Brown Season: End Of A Rough Week

Escape Route; Cedar River Bike Paths

Well, I am glad to have muddled through that week. Last week kind of hit me harder than I expected it to. You see, last week marked a year since my mother died and we had the "services" for her. (It's a loooong story, no need to drag y'all through it here.) 

The point is, I was not very motivated to ride, or do much of anything really, without a great force of will being exerted. I managed to get done what I needed to get done, so I'm counting it as a win. 

Sunday morning was coming and I felt as though it was a chance to crawl out from under the pile and go for a ride. Nothing spectacular, just a ramble on down to some little used gravel and dirt roads Southeast of Waterloo. The weather was cooperating, and so the ride was set for a Sunday morning. I left the house just after Sunrise and rode the Gravel Bus again. 

It was a grey, very still day. It was unusual that there was absolutely no wind at all. But that was fine with me. I just wanted to get out for a couple of hours and ride to get back on the horse again after a bad week. In that, I was successful.

The Cedar River at Evansdale.

McKellar Road

As I rode along the Cedar River, I was struck by how low the river's level was. I knew that September had been one of the driest on record, and I am betting October has been right in that conversation as well. We are headed for some bad drought weather in 2023 if things do not turn around in the next six months.

The gravel end of McKellar Road

The Gravel Bus kind of blends into this dried out corn, don't you think?

With no wind noise, it was amazingly quiet on Sunday morning. I could hear the four-lane highway 20 for blocks until I actually reached it and crossed the Cedar River. The countryside was still and peaceful. 

I found the dirt roads were mostly dry, but not fully dry. We'd had some rain last week, but for the most part, it was very dry out there on the gravel. They have laid down some chunk recently, but it wasn't too bad. 

Bin it!

The dirt end of Weiden Road

It was fun to try to navigate Weiden Road's slightly muddy, very rutted out dirt road sector. While this doesn't have the elevation of Petrie Road's dirt section, it is still a good run of dirt to ride on. 

It was good to shake off the blues for a while.

I ended up riding shy of two hours and a bit over 20 miles in total. That was a good start towards getting out of the rut I was in last week. Like I said, I wasn't expecting that to happen, but it did. I guess I should be a bit more wary come this time of year next year.