Eat More Corn

Day 105, July 15, 2011, Eat More Corn

Route from Lindsay to Shepherd’s Pasture Campground, Defiance, OH

85.6 miles, averaging 14.6 mph

Worst Moment – Shortly after leaving Pemberville, OH, I saw the sign that the road I was on was closed – there was not any advanced notice that the road ahead was closed before I got there – just the sign that the road was closed.  After a few bad words, (I had after all gone nearly 3 miles to this point,) I decided to go around the barricade.   I didn’t know where the alternate routes were and I really didn’t want to go back east three miles to try to find another way west.

Best Moment – On the other side of the barricade was someone in a car from the Ohio Department of Transportation drove up just as I was walking around the second barricade.  I asked him if the road going west was really closed.  He told me that it was only closed at this intersection and that I was fine.  Crazy.

According to the USDA, corn has the highest return above variable cost, and is the number one produced feed grain in the U.S. with over 80 million acres planted in corn and the acreage is increasing.  I have certainly seen that we have a lot of corn in this country.  All through the south; and now all across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and anywhere there is farming, there has been corn.  We must use a lot of corn – probably all of those tortilla chips.

With all of the corn that is being grown, one wouldn’t think that we had land for anything else, like tomatoes.  Yet in Napoleon, Oh, there was Campbell’s Tomato Soup plant.  It even smelled a little spicy around the plant – just like good tomato soup should.

From just west of Bowling Green all of the way to Defiance, I was along the Maumee River.  As I was eating lunch, I could watch the kids wading in the water and enjoying a warm summer day in the cool water of the river. 

This part of Ohio has a great grid system of county and town roads.  They are flat, in good condition and without much traffic. 

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.