Country Views: Hotter 'N Hades Ride

Time to test some fancy-pants new wheels on a super hot and windy day.

The weatherman was saying all along that it would be really hot, really humid, and really windy on Saturday. For once he wasn't wrong. Dang it! Oh well, gotta go to work anyway. I had some new wheels come in for test at RidingGravel.com and windy was just what the doctor ordered to get a handle on the aero claims this company has made.

I'll introduce the wheels on the Riding Gravel site later, so I won't spoil all that here now. Besides, this is about a ride, not a wheel set. I was just pointing out that the course I chose and the length of the ride was influenced by these wheels I had to start testing. So, since the wind was pretty much straight out of the South, I went mostly East, then back West, and in the process I got in a few more miles of Black Hawk County gravel I hadn't ever ridden on yet.

The ride did not start at the G-Ted Headquarters either. On a day as hot as this was, (93°F in the shade), I wasn't going to waste my energy on meaningless paved roads and bike paths. I was going for the meat as soon as I could. So, a new launching off point was researched and I ended up choosing a park in Raymond, Iowa. It's a little town, established in 1867 along a railroad. The park I chose, as it turns out, was a softball complex, and wouldn't ya know it? There was some little person's baseball tournament going on.

I'm not one to push controversial topics here, but it was clear to me that the populace of Raymond doesn't believe in social distancing, wearing masks, or seem concerned at all about what's going on. Two big awnings were pitched at the place which had many folks underneath them crammed shoulder to shoulder to get out of the Sun. Didn't witness anyone wearing masks...... Lots of yelling and cheering. Hmm.... Anyway. Just an observation. Probably a crowd of two hundred folks there, by the way.

I saw this lone ginormous, old, grizzled cottonwood standing sentinel over a corn field.

The Red Winged Blackbirds found it impossible to harass me due to the heavy winds.

I left town on old Highway 20. Make that the old, old, Highway 20. It's been relocated twice in this area. The bit I was on was part of the original Hawkeye Highway route which became US 20 in 1926 and was the longest highway in the US. I ended up going on the crushed bituminous and gravel shoulder because I have a gravel bike and I can. Better to stay away from speeding automobiles, I say.

I ended up turning North on Ordway Road and stair-stepping to Newell Street and then going straight East to the county line.

I took several breaks due to the heat and wind conditions. Here I stopped on a bridge over Poyner Creek on Newell Street.

Here is Barclay United Presbyterian Church.

Things started off on rolling hills, but the further East I went on Newell Street, the flatter the terrain seemed to get. The roads were easy. Pretty much average, but I have noted that the gravel roads East of Waterloo have a very firm base with white limestone over the top. They seem firmer and faster out this way than they do around Waterloo. Maybe its just my imagination.

A field of goats.

Excellent looking crop of soybeans here.

I found another cemetery and it had a really cool gate. I like to stop at these, place my bike in the center of the gate, leaning the bike on it, and take an image 'for the album', as they say. This gate had a cool detail which I had never seen before, and that was these metal butterflies affixed to the chain link fence in different places. I thought it was a charming applique and that they brought some cheer to an otherwise solemn place.

New Barclay Cemetery (Note the US flag)

A close up of one of the metal butterflies.

Not long afterward I reached my furthest Eastward point and intersected with Black Hawk-Buchanan Road. I took this straight into the wind South and ended up going through the small town of Jesup along the way.

A field of wild flowers Northwest of Jesup, Iowa.

Barns for Jason: Just on the Northwest outskirts of Jesup, Iowa.

I didn't stop in Jesup. Small town folk have a mistrust of Waterluvians during normal times. They think of us as "big city folk", which I think is hilarious, but that's the perception out there. Now with COVID? pfffft! There was no way I was stopping in town for any reason. I don't need any trouble. So I motored right on through town.

It was all pavement in this section until I got about two miles away from Jesup and back on gravel again. Then I was headed back West again on Young Road, which I blogged about here about a week or so ago. I like that road. It's a pretty road for a few miles.

Barns for Jason- On the paved section of Young Road near Jesup.

Back safely at the softball complex in Raymond, Iowa.

I was kind of surprised that there was such a lack of barns in eastern Black Hawk County. So, I was a bit disappointed to only find two new ones and both were on pavement! Of course, barns are going the way of the dodo bird, so I should not at all be surprised, but generally speaking I see more than a couple new-to-me barns when I ride somewhere new in Iowa.

The other thing I was a bit disappointed by was the fact that my handle bar tape is done. I can always tell on a hot day when I need new tape because it loses its grip when I get sweaty. So that nifty striped, reflective tape is coming off for......I don't know yet. I have to check my stash to see what is left.

So, a little over two hours and that was enough on such a hot, windy day. I've no doubt that it was probably closer to 100°F on that reflective gravel surface in direct Sunlight, so baking myself for any longer would have been ill-advised. I don't do real well in heat anyway. Best to take things easy.