In Which Fall Skies Bring Some Peace

Monday, Oct. 16--Hybrid Bike Clarence in the leafy bike rack behind Warde Hall.

I have the mid semester blues—just feeling a bit busy, sleep deprived and under the weather.

But biking sure helps. And biking lately has been gorgeous—cool weather has followed some recent rains that took the dry edge off of the outside here in Iowa. We’re still weirdly warm, but weirdly warm in the second half of October is still a bit cool.

No killer frost yet, and frankly, it will be welcome when it comes. I’ll miss the greenery but not the insects.

Tuesday, Oct. 17. I had to guest lecture in an 8 a.m. class, so this is the Rockwell-Collins pond around 7 a.m. Great morning for a an early ride!

Anyway, on the first day of fall break today, I intended to ride to the gym. Well, I did ride to the gym, but I managed to make the 1-mile journey a 12-mile trek by swinging over to the Lowe Park Trail in Marion, first.

As you can see below, it was very pretty. I was riding my road bike today. Monday and Tuesday I rode my hybrid bike, and it was nice to be back in that saddle again.

I hope all you Iowa bikers have found some time to enjoy this delicious fall weather!

Oct. 18--first three images are pond on Irish Drive, the street that leads from Tower Terrace Road to the trail. A multitude of geese had gathered, and one white bird, seen in flight above. Below that are pictures from Lowe Park or the trail near that park.

In Which I Ride the New Wheel

Grandson ready for first ride using new rear wheel on my hybrid bike.

Yesterday, I went to the bike shop in Marion to retrieve Clarence, there because I had broken my second spoke in a few weeks. At no cost to me, the shop replaced the original rear wheel with a more heavy-duty wheel with truly impressive spokes. The front and back wheels now are superficially the same, although you may notice the back wheel has silver spokes while the front has black.

On closer look, the thickness of the silver spokes in back is very impressive.

Note sure the image does them justice. Very strong looking spokes on new heavy-duty rear wheel.

Anyway, it was raining yesterday, so we took the grandkids down to the Children’s Museum in Coralville. Today was the first chance I had to test the new wheel. After awakening from an afternoon nap, I asked a grandson if he wanted a bike ride (I don’t think he napped, but I felt like rewarding him because I had—he read quietly while I snoozed).

He did want a ride.

So I got Clarence out and hooked up the Tag-A-Long seat. It was cool, breezy and cloudy—temperature about 50, probably felt like mid 40s with wind chill. We headed out and after a block returned home. I had forgotten my cell phone, and we mutually agreed that if we were going to do this ride, we were going to wear gloves.

Still, cool as it was, the ride was pleasant. We headed up to Boyson Road and headed east to the Boyson Trail in Marion. After a quick loop via the Lindale Trail back to C Avenue, I came home. And other grandchildren were waiting, wanting rides, too.

With one granddaughter, I went up to the Rockwell-Collins pond, crossed C Avenue and rode around the company’s HQ, and then stopped at Walgreen’s to buy hot cocoa mix. By the time we got to the store, the sun was starting to show through holes in the cloud covers, and we both put on sunglasses.

As the afternoon ages, the clouds break up and move out. A grey 50 is a chilling experience, but a sunny 50 feels much nicer. Rockwell-Collins pond as sun is just about to clear clouds.

Four grandchildren were staying with me this weekend, but, unfortunately, one has a cold, and we didn’t think it was a good idea for her to ride in the windy cool. There was, however, the oldest granddaughter to give a ride to.

I again headed up C Avenue, circled the pond, then went down the Lindale Trail. We rode to Thomas Park, and then came back again via the Lindale Trail.

Seen on Boyson Trail on final of three bike rides, as day finally turns sunny at the end.

All in all, I biked a bit more than 10 miles with three kids. The bike felt good, and I didn’t mind the windy, chilly day. I make a lot of heat while biking.

And there was hot cocoa when I got home.

Final bike ride of the day--oldest granddaughter reacts as sun comes out.

In Which a Tough New Wheel Arrives

Oct. 8--Sunday image of MMU campus seen from bike trail by Plaster Athletic Complex. Not many sunny days this week!

Fall rides on the Fancy Beast: For the past week or so, partly due to damp conditions for which I would normally use the bike anyway, but mostly due to a broken spoke, I’ve been riding the Raleigh mountain bike I named “Fancy Beast.”

It’s been a fine bike to ride, although on the most recent newspaper Sunday, I actually rode Argent, my road bike, and took the trail near MMU by Regis to see how far south it goes. It was a fine, sunny day, although damp from the previous day’s rain, but blue skies on the kind of warm fall day we’ve had many of this year.

It was pleasant to roll through the new MMU Plaster Complex, but then come to the sudden end of the trail. I’m looking forward to when this stub of a trail actually goes somewhere—I think the eventual plan is for it to end at the Cedar River Trail on the south, while on the east and north end, it should tie into the Boyson Trail complex in Marion.

