steveonfulton

We are currently having a little spat between some of the citizens and the mayor.

BIKE RIDE AROUND THE GRAVEL PIT

This ride started at home and went down 10th street, 11th street, 9th street to Beech and then over to Main. I took Main out of town and around the gravel pit back up to Main. Then I took Vine to 7th to the end of 7th. Then to home. 11.96 miles.

I passed this field of sorghum on my ride. Sorghum is not a common crop for our area but it has been planted along here for a long time.

A panicle of the sorghum plant. Sorghum is a grass and related to corn but has a panicle instead of an ear. It is grown here as an animal feed.

Here are some more grasses. I don't know what these are. You can see the "Clinton dunes" in the background. Grasses are fun to photograph.

Grasses

I always hated to see these little blue flowers bloom. It seemed that summer just flew by after these flowers came on the scene. The plant is chicory and they grow in poor soil. They are very prevalent along the edge of the road and just grow there with their beautiful blue flower.

Butterfly

Unknown. I will have to determine what this is

I am not sure what this is.

"Clinton dunes"

The plastic sack at the edge of the road provided me some concern. As I was approaching the sack there was a slight breeze and the top of the sack was moving back and forth. I could not determine what it was. It looked like a black and white large bird just sitting there. I stopped to determine exactly what it was.

This road is traveled very little now. It is a concrete road and is now very rough. The only evidence of county attention is a sign that says "rough road". I traveled the entire length without a car passing.

Thistle

Because this road is rarely traveled it seems to be a good place to dump your trash.

More trash

This little beaver did not make it across the road so I guess the road is traveled by some.

Along here I was stopped just looking at things when all of a sudden I heard this huge noise that sounded like a moose coming through the woods. I was so startled that I could not even aim my camera. I finally realized that it was several wild turkeys that had taken solitude in the trees and I had disturbed them. They are pretty large birds and they make a lot of noise when they take flight. Especially when there are several of them.

Flower

A stand of Black Eyed Susan

When I see these infestations it always reminds me of my summer job. During summers when I was going to college, I worked for the state highway department. I usually did labor jobs like cleaning the restrooms at roadside parks (that is another story), acting as a flagger on construction sites, mowing, and other such work. One summer there was supposed to be an infestation of army worms. They create a web nest like this in the branches of trees. My job

was going to be driving the state and locating infestations. I was going to get $600 per month. That was a lot of money in those days for summer help. I usually made about $2 per hour. I was going to get a state car also. Wow!

When I went to work, I was teamed with an old man who had never had an accident in all his years with the state. My car and assignment was not ready and so I had to ride with this gentleman until my job was ready. I was with him for about two weeks and

almost every day he came very close to having an accident. In two cases he caused an accident.

When we would come upon some highway workers he would pull off the road to visit with them. Many times he would not signal and just pull off or pull on in front of traffic. One time he pulled onto the highway in front of a car, causing the car to swerve and go into the ditch. Needless to say he was blamed for the accident and that ended his perfect driving record. And I was there and glad to

get away.

After a couple of weeks I was told that my job would not materialize. I went back to my labor job but I still got the pay for the other job. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to driving around the state looking for the army worm infestations.

Back out on the open road

My first woolly bear. (I always called them woolly worms). He was crossing the road and I saw him as I was passing by. This is what I always used to do when I walked to school. I would walk along the side of the road because the side walk was all grown over with weeds. I would look for bugs, plants or anything that was different from the previous time I walked this way.

The woolly bear is supposed to be an indication of the coming winter. If they are dark and thick, the winter is supposed to be cold. This one was light and thin. Hooray!