Segment #7 Prairie Farmer Trail 13/20 sm

 

Start	Calmar, IA	N43.18343 W91.86378	N-S miles  13*
End	Cresco, IA	N 43.37124 W92:10478	Trail lgth20mi Ride20mi

 

Mark & me (yellow) ready to challenge
ourselves to some inclimate weather for
October in Iowa. The twenty mile trail
was smooth asphalt and well maintained

This ride was a chilly one. Considering it was only October 10^th, it was a cold day—48 degrees. Toss in a 15 mph headwind and we had a very chilly workout. Luckily I was able to draft my buddy Mark (see Heritage Trail Ride 9/16/12) for another ride with me. Since this trail did not always have the usual tunnel of trees common with rail-trails, we had quite a bit of open Iowa farmland to encourage the brunt of a headwind. There was some fall color but most trees had peeked a week or more ago. The farmers were cutting corn with their half million dollar combines, unloading the golden grain in huge semitrailer trucks. Wow, has farming changed from the days the Maze boys worked on the Carroll farm. We had a two row corn picker that got clogged much too often. I can remember my brother Johnny nearly suffering a crushed arm when he tried to loosen lodged corn stocks from the rollers of an operating corn picker. Farming is a risky business. Now farmers, those who can afford it , have the best of everything operating  multi-million dollar equipment with air conditioned dust proof cabs, surround sound audio and video entertainment and incredible safety features. Huge lights allow the farmer to work all night if necessary.  The size and speed of modern farm equipment allows modern farmers to complete harvesting more than ten times faster with three times better yields than we could do on the Maze farm in the 60’s and 70’s.

 

So as the farmers were farming, tossing plums of dust in the air, Mark and Glenn were peddling into the wind. As we neared Cresco, we noticed a shape in the bike path that did not fit the design of a dog or cat. It seemed to be taking a sunbath in the middle of the trail. The closer we got, the cleared it was that it was a bushy tailed animal with reddish brown hair. Color and body shape, matched that of a fox. Apparently bicyclists failed to spook Mr. Red Fox, so he waited until we were within one hundred yards and then he gave a big stare at us and then lazily loped off into the underbrush. I had never seen a fox, flop around on a trail or road before. Perhaps it was because the sun was shining on the asphalt, warming a spot for a nice sunbath.




Donna, Mark & Connie are tired
and hungry. Good thing the food
was good and the ladies were not
as tired as the Bike Boys. Thanks
for driving us home ladies!.

Mark and I rode into Cresco, Iowa right on time for Connie and Donna to meet us at Sue-Z-Q’s Family Dining. I could not resist the Awesome Omelet made from six eggs. I guess I was nutritionally deprived because gobbled down the omlet in record fashion. In addition, this restaurant had the best coffee I have had in months. Sue-Z-Q’s gets my vote for the place to eat in Cresco, Iowa.  The Awsome Omlet is just that---Awsome!