A Lovely Day For A Ride

After several cool rainy days, we woke up to pure sunshine this morning in spite of a weather forecast that said the cool rainy days would continue through the weekend.  We decided to take a chance the weather would hold and dug the bike out for a ride.  

One of our favorite rides is Highway 9 out of Arlington to Sedro Wooley.  Most of this highway has been improved in the past couple of years.  A new wide bridge has replaced what was once a one lane bridge over Pilchuck Creek.

 Of course, road work is never done in the summer in Washington, so we saw quite a few of these signs before we got to Burlington.

They really love traffic circles lately - this is about the eighth one we navigated on our journey today.

This downed tree had to be across the highway when it fell.  

We crossed I-5 in Burlington and then went out through the beautiful ag land between Burlington and Bow-Edison on Highway 11.  Miles and miles of potato fields, blueberry fields, corn, and pastures, with the smell of clover filling the air and a temperature right at 70, made for a pleasant ride.

Destination:  Longhorn Saloon in Bow - for the best fish and chips around

There were a few ominous looking clouds along the way, but no rain so we had a nice ride.  Saw this sign by Lake McMurray on our way back: 

Just in case someone is interested, I'm posting it here. :)

Tripping across the U.S.A. (again)

Twice a year, Ron and I drive across the country.  Usually we take the "short" way - or what we call the "Northern Route".  However, last year when we were driving two cars, we ran into snow, sleet, ice, wind, and overall miserable driving conditions.  Since we were leaving about two weeks earlier this year and the weather forecast looked a bit formidable for the I-90 corridor, we decided to take the "southern route".  This one takes us all the way across the southern tier of states on I-20 and I-10, and then straight up I-5.  The overall trip is about 500 miles further this way, but we can be pretty sure if we see snow it will only be for a few miles in the Siskiyous in northern California and Oregon.

 

It's coming back to us why we avoid this route. 

Palo Verde trees are in bloom and beautiful in Arizona.

The dessert is at its most vibrant.

 

So a lot of the trip is much more interesting on the southern route at this time of year.

 

Love the rock formations of Arizona.

 

We smelt this coming for about 5 miles before we got to it in California.

Now this is dedication to protecting a crop!

Many different crops for hundreds of miles in Southern California, from citrus, to nuts, to row crops.

Olives,

Pistachios, and much more!

We've missed all the California agriculture.  I love to see things growing, and California is the growing capital of the country.  Forty years ago, I took an Environmental Studies course, and the underlying theme then was how limiting a factor water was and would increasingly be in the future.

 

 

The future is here.  We saw signs all over California about water, and the last wheel line we saw was somewhere in Alabama.  

 We saw our first white mountain when we were a little south of Redding, and Mt Shasta was gorgeous as we went further north.

I have been missing mountains!



Southern Agriculture - Fall 2010

It still feels like summer, but the fall harvest is well underway.  

You can see the tractor in the background turning the peanut plants.  This is the field across from our house where they are just getting started.

The peanuts are uprooted, turned with the green side down and peanuts up to dry in the sun.

This machine sucks the vines in and separates the peanuts from the vines.  The peanuts are shot into the trailer and the vines are cornrowed so they can be baled on the next pass.

Peanut Hay

Some cotton is just starting to form bolls.

Some is fully formed and ready for harvest.

Some is already baled.  While most bales are still big square blocks, we are seeing the smaller round bales this year.

And all the roads are full of machinery!