you an idea of how big the stone structure is.


The rest of town had small shops, bars, and restaurants. It was quite nice. I would definitely go back again. They also have the National Motorcycle Museum there. I didn't stop in, but I looked through the windows and noticed that they also have a few interesting samples of the motorcycle's great predecessor, the bicycle.

The ride home was nice and uneventful. I had chocolate milk, gatorade, coke, and a tailwind. I had one low spot that lasted a few miles, but I came out of it and felt quite good the last twenty or so miles. I got home with 102 miles in 5 hours and 55 minutes. Pretty good for a hilly, solo century.