Green

Welcome to the (Iowa) Jungle!

Green: If you live here in the Mid-West, you'd better like green. The landscape is predominantly this color from May through September, especially in the woods where I find single track fun. It just so happens that I like green a lot, so I am okay with this phenomenon.

Green extends to the open country as well. The crops here, predominantly corn and soybeans, paint the land in a carpet of green. this gets somewhat muted when the corn tassels out, and also when the odd field of oats ripens. But green is the order of the day for the most part.

Of course, the city follows suit with everyone's green lawns, the trees, and the golf courses which dot the landscape. Only the buildings and pavement break it up, and the sky, of course, otherwise it is all about green. Well, I should mention the rivers and lakes, but as you know, they only reflect the sky for the day, and the green trees that line those lakes and rivers.

An unusual field of flowers to break up the Green

 I had an old school mate that I grew up with who left the Mid-West for Arizona many years ago. He was back one time for our home town's Independence Day celebration. He couldn't get over how green everything was in Iowa.

Of course, he had been on a "green fast" ever since he moved to the desert Southwest, a land replete with tan, ochre, red, and the occasional dot of green vegetation here and there. When he finally came back for that visit, he saw the land in a way he couldn't before. Maybe we all take it for granted here, I don't know, but green is just the way it is here. Well, until "Brown", and then "White" comes!

I made mention of that the other day. We have four seasons: Green, Brown, White, and Mud! They all have their particular charms, which I enjoy. Not everyone here is so enamored of certain seasons, but they are what they are, and you can grouse all you want, or learn to find the good and celebrate it. I chose the latter, (most of the time!), but I am only human.

So about this green thing- I like that color a lot, as I said. Only purple trumps it for me, and anything green or purple are things I tend to be drawn to and like. So with that in mind, something happened recently that had something to do with bicycles and one of my favorite colors, which is a dangerous thing, ya know!

BMC Cross colors

Black Mountain Cycles has a new run of their Cross frames coming out, and with that a couple of color options. (See that here) There's a great story behind the green color choice, but what matters most is that it is, well.......green of course!

If you've spent any amount of time reading this blog over the last two years, you already know that I really like my Black Mountain Cycles bike a lot. That bike I dubbed "Orange Crush" because, well......it is orange, of course! I like orange fine enough, but I don't want two Black Mountain Cycles Cross frames in the same color. There is a gray color but I am not smitten by the hue, so green it will be.

Then you might ask, "Why would you want a green one when you have the orange one, besides the color?" Fair enough question, and the answer is "single speed". I had the Orange Crush set up originally as a single speed, and I really enjoyed it, so I miss that now. There are a lot of times when a single speed cross bike like the BMC would be perfect for here, such as in Winter, (otherwise known as "White"), or during the Spring, (otherwise known as "Mud"), when things are very messy out on the country roads.

So I am looking really hard at getting another one in green, and making it my single speed green machine.