Rolling corn fields and barn quilts-Monday, July 23, Cherokee to Lake View

A nice morning start for Jeff.  He picked up the pack of riders in Arelia, cutting off a few miles of the day's trip.  We had planned to meet at the meeting city, but Jeff was in Schaller by 8:30 and I was still lounging around the hotel, so that didn't work out for us today.

I headed on down to Lake View a few hours later.  The route this year is very rural, no big towns (or any small towns either) for me to stop and poke around in.  So far, none of the pass through towns can claim to be the birthplace of anyone famous-no trivia questions this year.  What is cool is that Sac County is the barn quilt capitol of Iowa.  Barn quilts are approx. 4' X 4' painted quilts on the front of the barn, all bright, beautiful colors in all sorts of quilt patterns.  I might paint one on the side of our house where the flickers are pecking away at the siding.

The heat was turned up by the time I arrived at Lake View.  I found a great spot to watch all the riders come in to town-good vantage point but no shade.  I was sitting on the side of the dusty road in the camp chair, my hair pulled back, wearing my straw hat, pink faced, sweat dripping-what a welcoming site.  Easy to find Jeff and we headed to the beer tent, another 60 miles down.  The RAGBRAI officials say there are 21,000 riders this year.  10,000 that can register.  Twice as many sure is crowded, especially in the smaller towns, but everyone sure is having fun.