Day 16 A Tale of Two Fountains, Fairport to Burlington, IA 73mi

We woke up to what promised to be a breezy warm fair weather day.  The wind would be blowing up from the south bringing with it hot end of the summer weather. We packed up our tents that remained dry throughout the night due to the breeze and had a breakfast of doctored up oatmeal, cuties, and coffee then headed on down the road toward Muscatine, IA.   We stopped at the Hi-Vi supermarket in town.  We picked up some oranges, bananas,  plus doughnuts, and chocolate milk to top off our breakfast.   The riverfront park had a combined fountain-splash zone that I struck this "drinking from the fire hydrant" pose.

Muscatine had a history of clam harvesting.   We both took turns posing with the harvester statue, took one last look at the town then headed south into the wind.

The south end of the Muscatine pathway combining gas lamp type lighting styles with uber industrial/chemical skyline along the river.

We got some good advice from local bicyclists on a less trafficed route to Our lunch stop at Wapello, IA.  

It was really turning to a human rotisserie kind of day with a 10-13mph 90+ degree headwind.  We found some respit from the heat and access to drinking water at a wildlife rec area visitor center just north of Wapello.  We were told get a bite to eat at the Cynful Smokehouse eatery serving up anything barbecue along with fries and a root beer float.

We topped off our water bottles at the Casey's General Store in town then headed south into the IA rotisserie.  

We had already gone 36 miles since the start of the day and it was looking like we needed to repeat the task if we were to make it to Burlington, IA.  

By about 12 miles out of Wapello we were both drinking water like we sprung a leak or were trying to put out a fire.  We came apon this postage stamp sized waypoint of a town called Oakville and decided to look to see if we could locate someone to top off our water bottles.  We made a loop through the residences with no luck. A last closer look at a small park next to the town sign led to the spotting of the second fountain of the day.  This one may have saved our lives.

Someone had thoughtfully installed a water spigot with drinking fountain setup.  We called it the Oakville Oasis and put it to use to lower our body temperature back to normal as well as rehydrate to the max before returning to the rotisserie.  

It was rough going fighting the wind the remainder of the day but thanks to late afternoon shaded  treed  ridges leading into Burlington, we rolled into town choosing  hotel A/C over a campground for tonight.  Tomorrow promises tail winds for our segment to Keokuk.  So we say goodnight with hope that that promise comes true.