Country Views: Dry And Dusty

The Moline Farm on Moline Road.

The weekend was scheduled to descend into a rainy, cold morass with a return of snow for Sunday. Bleccch! But before it all went down the drain, I got out Saturday morning while it was still pretty decent, actually.

This was the ride I did to finish up the Lube-Off which I posted on yesterday. So, with things being the way that they are, I decided to ride from the house and go North, since the wind was out of the South. Yep....headwinds home! 

It takes forever to get out of town from where I live. Going North usually takes less time, but when a train is being built at the rail yards, it really screws up the routes I use. So, I ended up going around the long way, and a half an hour after I left the house it was gravel time. By the way, that's about how long it takes going South too. West? ha! I'd have to go well over ten miles to get out of town that way and East is bad, but not quite that bad. Poor me! Ha ha! At least I have gravel I can ride to! I should not complain.

So, anyway, I had to keep my ride within a certain time frame so I would not waste the day away riding. I had a project to tackle down in my Lab, and Mrs. Guitar Ted had an errand she wanted me to go on with her. So, I got to pedaling pretty hard to get out there and on the gravel. I had no idea exactly how far I'd get, but I was hoping for 20-ish miles and to be able to close out this current round of the Lube-Off.

The car on the left, a '57 Chevy sedan, has been for sale here for years.

The only piece of farm equipment I saw out in a field was this semi tractor trailer rig. 

The level of farm activity North of town is far behind that of what I had found going on South of town. Most fields were still in over-winter conditions, and maybe a small percentage had been tilled at all. I didn't see any big farm equipment either. It's really weird that only Waterloo seems to separate the difference between farming activities. Why? I have no idea.

Coming up on the intersection of Bennington Road and Highway 63 looking West. Note the flag.

A working barn. Most I see are not in use anymore.

I headed West on Bennington Road to go over to Burton Avenue and then back toward Waterloo. That ended up being about perfect time-wise. I wanted to miss the coming rains, which I thought would be around before noon, but that held off until mid-afternoon. I could have gone out further, but it's all good. Glad I got the miles I did.

Burton Avenue looking South toward Waterloo.

This farm just North of Waterloo has a lot of "iron dinosaurs".

I noticed that the farm just North of Waterloo on Burton Avenue has more "iron dinosaurs" out on display. This farm has always had a few out, but it seems that there are a bunch of new ones displayed now that I hadn't seen before.

The mail box at the "iron dinosaur" farm.

Mother and infant "iron dinosaurs".

I ended up cruising home with about 15 minutes over the limit that I set for myself. Oh well! I'm all good with that! I did get to my other "to-do's" and the day ended up on a high note when I finally figured out a mechanical problem that was haunting me.

Hope to get out again this coming week, but the weather is supposed to be not so nice. We'll see. Stay tuned!