Today’s route has us going basically eastward. The length
was 86 miles of grueling, long rolling hills. The wind was light and the temps
were comfortable, so even though a tough day of biking, it was a beautiful day
and we saw beautiful vistas of green fields. The prime crop in this area seems
to be soybeans, and a close second is corn. The crops look in great condition
and the corn is over your head (I know from wandering in occasionally for
nature breaks) and tasseling. Someone said we climbed 3,700 feet today in up
elevation.
Tonight, a local church group is offering homemade pie and
ice cream for purchase and tomorrow morning, offering a hot breakfast for a
price. It is a money making project for them, for groups that pass this way. I
included a couple photos from the pie and ice cream social we had. One man was
making ice cream with a 1940 McCormick Derring one cylinder engine geared to
turning the ice cream maker. The route we rode today was a RAGBRAI (ride across
Iowa) route used a few years ago. We are camped just outside of Diagonal, at
Fogle Recreation Area. It has a small lake for fishing, and a campground with
showers.
As a group, we count how many flat tires we have each day.
Since leaving the Southwest, the count has gone done significantly. We have had
less than 10 a day for the past several days. In the Southwest, we had many
recap tire debris flats (from tiny wires in tread that we happen to ride over)
and goatheads (thorns).
Nearly every day our group collects a donation or two for
our cause from the public we rub elbows with in coffee shop, etc. When they
hear our story, some are moved to donate. That is great to hear about.
Two of our riders returned to join the tour….Roger
Feenstra’s wife had successful surgery for an emergency eye issue and Rudy
Folkerts and his wife Shirley returned. Shirley had a leg injury and still
cannot ride, but Rudy rode today and Shirley hopes to in future weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment