In Which a Dozen Photos Come From Two Short Rides

Argent and outdoor art at Lowe Park.

Two things you can bet on from my photos on this bike blog: Many will show flowers. And there will be a bunny.

I had too much to do today for a long bicycle ride. The morning included assembling some bookshelves (assembling kit furniture is always a trial for me—a reminder of why, when I chose a career, I wanted to work with my hands on a keyboard and not in a tool box). The afternoon included going to a nearby town to watch two cute grandsons.

But there was riding, and the riding that there was turned out to be very pleasant riding.

First, the morning ride. I was going to the gym to exercise, and though it looked cloudy, I decided to try biking. Since I was carrying my gym bag, Francis, my commuting bike, was the logical choice. I went, I exercised, and I headed home. Before going home, I decided to cycle on the paved portion of the Lindale Trail. That and doing the figure 8 on the neighborhood hill would make even just a few miles count as decent biking.

The first unusual animal I saw was a bit unpleasant—a tiny dead mole. Driven from its hole in the recent storm by water and killed by exposure in the chilly night air, I assume. Well, that didn’t exactly make my day, and I was thinking slightly dour thoughts about mortality and wondered if I should do the neighborhood hill, when, just before the end of my trail loop, a doe sauntered out of the woods some 20 yards from me and wandered a bit nonchalantly away from me before unhurriedly stepping into the brush on the other side of the trail.

What, we worry? Doe wanders across Lindale Trail.

I’m not one for omens or signs, but somehow the sight of the doe just switched my mood, and I then charged up the Brentwood hill before breakfast and felt pretty good doing it.

After working on the shelves, I had about an hour to kill before leaving town. Paging Argent, it was time for a quick ride, and Argent is my new quick bike.

I took 5 minutes to raise the seat yet again—I was tired last time I rode Argent, and conjectured I was not extending my legs enough. That seemed to have done the trick—this was a more comfortable fast ride on this fast bike.

I decided to head out to Lowe Park in Marion. My wife had told me that she had found a bike-friendly route there. There’s a trail from Lowe Park to Excelsior Middle School, and it always seemed odd to me in past years that this nice little trail was so isolated, unreachable by bike. Maybe things have changed.

Audrey said she had ridden past Novak School, so I turned north from Boyson Road to Geode Street. Crossing 29th Avenue, Geode became 3 St (that’s what the signs say, not Third Street nor 3rd Street—3 St. Marion, what the heck kind of street name is “3 St?”)

The street of odd number name terminates in Tower Terrace Road, at a stretch with very nice bike lanes. I wasn’t sure where to go next, but turned left, which turned out to be the right choice. When I came to Irish Drive, I turned right. A dire warning at the end of the street said “sidewalk closed,” but the “sidewalk” was neither closed nor really a sidewalk. It was the trail I had been seeking, the bike route between Lowe Park and Excelsior Middle School.

And what a fine enhanced trail it turned out to be. Both it and Lowe Park have changed since I last rode there. I headed first to Excelsior and got slightly sprinkled on by the dark grey sky, but then I turned back towards Lowe Park.

Here comes the train again, falling on my head like a tragedy, falling on my head like a new emotion. Fortunately, not much rain, and it was over quickly. Wet sky when I reached the Excelsior end of the trail.

Lowe Park! Egad, what happened to you? You were such a nothing baby park the last time I saw you, an isolated arty reception building in the midst of nowhere. Now the building is all surrounded by display gardens and outdoor sculptures, and it was like I’d gone through the wardrobe into springtime in Art Narnia.

I’m sure I’ll be back. Riding the whole trail and the route to and from it was just a bit over an hour—and only because I paused to take many photos. It would be a comfortable one-hour ride otherwise. Maybe a bit more on Francis with a toddler in the seat, but we’ll have to try that experiment sometime soon to see.

Well. So there will be art as well as flower photos to see, of course:

Bunny where Irish Drive "closed" sidewalk, which was not closed at all, meets bike trail. All photos below are details of arty end of trail near Lowe Park building. Very nice, worth a second look when I'm not in a hurry.

A Nice End-of-Day Ride With Lots of Yutes

What are they?  I don't know . Blue and orange flowers along the trail.

I’m borrowing a word from “My Cousin Vinny.”  Yutes is how the judge mishears “youths” pronounced with a Brooklyn accent in that movie, which I love to quote now that I know one of my sisters is surprised that I saw it.  Anyway, I’m using the word here to mean young animals, and I saw plenty of yutes Thursday.

I rode to MMU for 6 p.m. bell practice.  My choir director was so impressed with the MMU bike jersey I had on that she asked me and one other ringer who has an MMU bike jersey to wear our jerseys for Saturday’s parade.

The original plan was for all of us to wear plain blue shirts, but look for us in the Freedom Festival parade this Saturday, June 23, in downtown Cedar Rapids at 10 a.m.—most in blue, two in MMU jerseys.  The parade is fairly short and ends at Greene Square Park, by the way.

Anyway, choir practice got over around 6:45, and I texted Audrey that I was on the way home.  She was painting our home office, and I think she wanted more time before I got there, because she texted back:  “I thought you were going for a bike ride after practice.”

So I did.  I missed the MMU ride due to the practice, but I hopped on my bike and headed to the Cedar River trail.  First, I went south down to Cedar Lake, and then I turned north once I got to Quaker Oats.

It was a gorgeous evening for a ride.  After the heat we had earlier this week, a summer cold front passed through, bringing some badly needed rain.  A summer cold front means the high was in the 80s and the day was warm, by the way, and not oppressively humid and hot.  The geese were out and had to be shooed off the trail, but they were pretty nice about it.

As I headed north, the sun sank low and the world was bathed in that special golden Iowa summer end-of-the-day light.  The flowers popped along the trail as they were lit or back lit with that fading sun.

Cone flower at the end of the trail, back lit by low sun.

And the animals were coming out.  After I reached the end of the trail and headed back, as the shadows were growing, but it was still light, the creatures of dusk were starting to stir.

First, I had a fairly close encounter with a doe.  She stepped onto the trail about 10 feet in front of me, startled, and darted back.  Whew.  A deer collision wouldn’t be fun on a bike, either.

Then, cute and cuddly looking, right beside the trail, two baby raccoons were wrestling.  Aww.  I thought of stopping to take their photo, but let’s face it, if you have young raccoons (are they kittens or cubs?), you might have a mamma.  Raccoon adults are substantial and potentially nasty animals, the second most dangerous omnivore you might meet along this trail (there are no bears in this part of Iowa, so people are the most dangerous omnivore you would meet), and I wasn’t willing to risk having mamma raccoon upset with me for any reasons.

So you’ll just have to picture them.  They were cute.

Then, as I continued toward the urban wilds of Hiawatha and Cedar Rapids, I saw several baby bunnies.  They were much cuter to see on the trail than they would be in my gardens.

It was a fun ride, and Audrey did indeed finish the painting project.  We are installing a new computer in the office.  I’m writing this on the laptop as OpenOffice installs on the new computer.

New computer boots up Thursday night for the first time.  But I'm writing this on the laptop.

Well, bell practice was a bit disconcerting—I’m ringing two notes I don’t usually ring—but I’m sure the parade will go well.  I do plan to ride there on Old Blackie—biking to get there will surely be easier than driving.  And the ride home Thursday night, with all its yutes, was grand!