Country Views: Into The Furnace

Eventually these turned into thunder storms later in the day.

The cooler than normal, darker than usual weather had to give over sooner or later. Last weekend in Nebraska I got my first real taste of humid, hot weather, but this past weekend beat all. Saturday was beastly, and I actually heard that a couple of gravel events were cut short due to the excessive heat and humidity. No doubt about it, this is like living in a furnace now.

I had planned on riding Saturday, but I had to get some things caught up around the house first. Lawn mowing was one of those. Well, I mowed the lawn and paid the price. I was spent! In fact, I felt not very good the rest of the day. I just got way too hot. So, Sunday was the day, but it was maybe worse Sunday with an air temp of 92° and with humidity the weather guys say it felt like 104°F. Yeah..... Not very conducive to long riding after you have been zapped by heat twice within a week.

So, this ride was a short outing, and I am very glad I didn't try to stretch it out. I was okay when I got home, and I didn't suffer and symptoms of heat stroke or anything close to it. I have had that so many times in the past that, as they say, I get zoinked again by heat pretty easily.

What?! These look like regular roads again! Amazing.

I met this sprayer machine coming at me. 

One thing I noted and that was that the roads are finally straightening up. They actually looked like normal Iowa gravel roads for the first time all year. The rock on the roadway was fairly fresh and very chunky. Where it was still all the way across the road, it was rough sledding.

The corn will actually make it to knee high+ by the 4th. I didn't think it would!

This was the sort of heat that just slowly cooks you as you work down the road. By the time I had headed back, I could feel it burning me from inside out. Like I said, it was good I rode a short one, and I didn't push things too far.

Later in the day a line of storms blew through and dumped the temperature 20 degrees. That was nice, but we're in for more furnace-like conditions through the week and dodging thunderstorms also could be on the agenda as well. The 4th is Thursday, so it will make for a very odd week and I hope to get more riding squeezed in there along the way.