In Which The RAGBRAI Deed is Done

Magnolia by Warde Hall. I'm passing by on Clarence, and I paused to snap this image of spring getting underway.

Spring in Iowa—cool, a bit wet, but starting to finally look a little green.

Last week, for spring break, my wife and I went to San Francisco to visit our son and daughter-in-law. It’s a bike-oriented city, despite the impressive hills—a fair amount of bike traffic. Both Jon and Nalena often use their bikes to commute to the train station on their way to their tech jobs. Sometimes, Jon even rides his bike home from the Facebook HQ, which, I think, is a more than 20-mile journey.

One thing that impressed me about bikers in San Francisco is that way too few of them ride with lights at night. And those who do use lights generally have just one in front and one in back—unlike me. I’m lit up with helmet lights, two headlines, two taillights and spoke lights. I like redundant lights—I don’t want to be one drained battery away from going over to the dark side.

Anyway, I didn’t ride at all in San Francisco, but have been commuting by bike this week. I rode Monday and Tuesday, and also this morning, although this afternoon I rode home in a minivan with my wife due to the cool rain that was falling.

I saw some deer in Dry Creek Monday evening as I was headed home. And this week there were other spring sightings—it’s not as warm or green or flowery here as it is in California, but some early flowers are starting to show as the Iowa chill slowly goes away. This morning, on a cool, cloudy damp morning that threatened rain (which, luckily, did not fall until after I got to work), I noticed that the large Magnolia bush (or small Magnolia tree, I am not sure what to call it) by Warde Hall at Mount Mercy University was starting to bloom.

Spring! It’s almost April, I’m just registered for RAGBRAI, and I’m feeling ready for warm weather.