Carpets of green

July 29, 2022

Iowa bike day

Don slept in this morning and it took him awhile to wake up enough to decide if he wanted to do a ride again today. I tried not to push him but was willing to go by myself if necessary, although he'd have to drive me to a trailhead.

Finally he got himself in gear and said we could do one more tandem ride. So he loaded up the bike and we drove to the parking lot in Waukee to do another section of the Raccoon River Valley trail. We'd been on a portion of this the other day.

It was late when we got going - 10:30 and was cooler out today. It was a nice sunny day with a light breeze and lots of people were out including a few trikes. But it has been strange that we haven't seen any other recumbents this week.

This section of the trail goes NW to Perry then turns west before connecting to the portion we rode the other day and continues north before ending. If you look at a map of this trail it looks like a figure 6.

We maintained a good pace as the pavement was smooth so the little towns zipped by. They're all about 6-7 miles apart and many offer restaurants or other amenities to trail users. Unfortunately the ice cream places were all closed!!

Much of the flat trail was in the trees, and we had peeks of fields of corn and beans on either side of us. Some wildflowers were blooming, and cardinals and blue jays would flit past us.

It didn't take long to reach Minburn where we stopped at the bar to use the restroom. This was our turn around point today since we'd been riding a lot this week and had other things to do this afternoon.

With a slight tailwind, our speed increased to 14 mph and we quickly made it back to the truck. After loading up the bike, we drove back to the campground.

The rest of the day was spent doing some laundry and hanging out under the awning. It looked like it was going to be full here this weekend as all of the open spaces are filling up. Lots and lots of kids. I'm glad that our site is on the far side of the campground away from the noisy pool and playground.

You always know that when you see silos in the distance, you're getting to a town.

The wild bee balm has been nice along the trails.

The original depot in Minburn has been converted to a bar/restaurant.

Dallas County had this interesting "Freedom Rock" in Minburn. The artist paints a new patriotic scene for every Memorial Day to honor local veterans, first responders and other historical figures. On this one, only the American flag drapped over the stone and Huey helicopter remain from year to year. Since 2006, the paint for the helicopter has been mixed with ashes of Vietnam vets. In 2013, the artist started painting these rocks for each of Iowa's 99 counties so they can honor their own local heros.

I refer to these flowers as "Mexican Hat" because their shape looks like a sombrero. But I'm not sure they're the same ones that we see in Denver.

Today's ride: 22 miles (35 km)
Total: 22 miles (35 km)

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