Day 26 Panora, IA

June 11, 2018

Today tried to be a rain day, but we refused to let it. When we got up, it was raining in Perry and the chance of rain was pretty high all day. I talked with Team A and we made contingency plans. By 9AM, the rain had stopped and the forecast called for only a small chance of showers in the afternoon. We loaded the bikes and headed out on our planned 53 mile route to Panora.

It turned out to be a very good riding day. We were on the Raccoon River Trail all day until we turned to go to the motel. The trail is in excellent condition. We were happy to pay the $2 fee daily use fee for this trail.

We came to a guy clearing tree limbs off the trail and he warned us that there was a tree down ahead. By the time Kerry and I arrived, the trail had already been cleared by a strong volunteer.

Ready to ride again after dragging the tree limb off the trail

We came to two more places where fallen trees had partially blocked the trail,but we were able to ride around them. There has been some heavy rain along with high winds recently. This river was very high and moving very fast.

We went through farmland and a few small towns. We stopped for lunch in the very attractive small town of Adel. Just as we rode into town, it started to sprinkle rain. While we ate, it rained steadily, but by the time we were ready to ride, the rain had stopped. The restaurant was also a bookstore and Alain picked up a book called something like "Cycle of Death". The cover said it was the story of murder during RAGBRAI, but the first page was a vivid description of a sexually adventurous 60 year woman preparing for a visit from her current boy toy. I resisted the temptation to buy it.

Leaving Adel was this very large brick factory that looked as if it had been in business for a long time.

The brickyard stretched for at least a quarter of a mile

After Adel, the trail was heavily wooded. It was nice and cool, but got to feeling a little closed in after a while.

There were a lot of heavily wooded sections on the trail

We stopped in the town of Panora, four miles from our hotel, to get food for dinner because I was told the restaurant was closed on Mondays and there were no places to eat within walking distance. While we were shopping for food, the sky got dark and we could hear thunder. We made our choices more quickly than we would have liked and hopped on the bikes to make a quick run to the hotel. We arrived dry and it still hasn't rained here, though there is a tornado watch for the area. We also arrived to find that the restaurant was in fact open! They said the hours had just changed. I guess that finding a restaurant unexpectedly open is much better than finding the only restaurant available unexpectedly closed, which had happened to us a few times.

So, in spite of threatening clouds and the rain shower while we had lunch, we stayed dry today and didn't have to add to our rain day total, which is now officially two.

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 1,198 miles (1,928 km)

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