Iowa – wow, corn and corn and corn. MILES of corn – corn as far as the eye can see! At one point, we were riding past one field of corn for over 15 minutes – at 55 mph!
At fill-ups, noticed that the gas started to contain Ethanol, which makes sense given Iowa’s abundance of corn. I was curious if this had any impact on the performance of the scoots, and on 4 stroke vs. 2 stroke engines. I didn’t notice a difference – the PX pretty much ran like usual with top end speed ranging from 55-60 mph. Had a conversation with a Harley Davidson rider, who said he had to get non-ethanol fuel because the ethanol ate up the rubber thing in his carburetor. I had no idea what he was talking about, but wondered if this had any impact on me – the new gas line I installed is a Goodyear rubber tube, will the ethanol chew through that too?
Rode by a bunch of ethanol plants. Have to admit, they are pretty ugly looking and killed what is/was a very picturesque countryside. But anything to lessen the dependence on oil is good, right? I like the idea of ethanol, but I doubts if it will really “solve” any of the dependence on gas/oil. Increased demand for ethanol will surely increase the price of corn – is that good for the economy/people at large? Things to think about on a long ride….
Made it to Cedar Rapids at dusk – I try to get to the hotel before the sun goes down. Riding in the dark, toward the end of a long day in the saddle – not a good combination. Cedar Rapids is a nice town. Many hospitals and research centers, which surprised me. Like many cities, most things were closed by 9, so it was Taco Bell for dinner. Planning to cross most of Iowa tomorrow and spend the night in Sioux City.
Total miles - Day 5: 275 Miles
Chicago and Illinois
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