Bug Rescue Mission

It's fall, and the bugs can sometimes bug me on a ride home.

But, they can be merely interesting, too. Today when I got ready to ride my new bike home from Mount Mercy University, this was on my tire. As bike tires got, mine is of medium width. It's not a fat mountain bike tire, but not a skimpy little racer, either.

This was one big bug. For some reason, not a tall icky or threatening, however--are at least that's what I think.

I took a few photos and planned to rescue this rascal, but while I was putting on my rubber bands, he or she slipped away. I checked pretty carefully to make sure I would not crush it either elsewhere on the wheel or on the ground, and I think we probably both survived our encounter.

Well, writing through a crowd of gnats on the trail isn't very nice, but photographing Ms. Leaf Bug was. And that's one of the reasons to ride a bike--to really see and hear and be astonished by nature in a way that flying by it in a car just can't compare with.