Country Views: Hazy

Escape Route: Sergeant Road bike path.

This was the weekend that RAGBRAI ended. Traditionally this also would have been the weekend I put on the old Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational ride. I don't put that ride on anymore, but I did want to get back out into the country again for some sort of riding. 

Saturday was out of the question as I had to work and put on a three hour long clinic afterward. Sunday was the target day, but Saturday afternoon I got a late call-in to play at church. So....I waited until Sunday afternoon to do a short jaunt out South of town. 

Of course, it was hot and humid, just as it always was for those old GTDRI rides. I decided to take it easy, stop whenever, and not go too long. I was itching to get away though, as it had been too long since I'd last been out for me. I needed a dose of the country for my own peace of mind. (Not unlike a friend of mine does)

I went with the Noble GX5 this time for a couple of reasons. It's a great bike being one of them, of course. The ride was straight down Aker Road to start out. I had no idea how I would do and so I had multiple plans in mind, just in case I needed to cut things short. 

Side-by-side, UTV, whatever ya-callit. It's the de-facto farmer's vehicle now.

While we are officially back to "normal" in terms of drought monitoring, it is very dusty on the roads. The roads are also rougher than I remember them being in a long time. I mean that they are rough, but not because of gravel. The gravel was "normal" as far as its spread on the roads. So, the actual road bed under the gravel just seemed rougher than usual. 

This baling crew brought a smile to my face.

It was quite humid out and the few times the Sun broke through the hazy skies I could really feel it cooking me. A familiar feeling, by the way. I know what the heat can do to me so I stopped a couple of times just to cool down a bit. 

One of those times I stopped I had a secondary reason for doing so. I had just passed a crew baling straw, (from the looks of it) in the old "square bale" format. This is how almost everyone that baled hay back when I was young did the task. So, I found it to be a cheerful reminder of Summers gone by when I did this task with my Grandpa and sometimes with my Uncle and Cousin. Anyway, the baler was a John Deere make, like the one my Grandpa used to use. Those have a distinctive, rhythmic "song" to them as they work. As a youth, that sound captivated me.

So I went up round the next corner, stopped just out of sight, so as not to seem like some sort of "creeper", and stood there and just listened to that "song" again. It was a glorious noise. After a bit, I saddled up and meandered back into Waterloo, navigating side streets and alleys until I reached home. 

It was  a satisfying, if maybe too short, a ride. A perfect therapy for these hazy, crazy days of Summer 2024.