Country Views: Pastry Ride

The Stone Castle Estate of N.Y.Roll.

 Friday N.Y. Roll texted me about a 60-ish mile gravel ride he was going to do Saturday and asked me if I wanted to roll along. I said I did, and the time of 6:00am was agreed upon to get going. We wanted to 'beat the heat' of the day, as it was supposed to be bad. There was a heat advisory out, and it was going to be humid too. So, the hope was that we'd get well into the ride before things got really cooking. 

I decided to roll with the pink Black Mountain Cycles MCD as I had it all set up for a longer ride anyway. I met N.Y. Roll at his house which he calls the "Stone Castle Estate". We got off and going by a hair past six and were on our way, cruising through the Southern neighborhoods of Waterloo. N.Y. Roll had the route on his GPS device and called out the turns as we went along. 

The plan was to head out on Ansborough, then East on Quarry Road to start out. The wind was out of the Southwest, but it wasn't bad yet. So despite the headwind we made pretty good time. The Sun was up, but there were enough clouds about that we never got blasted by its full potential. How long that would hold out was anyone's guess, but we're veterans of this sort of riding, and typically? Yeah....the Sun comes out and you get cooked sooner or later. That's what we were figuring would happen. 

Things weren't too bad to start out with heading South on Ansborough Avenue.

I'm thinking we're going to start getting cooked any minute here.

We reached Quarry Road and started going East. N.Y. Roll said we were going to head South at some point to get close to Dysart, then East again. The Sun was not yet hitting us full-on, and we were now getting a quartering tail wind. We were moving right along. 

It was pretty humid to start out. I was dripping sweat off my arms by this point in the ride.

Time for a 'nature break' at this bridge over Miller Creek.

I was fearing that I was in for several hours of fighting for grip with my handle bars as I was just pouring sweat off my arms, down my wrists, and then dripping off the heel of my hands. This got into the grips and made things slimy. Fortunately, the humidity let up as the ride went along and this became less and less of a problem for me. 

The Red Wing Blackbirds have raised their young and are now gathering to fly to their Wintering grounds.

Lots of farms have their bit of gravel road soaked in soybean oil to keep the dust down.

Eventually we headed South on Foulk Road and went into Benton County along the very same route I was on for my failed GTDR last July. But we didn't stick to that route long as N.Y. Roll wanted to head East and South again so he could 'poke a square' in some oddball game he is playing with some other cyclists in the area. (Don't ask me, I have no clue what this is.) then we went east toward Vinton, but cut North again before getting there and headed North toward La Porte City. 

We came across this cool painted silo in Benton County.

A nice Level B Road in Benton County

N.Y. Roll had me stop at a corner off HWY 218 at one point so he could go 'poke another square' and I noted a guy in an end loader equipped John Deere construction model tractor ambling into a field near me. I watched as the tractor slowly and deftly was maneuvered into place where it appeared the operator was moving some big field stones. 

N.Y. Roll passing the 'rock picker' in the ditch.

Surprisingly the cloud cover kept the Sun at bay for much longer than we had expected.

We were waiting to get cooked by the Sun during this ride, but miraculously we never did. It was definitely hot- mid 80's - but it could have been far worse had the Sun been clear to nail us with it's fiery rays. As I said before, even the humidity was lower as we went. Actually, I felt really good. I was keeping up on the hydration, and the GU Roctane was fueling me well. That said, N.Y. Roll promised a stop at Rockets Bakery in LaPorte, and I was looking forward to it!

Where old moving van trailers go to die.

Coming into LaPorte City in a way most people do not.

Eventually we reached LaPorte City again and we were back on familiar roads. We had gone quite a ways through Benton County on some roads I have never been on. So, as a result, I have a lot of barn pictures to share! Look for those in a previous post here. 

 After pastries we headed back toward Waterloo, at first on the CVNT.....

.....but we also veered off that trail to take in some pavement, gravel, and this dirt on Weider Road.

I got a nice pastry, courtesy of N.Y. Roll, (THANK YOU!), and then we finished off the ride by taking in bits of the CVNT, pavement, gravel, dirt, and local bicycle trails. I made it home in time for lunch even! N.Y. Roll said his GPS was at 60-ish miles and we covered the distance in 4 hours and fourty-five minutes, including stops. That's about as good as I've done this year so far, so I was happy with the results. Just as N.Y. Roll was about to drop me off at my turn-off to my home, the Sun rode out of the clouds. "I guess we timed that about right!", he quipped.

I'll leave you off with a quote from N.Y. Roll which he shared as we passed a pen of goats early in the ride. These goats had inflatable balls in their pen with them, and I marveled at that. N.Y. Roll retorted with, "Oh yeah! They nose those things around. Goats are a lot like dogs, only dumber and they taste good."

Yeah..... There is only one N.Y. Roll! Good thing too....