Brown Season: Rare Days In More Ways Than One

Escape Route: Sergeant Road bike trail

At some point recently I decided just to give up on 2022. I wasn't going to get to any of those plans I had made earlier in the year. My schedule, being so chopped up as it is, wasn't going to allow for that chance to get in a century ride. Or heck.....even a ride over 40 miles. 

I thought that by the beginning of September my situation would change, but it did not, and it has not yet changed. Like the old saying goes- It is what it is....

I decided to put down those thoughts of long, lonely rides for now and to just be grateful for the rare days I can be out for a two to three hour ride in decent weather. Some people cannot ride much, if at all. I'm pretty blessed to be able to pedal often, if not exactly for how long I would chose to do it. 

One of those rare occasions popped up last Wednesday where I had a time window to ride within. The weather was, well, weird. Weird for November in that it was 70°+ degrees, windy, and with the low angle of the Sun, everything just didn't seem right, ya know? But this has happened a lot over the last two decades during this month of November. A weird warm spell, lots of wind, then a fall off of a cliff to frigid temperatures. This Friday the high temperature was half of what it was Wednesday. Talk about a whiplash effect....

Without any crop cover, the land looks barren and deserted.

Things started off with big, blue skies.

The wind was an issue on this day. It was blowing up all this warm, dry air from the Southwest, and I was headed due South. And of course, the gravel was big and chunky. It has been down South of town all year long this year. There have been very few times that these roads have been what I would call "normal" from a gravel road perspective. 

A little bit of field work has been done up the road here.

Towards the end of the ride, clouds began to gather from the North.

I guess not riding a ton of miles this year may have been a blessing in disguise. Those super-chunky roads wreak havoc on my hands and especially my left shoulder. Up North of Waterloo things have been smoother, but with Southerly prevailing winds all Summer, it made more sense to go South and come back with a tailwind. Which is what I did on this ride. 

A rare day in November where the chance to get out and the weather were both good. I took it. That's probably the last of the warm weather for the year. Chances for getting out on the gravel will become even slimmer now, and eventually, it will get too cold, too snowy, or both, to be out there. 

2022 gravel grinding is about to come to a close. I was not personally satisfied with how it all has gone down, but again- I've learned a lesson and maybe I was spared some physical issues by not pounding myself to death on Southern Black Hawk County's roads.  The rides, even the short ones, have been important to me. That's a good thing.

And there will be another year to come......