Fall Frolics in Iowa Day 2

Day 2 - October 22, 2015 - Thursday – Road Trip to Madrid; Stop at West Central Co-Op, Beaver; Hike High Trestle Bridge Boone County; Lunch in Woodward; Visit Lake City Restored Barn

We woke up to a beautiful day in West Central Iowa. Although recent rainstorms had dropped many of the beautiful fall hardwood leaves, there were plenty of colorful trees that took our breath away.

The plan for the day was to have a light breakfast and then drive for about an hour to Madrid (pronounced MAA-drid in Iowa), and hike on the Boone County High Trestle Bridge.

We passed hundreds of grain trucks taking shelled corn to the co-ops. We saw a huge mountain of shelled corn and stopped at Beaver, Iowa and the West Central Co-Op. Our visit to the W-C grain elevator was very enlightening. We felt like we were on an OAT trip with a new Learning and Discovery!

Our discussion with the two elevator operators gave us new insights into our nation’s breadbasket. Farmers unloaded the shelled corn that they weighed and registered at the office. This corn was dumped into an underground bin and then a giant auger (think Archimedes’ screw) carried the grain up a conveyor to be spilled out on the top of the corm mountain.

The corn crop was so plentiful this year; all of the corncribs, steel grain silos, and concrete elevators are full. There was so much corn this year it was piled up on the ground in corn mountains.

Because the crop was plentiful, the price was down, so most farmers were storing corn until the prices would go up and the farmers could get a better price. All of this corn was to go the ethanol plant in Boone County.

In the pile of corn was estimated to be almost 2 million bushels and the going rate according to the commodities market, had corn at $3.49 per bushel. That was a lot of corn and a lot of money. And to think that was just one corn mountain in one part of the millions of acres in the Midwest!

From Beaver, we drove on the old Lincoln Highway - US 30 all the way to Madrid. We found the trailhead and then hiked the former Union Pacific Railroad bed and the High Trestle Bridge. The Bridge, originally built in 1912, spanned the Des Moines River.

Now the restored open space and hiking trail is a 25-mile hike that goes from Ankeny to Woodward. After our hike and plentiful stops for photographs and chats with other hikers and bikers, we drove to Woodward and had lunch.

We ate at the Whistling Donkey Sports Bar and then took the back roads returning to Lake City. On the way we stopped at a newly restored barn just outside of town that was built in 1958.

Not an old barn historically speaking, but worth keeping just the same! Many of the traditional old red barns are being torn down. Replaced by pole barns, these new structures just do not have the classy appearance of an old red barn.

Our next stop was a roadside market with squash, pumpkins, gourdes, ornamental corn, and other produce from the Iowa harvest. We got back to the homestead, had a light dinner, and looked at our photos from the day.

Happy to be with family, happy to have walked in the fall foliage; we slept well, listening to the quiet of the country.

You are only about 3.5 hours from me!!! If I weren't leaving on Thursday, I would try to meet you! Enjoy family and various places in Iowa. I hope you have good weather.

I love the old red barns, too. Both sets of grandparents had them in Kansas.

Now that's what I call a mountain of corn!!! Incredible!!!

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Day 13 - Saturday, April 22, 2022 - Depart for U.S.

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