Country Views: Wild Flowers

Escape Route: 5th St turns into 6th St. What?!!

Sunday was a chance for me to get a roll in so I did that with two goals in mind for the ride. One was to give a recently received set of Enduro components a whirl (more on that tomorrow) and to run the turn-by-turn directions on the Wahoo Elemnt ROAM, (more on that Wednesday)

It was fine and hot, with a touch of humidity, and barely any wind at all. Almost a "dog day" of Summer, but it wasn't quite to that level just yet. They say mid-week it should get there. Fun times people, fun times!

But I wasn't too worried about any of that on this ride. I got a move on at about a quarter to ten and made the Wahoo wake up to guide me on my "Southern Black Hawk County" route. It's about 30-ish, maybe 35 miles, depending upon how I do it. On the computer its listed at just shy of 35 miles. So, off I went. I won't say much about the computer here. You'll have to wait till Wednesday for that story.

They are still working on the dike on the way to Evansdale, but....

....there is a nice dirt work-around.

The skies looked hazy, but this wasn't bad wildfire smoke haze. Nope. Just a mild case this time. So, I was good to ride and I could not smell any smoke. In fact, the sky cleared up as the ride went on.So, that was nice. Now it was just a matter of getting out of Evansdale and out into the country.

A nice patch of chicory here on Foulk Road.

It is very dusty and dry again out in the country.

I finally got to the gravel and it was dusty! At one point I had to sit up for a bit to let the dust settle after a car passed me by. I could not see anything and with little to no wind, that dust just hung in the air for a long while. After the car got about a quarter mile up the road I could begin to see the road clearer than before. 

The other thing about this ride that became very evident once I reached gravel was that the Qeen Anne's Lace and Chicory was running riot now in the ditches. In some places it was nearly as tall as myself on the bike. 

Seeing elevations above 1000 feet in this area is not common. I ran across a hill later that was over 1100 ft!

You can see that the skies cleared up a bit here.

I didn't plan this, but since I was feeling pretty good on the bike, I did not stop to rest. I only got off briefly for a quick nature break and then at the end so I could text Mrs. Guitar Ted my ETA at the G-Ted Headquarters so she could coordinate the lunchtime festivities. Otherwise I rode solid for the entire loop, minus traffic stops. 

Chicory, Queen Anne's Lace, and Red Clover here in this ditch.

The flowers along Quarry Road are awesome right now.

Since I was pushing the pace kind of hard, I ended up feeling it in the legs towards the end of the ride, but this was the best I'd felt on the bike in a long while. It was fun, so I tried to savor every last bit that I could. 

The only nit I had was that the Easton handle bar I was running had little to no flare and my left arm/hand/shoulder weren't real happy about that. So, that'll be coming off the Twin Six soon and something more flared will be going back on there. 

I spied this helicopter doing crop spraying off Ansborough Avenue.

The Standard Rando v2. It's a great bike.

Well, it was a fantastic day for a ride and I got in a good one. I was out for 2hrs 20 minutes, so not a bad speed for 30+ miles in the bag. I wasn't super keen on the outbound and inbound pavement, but that's the price I pay for riding from the home unit. 

hopefull I'll have a few more rides this good yet this year!