CR Biker: In Which Public Art Proves Elusive

Sunday, July 5, 2020

In Which Public Art Proves Elusive

Catalpa tree by new intermediate school next to Echo Hill Elementary. If you are looking for roundabout art, you can't get there directly from here.

Sidewalk I found near new intermediate school.

Where the sidewalk ends ...

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June.

J.R.R. Tolkien

So the other day, my plan on an early Tour de Marion was to go out Echo Hill Road, picking up a bike trail that would lead from a new intermediate school back to neighborhoods east, where I would find the Marion birds or corn or whatever they are in a roundabout.

But, I think my memory of Marion geography was flawed. I did find some trail and pathways beyond the new school, but none going far nor where I wanted to go.

So, I decided to try from the other end—going to the east end of the Lowe Park trail, and then heading behind Linn-Mar High School down 29th Avenue to 35th Street. There, I could go north and get to the art I was seeking, and then backtrack west.

Or so I thought. As is a surprise to nobody, least of all me, I was again wrong. I did find some trials, one that seemed to lead northward to nowhere, ending in dead ends.

Tolkien wasn’t entirely correct—not all roads go ever on. Some terminate next to a soybean field on a hot summer day.

Then again, the Linn-Mar district is building two intermediate schools, and I may have been confused. The 35th Street trail maybe does lead, eventually, to the other school, which looks a lot like the one over on Echo Hill Road.

It was hot, and my plan was to ride maybe 20 miles or so. What with my determination to find the corn or bird art, I ended up with a tour that collected a few extra miles. It was still a shorter ride than Saturday—I started later and planned to ride less—but every bit as hot.

Well, hot biking is good training, too. And between Lowe Park, Grant Wood and monument to Iowa roundabouts, it should be easy to squeeze out quite a few miles on faux RAGBRAI in Marion. And I think the ride included some interesting things to see:

Hollyhocks in front garden of a house seen in Marion on my ride today. I have hollyhock envy.

Same garden

Other flowers next to the hollyhocks.

Black-eyed Susans in bloom in median of Marion road. I like how this city has planted many medians in flowers.

Could not get there directly from Lowe Park area, but eventually I found the corn-bird art roundabout.

Don't try to detassle this corn ...

Blackbird yelled at me from top of street light, and then took wing when I pointed a camera at it.

Dragonfly on grass next to bike trial in Marion.

The same insect, it has moved to the next plant. I saw a SciShow video that said dragonflies are about the most efficient predator in the animal kingdom, basically capturing 100 percent of prey that they target. They have a 360-degree line of sight and can fly in any direction and hover. Glad they are too small to hunt humans!