Coop's Corner: Iowa Byway - Delaware Crossing

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Iowa Byway - Delaware Crossing - River Bluffs

I left Peosta this morning and it was almost too cool. Using the old US 20 that parallels the new 4 lane version, I headed west to Delaware.

Something I see often here in southern IA and in MO are ponds. Some are strictly for erosion control, some for cattle but many are for decoration and recreation.

Historical Lenox College in Hopkinstown, open from 1859 - 1944.

Making my way counterclockwise around Delaware Crossing, here heading north.

Near Delhi, just before I made it to the south end of the lake....the woodsiest road so far this trip.

I expected to see a lake here near Delhi; my maps said there would be one but in 2010, there was a severe breach of the dam and this is the result.

I headed north to Strawberry Point where I stopped for lunch, at that point only 14 or so miles from Elkader and the rally site. Freshening up the Strawberry.......

Arrival in the Elkader City Park. I set my tent up, counted maybe 10 or 12 other early arriving riders and then headed out to do a section of the River Bluffs Byway, some of which I'd done during previous rallies.

The Turkey River flows right through town, the town protected very well from floods due to the huge dike that's been built along the river.

On the River Bluffs Byway, just a lovely afternoon in some very pretty country.

Downtown St. Olaf where Scotty hosts, or more accurately, corrals a bunch of us every fall for the Pork Tenderloin Ride.

More scenes from the ride.....

I've got a photo of this house with the TW200 rather than the Guzzi on a previous trip.

I'm Posting today's ride from the Fayette Public Library after convincing the wary librarian that I would behave myself. WiFi may be in short supply the next few days in Elkader. My next post, whenever it happens will likely be from the Treats on Bridgestreet coffee shop.

I'll finish this loop of the River Bluffs route, heading east through Volga. Fayette is a college town and looks like a place even I'd like to attend higher learning. Today I'll just ride through on my way back to Elkader.

8 comments:

TrobairitzJuly 10, 2014 at 9:47 AM
Such beautiful scenery.

Did you manage to partake in a strawberry treat at Strawberry Point?
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJuly 10, 2014 at 10:43 AM
This corner of the state is not like the Iowa most people imagine. Old, old glaciers and erosion into the Mississippi valley is responsible.

I had lunch in a diner with high back seating. Of all the visible flavors, peach sounded the best. Only after I stood up to leave did I see strawberry rhubarb at the bottom.

The peach was not a mistake. :)
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SonjaMJuly 10, 2014 at 12:08 PM
My, this is beautiful, and the colours are so crisp. The air must be quite clean in the area. I am liking it.
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DebJuly 10, 2014 at 4:22 PM
Awesome, open, fantastic riding country!

Enjoy the rally too!
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VStar LadyJuly 10, 2014 at 9:16 PM
Beautiful countryside Coop. I love to see the old parts of the country that people don't expect.
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)