Country Views: Fall Is Here

Escape Route: Northern Waterloo Alleys

It has been a while now since I've had a ride out into the country. These off and on again thundershowers and rain have made scheduling a ride difficult  for me of late. In fact, I generally just had to dash out when the opportunity arose to just get in a brief ride in my neighborhood.

Things finally straightened out enough this past weekend to allow for chancing a ride out of town. However; I had to make it brief due to a few things going on with us at home. 

One was a bathroom remodel. A project which was to have started a few days after my son's death, and was put on hold for obvious reasons. Next was Mrs. Guitar Ted's knee surgery, (a clean-up, not a replacement), which had been scheduled for over a month. This meant Mrs. Guitar Ted could not drive, so anything requiring driving was now on my plate. So, yeah.....chaos. 

But on Sunday there was a window of time where everything came together to allow for a brief ride, so I grabbed the chance. Of course, I rode the Singular Peregrine Mk4. Since this was to be its first foray on "real gravel", I had to take it to the "Big Rock", because this has kind of become tradition with me and gravel bikes. 

It seems things are a bit advanced as far as where the crops are at for harvesting.

The skies were moody on this day.

Once I reached the rural areas it was plain to see the corn was totally dried down and harvesting had been taking place. I have seen a lot of harvesting images on social media from Iowa, but here everything is on hold. There were places which have received over three inches of rain around Waterloo over the past week. Those harvesters won't get out there in these fields until things firm up a bit more. 

Even some of the trees are in full-color already here.

The visitation

The calendar says it is "officially Fall" now, and it shows up all around. Even some of the trees are all in color now. Again, seems a bit advanced from a normal year. I think of early October for this sort of color and the beginning of harvesting corn. Maybe I am way off, but this is my perception of things. 

 

Lying in wait. Ready to attack!

I made it to the Big Rock and took a brief assessment of my time and condition. Oh, I forgot! I tweaked my right shoulder muscles somehow while hauling scrap out of the basement at the Collective the other day. I did not want to exacerbate this issue as it was feeling a bit better for the first time on Sunday. So, with all the things going on, I made the call to make this a short ride. 

Good thing too. I was two blocks from home when my incapacitated wife put out a distress call. Nothing major, but I was sure happy I was close to home!