Yesterday was so tiring that I didn’t get to blog at all. But today I’ll make up for it with some interesting RAGBRAI facts. While talking to a nice farmer, we learned some interesting facts about Iowa crops:
The tall stuff is corn. It’s related to grass, and most of the time only one corn is harvested per stalk. All the corn in the field is field corn, not sweet corn, and ground up to feed animals or perhaps made into ethanol. Corn rows always have an even number of kernels! And he helped us remember that corn likes humidity by relaying a saying his father told him: if your ma sleeps with her bum out of the sheets, it’s a good year for corn. Graphic, but memorable!
The short stuff is soybeans. They aren’t your edamame variety, but instead are ground up for animal feed.
In many of the towns, they set up ropes held taught by tractors so people can park their bikes. You can see an example in the picture.
As for the actual ride yesterday, it was good but long. We went to a waterpark afterwards and went down a slide in which the slider picked up speed in a chute, spun around a huge funnel a few times, then gracelessly fell through the bottom. It was miraculous. Then we saw 38 Special perform, which was a very good show that mercifully ended around 9:30 so we could sleep.
