Day 108 - Pocahontas to Lake View - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

July 25, 2021

Day 108 - Pocahontas to Lake View

Crossing paths with RAGBRAI

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Question of the day, "Are you with RAGBRAI?" We were able to create a route that kept us far enough away from their route that we could get accommodations, but anyone on a bike in central Iowa this week is assumed to be riding with RAGBRAI.

We had a good ride leaving Pocahontas. We passed this farm with all white buildings, which really stood out. I figure the barn will be repainted when the new roof is finished.

I like scenes like this, but they usually appear so quickly that I don't have time to get a good picture. I got a good view of this one.

Mother Nature is reclaiming this old building.

Kerry here... Roads in this part of Iowa are laid out in 1 mile grids with every 5th road being paved, usually with concrete. The pile in the background is old concrete that has been torn out and replaced, and the pile in the foreground is gravel to dress the unpaved roads. (I don't know that the farmers ever have to add lime to their fields, because of the huge clouds of limestone dust that drift over the fields when a car passes by.)

We've seen a number of quilt patterns on barns and outbuildings. I decided to post some today. These are all solid geometric shapes. That probably means something, since they are all located in a several mile area, but I have no idea what the significance might be.

We took a little tour through the town of Fonda. It had a few interesting old buildings.

This is a grain conveyor. I couldn't see how the grain got on the conveyor to be dumped onto the open holding pens on the right. Kerry said the grain came underground from the elevator on the left side of the street.

And this is a farm equipment junkyard. It's another of those things we've never seen before. Maybe this is how the Vander Haag's in Sanborn, IA started out!

At about mile 40 of our route, we came into Sac City, site of RAGBRAI's first overnight stop. We were there before 1:00 and it was already very busy.

Street scenes

The laundry trucks were already busy on day 1. It looked like big loads of towels to me.

This looked like one of the private group camps. They had a nice tent and chairs for their people with snacks and drinks.

A Sac City must see - The World's Largest Popcorn Ball. Kerry here... If you do the math, 9,370 lbs. total weight - 2,300 lbs popcorn = 7,070 lbs sugar, corn syrup & butter!

And I'm not sure why they had this old hearse on display at the funeral home, but here it is.

We had a few miles to ride opposite the RAGBRAI folks on the way out of towns. Lots of people motioned to us that we were going the wrong way!

There was a steady flow of riders into Sac City in the early afternoon.

We rode past some very large wind farms today...

And some pretty large hog farms, too. Hot, heavy air concentrates the aromas!

We are in a very "downscale" little motel tonight, but with RAGBRAI only ten miles away, we were happy to get it. There are some cars in the parking lot with bike racks, so people who want indoor lodging drive this far away to spend the night.

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 4,028 miles (6,482 km)

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