That will be years away, and I’ll be lucky to still be commuting to MMU when that happens.

Although we still have plenty of bugs—no hard freeze, yet—fall is definitely in the air. Our mini-drought is finally being replaced with welcome rain, and my rides this week were a bit grey. Still, as you can see, even gray fall days have their beauty. I do wish I could send some of this rain west to California! May the winds and fires there die down soon.

Cloudy afternoon, two views of Cedar Lake (above and below). I'm riding the Fancy Beast and heading home, but taking the trail route. Despite the clouds, the lake has some fall beauty.

Closer to home, and later, after sunset. Rockwell-Collins pond on C Avenue.

Anyway, Clarence is back from the shop! Cranky in Marion got a heavy duty rear wheel for me from Fuji. That thing looks serious—thick, heavy gauge spokes that should bear even my weight for the long haul. And he didn’t charge me for the wheel, either, since the bike is only about a year old.

I can’t beat that deal! I have grandkids this weekend—with Francis back, maybe we can get some use out of the Tag-A-Long. It was wet today when I picked up the bike--but tomorrow should be a sunny, although cool, day.

We’ll see!

In Which Golden Light Illuminates the Way

Cedar Lake, Oct. 4, 2017, between 5:30 and 6 in the evening.

The light of fall this afternoon was too tempting. I have to write a mid-term exam for Friday, grade a set of papers for Thursday and tackle another backlog of grading for a  speech class that has 50 students in two sections.

But this early evening held that special pretty light of a cool day after a storm. This morning, my wife and I went together to the gym early, and it rained pretty hard while we were there. But both the TV weather people and the online radar suggested we were at the end of this bout of welcome water from the sky.

So at 7:30, I took the Fancy Beast out of the garage. For some reason, last week I broke yet another spoke on my hybrid bike Clarence, so I’ve been riding like a Seattle techie for the past few days. My son received this mountain bike as a perk from Microsoft 8 or 9 years ago. The bike had been passed on to a son-in-law for a few years, and then when he moved to England, came to me.

The bike, a black Raleigh mountain bike, did not get heavy use after I got it because I also owned a Schwinn mountain bike, passed on by my youngest son. For almost a year, it collected dust in the garage because a severely wobbly back wheel made it impossible to ride. Anyway, a few weeks ago I took the Raleigh into the Marion bike shop to see if Cranky could fix the untrue back wheel.

He could, and did. “It’ll be a good little bike,” he said when I picked it up.

And indeed it has been. I already wrote about riding the Fancy Beast on the Grant Wood Trail a while back. Now, while I wait to have a day when I get home during business hours at the bike shop, and because it’s meant to be the cold or wet weather bike anyway, I’ve been riding the Fancy Beast.

And having a blast. It is, compared to my road and hybrid bikes, slower—but not as slow as its looks would suggest. It is relatively light, and rolls with little resistance, so it can get going at a good speed on a flat or downhill.

Anyway, this morning I would have ridden it even if the hybrid was ride worthy—it was cloudy and wet. The Fancy Beast is my winter beater bike, the one I choose on days when stuff from the sky may complicate my biking life. I aired it up and applied some wet lube t the chain, and I was off.

The air was damp, and I’m sure I splashed on myself as I rode over the wet sidewalks and streets. But the day turned fair and cool, the kind of weather we haven’t seen enough of yet this fall in which September was a summer month—sunshine and 60s. The kind of day a light sweater felt just right and biking is a true pleasure even in the damp morning—but especially in the cool, dry afternoon.

So, despite it all, on my ride home tonight I took the time to swing down to Cedar Lake on the Cedar River Trail. As I expected, the golden light of late day in October made this dirty little pond quite pretty, as you can see. Later, as I neared home, I circled the C Avenue pond at Rockwell-Collins, again enjoying the fall light.

Cedar Lake seen from the canopy of trees in the park on the east side.

Sunset at Rockwell-Collins pond on C Avenue.

Golden sun shines down and makes the world a place of transcendent beauty at this time of year. As you can imagine, for clearly obvious reasons, I’ve been in a delicate, poor mood for much of this week. The carnage in Las Vegas, the hurricanes, old fluff and puff’s odd lack of empathy when faced with suffering Americans in Puerto Rico—it has not been a good time for a man who professionally has to pay attention to the news of the day.

RIP Tom Petty. You picked a lousy week to die in, not that it’s your fault. Somehow, we all feel we are free falling.

So maybe it’s not such a surprise I took some time out for a gratuitous lake ride. I enjoyed it, as I also enjoyed the fall light during last Friday’s Mount Mercy Bike Club Ride north to Robins.

Bike club shadows Friday at Robins park. OK, it's not really October yet in this picture, but almost.

So thanks, October skies. It’s not as if you make it all better—the hurts and anxieties run too deep for that. But being reminded that there is still beauty in the world helps.