In Which A Sweet Spring Day Leads to Mowing

Second-oldest Iowa granddaughter on second bike ride of the morning. We are stopped at corner of C Avenue and Boyson Road waiting to go ride around the Collins Aerospace koi pond, and she is playing with the two bells on the towed seat.

The day began with me taking an unexpected tour of the back yard. I had snuck out for a few minutes to view new flowers, but didn’t plan to stay out there because I’ve planted new grass and clover, and am trying to allow it to get going before it gets trampled into the bare patches my backyard usually features.

But I was caught. My 3-year-old grandson saw me go out, and insisted that entitled him to get into the yard, too, so I let him put on his shoes and play in back for a few minutes. He’s small, and I was careful where I walked, so I hope we minimized our impact on the new grass—but I did enjoy the cool, sunny morning and the sight of many flowers blooming in my back gardens.

Daffodil I planted last fall is in bloom. The red tulip behind it is new, too, both seen this morning.

Thus began my Saturday in the saddle. His mom was met at my house by her sister, and my two daughters were then off to the Amanas with their children for an event there. Meanwhile, the four grandkids from another mother were dropped off to spend the day with their grandparents.

Before lunch, I took the oldest of the four for a ride as I was seeking a new gasoline container (and beans for the weenies and beans we had planned). I had lost the cap of the old gas can, and don’t want to keep gasoline in a container that is not well sealed. It’s the mix of gas and air, after all, that is most volatile.

Dollar General, as it turned out, has only 5-gallon containers. We did get the beans for lunch, but I did  not want such a large gas can. So the granddaughter and I rode home, and I swapped her for the next younger granddaughter and swapped Dollar General for Drug Town. Which, as it turned out, had no gasoline containers at all.

Lunch came next, and then the three girls and grandma planned a “girls day out.” I told the oldest grandson, who is among those four siblings, that we could ride my bike on the Boyson Trail and turn down the Krumholz Trail to get to Menards. He agreed, and there we found a gas can and a new spay can of WD-40.

Saturday afternoon on the Krumholz Trail. The world has turned green, although the trail is not shady as the trees are just putting out their first new leaves. Still, a pretty green Iowa spring day.

Wild bluebells blooming along Krumholz Trail.

My oldest grandson is not usually happy to have his image taken, and put his head down when I aimed a camera at him. Still, I like the picture of his shadow as we are on our afternoon ride on the trail.

The front derailleur of my mountain bike is not working, but I hope cleaning all the crud off with WD-40 might unstick it. We shall see.

Anyway, the older grandson and I biked home, stopping at a gas station to fill the new gas container (it’s not often you see a bicycle stopped at a gas pump to gas up, but it happened today). Then, I cleaned the front yard and mowed, as the grandson watched for a while and then played in the house for a while.

Grandson and I have arrived home and I have gotten mower out. The bike, the mower, the gas can and the container of WD-40 we purchased. The gas can can fit in one of my bike bags which means I don't have to walk to get gasoline.

My wife stopped by to grab some water bottles. The girls were done shopping and ready to head to Indian Creek School playground, where a rendezvous with the Amana crew had been arranged.

So the older grandson and I biked over there. Before we left the playground, intending to go to my house for the All Iowa Grandchild Spontaneous Pizza Party (thank you, my youngest daughter, for getting the pizza), my 3-year-old grandson got a little sad. He gets prone to being sad late in the afternoon on no nap days, but this particular episode was also a case of But I Want To Ride with Grandpa.

However, I did not have the bike seat for him, so the tears that ensued were for naught. The second youngest of the three girls in the four-sibling family managed to schedule herself for the ride home, so there we went.

When we got there, after our pizza supper, I told the 3-year-old I would put his seat on my bike, and told the youngest of the three sisters, who had not ridden yet, she could have a turn on the towed seat, if she wanted.

She did. But there were two grandsons in another family, who had also not ridden. One didn’t want to, and for the other, I got out a second bicycle and attached a second trailer seat to it, and the caravan—me with a 3-year-old in front, towing a Tag-A-Long with a kindergartener in back, accompanied by my daughter with a towed seat attached to her bicycle, towing her kindergarten son—got going.

We headed up to the duck pond on C Avenue, and then down the Lindale Trail, where we headed back up the Boyson Trail to Boyson Road and then back into my neighborhood.

I’m not sure how many miles I rode today. The morning rides were maybe 3 miles each, for about 6. The ride to Menards and back was likely around 8 or so. There was also the ride to Indian Creek School and back, followed by the probably 5-mile trail loop ride. I suppose all told it was between 25 and 30 miles, so not that great for total miles on a RAGBRAI training day.

Still, I was towing grandchildren on all those rides, and I feel that I earned my pizza. And enjoyed this fine, sunny Iowa spring day. Sadly, more rain is coming, which is shame, specially with serious flooding happening on Iowa’s East Coast. But now my legs feel tired, as they ought to after a pretty day for bicycle riding like this one.

Final look at the trail from today. A gorgeous day to be in Iowa!