The map

Starting my ride was an inspiring site. However I have never been able to ride up this hill. I have to get off and push.

Traveling down a gravel road. You really have to look to find any beauty here.

Is this beauty?

This flock of geese came by to see what I was doing.

They left pretty quickly

There are a few flowers here and there.

This is about the best I can do for beauty

Still lacking anything to write home about

Wow! I found a warning sign for a water valve.

And look here. This is 33J24. I always wondered what is was.

This mushroom had sprung up.

The ears on the corn are starting to turn down.

This tower was put here for some reason.

I am traveling on a gravel road and it has "washboarded" in many places. If you had false teeth it would jar them loose.

I found this old metal box attached to a utility pole. I don't know what is was for but it no longer serves that purpose, I think.

Lots of beans.

Some trash now and then

Here is an old barn with 1937 written at the top. This looks like an old homesite. I wonder why it was abandoned. There is no house now but the barn still stands.

You can see the 1937 better here.

The doors haven't been used in a while

Here is where the house would have been

This tree would have been in the front yard

An apple tree is in the side yard. Someone would pick these apples and make a wonderful pie.

Someone still is watching over the land.

Along the fence row is this Osage Orange also known as the hedge apple.

Osage orange

This telephone box looks like is has not been opened for a long time. I don't know what these are for.

More beans.

Oh no. All of the wooly bears I saw today were dark.

Winter's comin

Some sickly looking flowers.

Why do you suppose this plant in the bean field has its leaves turning red?

Bellycam

This phone box is even worse than the other one.

Some more trash. I didn't really see too much trash.

This is Beck's 354NRR

You can look out across the fields and everything looks the same...

but if you look closely you can find some beauty as in this flowering weed invading the beans.

Another flowering weed

I was fortunate to see a rare assembly of the Strategic Butterfly Defense Force or SBDF.

Bellycam. Back on the blacktop

In the foreground at the edge of the bean field are a couple of cockleburr plants. You don't see those in fields much any more because of the herbicide that is now used. When I was a kid, this is one of the summer jobs I would have. Cutting weeds like this and jimson weed and horseweed was a big kid job provider. You would walk down the rows with a big knife of some sort and cut these weeds. You would cover acres and acres. I might make 50 cents an hour.

Here you can see some weeds all through this field

Bellycam. Entering Jonestown. Not much left of this place. Just a few houses and trailers.

Bellycam. Passing thru Jonestown

Bellycam. Traveling south on SR 71 in St. Bernice.

Bellycam. Heading toward home.

When you don't have mountains, lakes, streams, wildflower meadows, and the like you have to make due with what you have. You find something and imagine what caused it to be there.

You see three trees in a field and wonder why they are there. You wonder what the land was like before farming. Was there dense forest covering the land? One thought leads to another.