Morning Ride

Murray is a small town surrounded by an infinity of farm fields.....a municipal island in an agricultural sea. We live on the edge of Murray. So, when I want to take a bike ride - as I did this morning - I naturally head west, out into the country. Not as far west as I'd like to head, but that's another story.

There's good bicycling out here, in this flat farm country. If you know where you're going, you could spend all day linking from one quiet, country road to another.

I didn't go quite that far. According to my GPS, I rode 12.5 miles. At one point, I had to squirt water at a large St. Bernard who came galloping after me, and seemed intent on trying to run me off the road. He didn't bark or growl, but when dogs that large chase me, it makes me nervous. He yelped when he felt the water, and retreated to the farm house from whence he had come.

I saw a few houses here and there, but mostly I saw fields. I brought the camera with me, so here's a brief idea of what I mean. There's my bike, and on one side you see a field of drying corn, and on the other a field of soybeans. Corn and soybeans. Those are the principal crops out here, and believe me when I tell you that they are everywhere.

There is one other crop you see a lot; I saw it this morning on my ride:

Recognize it? I didn't when we first came out here. It's tobacco, and pretty soon now slow-moving trucks hauling tobacco will be a common sight on these back roads. Tobacco may no longer be king here in western Kentucky, but it's still in the Royal Court. You see a lot of these fields.

And that's it - my Saturday morning bike ride.

Cheers,

Randy