On our trip through the (seemingless!) endless plains of Nebraska – which I found beautiful nonetheless – I took this photo from the car, window rolled down, holding on to my camera for dear life, as we drove to Colorado. I’m not sure what we’re looking at here – recently harvested potatoes, perhaps?
After having lived here in the Des Moines metro area for almost ten years now, we finally took the time to spend a lovely day touring the Bridges of Madison County. We visited five of them this Memorial Day and enjoyed each and every one!
Remember when you were a kid and how you loved to sound off in front of a fan to hear the distortion in your voice? And how you’d giggle with delight?
That’s exactly what I did last night when I rode my bike through this wonderful tunnel with walls of corrugated steel. ‘Whoooooooooo!’ and ‘Wheeeeeeee!’ and ‘AHHHHHHHHHHHH!’ And then: GIGGLE!
Husband and I have rediscovered the joy and exhilaration of bicycling again. The pleasure – and freedom – of flying along the many beautiful bike trails here in the Des Moines metro area brings out the kid in me. Life is good.
An abandoned church or maybe a school where classes have long since been dismissed? Such a shame these old relics are left to battle the elements – and time – on their own and, as such, lose every battle. Still, I think there is a certain kind of beauty here yet for those of us who are willing to look for it.
So. I thought this was a cool image but until this moment, had not really given much thought to the sign over the door, silhouetted here in this photo taken at dusk. This is the sign announcing the presence of the Iowa Distilling Company, the existence of which I was totally unaware.
Cumming is a teeny, tiny Iowa town near the Des Moines metro and its local claim to fame – for the bicycling crowd, anyway – is that it sports a parking lot / trailhead for the Great Western Trail. Oh, and it’s home as well to the Cumming Tap, a small bar that caters to area bicyclists.
At one point, Cumming – considered one of the smallest incorporated suburbs of the metro area – was apparently more of a bustling metropolis with the likes of other local businesses such as Sweeney’s Shamrock Oil service station but apparently those days are behind her…
…but this tiny burg sure packs a photo op wallop!
I don’t much indulge in hard liquor, the apparent mainstay of the Iowa Distilling Company – not much of a drinker, period – but I do think it’s kind of cool, all things considered, that such a small town (population: 383) would have so much to offer.
A glorious spring day, spent with loved ones hiking down cozy paths in the woods, with trout streams providing an acoustic backdrop and sunshine practically dripping from every beautiful new leafy spurt of green – well, if that’s not heaven, I don’t know what is…
This small but stout bridge on a nondescript ‘river’ in central Iowa is our halfway point whether we begin our ride at the southern trailhead in Martensdale or from the other direction at the parking lot juncture just outside the Cumming Tap – a popular stopping point for bikers especially on Tacopocalypse Tuesday nights.
I like it here because of the quiet, the isolation and, especially late in the day, how the trees are reflected in the water below. We don’t stay too long – we’re riding for the exercise, after all! — but just enough to drink from our water bottles, maybe snap a few photos and to compare notes on the ride. And then we mount our bikes, push off and – exhilaration! – we’re flying again.
An old, derelict school bus, sandwiched between what appear to be two abandoned, ramshackle mobile homes, runs parallel to our favorite stretch of the Great Western Trail, a popular rails to trails bike path. Come summer, these tumbledown, forsaken structures will be almost entirely hidden from view by all the trees in full bloom, vines, shrubs and other unrestrained vegetation. For now though, stepping carefully (and somewhat daintily!), I was able to snap a few pics of these old relics while I still have a relatively clear path to do so.
A Sawyer's Daughter 
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