67 Degrees in January!

Hard not to ride a bicycle on a 67 degree day in January.  It was windy, but I managed to keep it at my back for most of the ride.

When you see the flag straight out, and the far edge is facing you, you know you have some difficult miles in front of you.  At one point I was coasting at 15 mph going up a small rise.  Later I was in low gear and peddling down hill. There is just not much to block the wind once the farmers have taken the crops out of the fields.....

It is a pretty time of year!  Of course I like about all weather, except the heat of summer.  I like the green of spring, the fall colors, the snow, and the fallow fields...and can find something interesting about anytime I am outside on a bike....even in the rain! 

It is easier to see the trash along the road in the winter, after the grass has died back.  On the positive side there is a lot less trash now than there was thirty years ago.   Partly because we have stretches being picked up by a variety of community service groups.  Mostly because I think people are more aware of littering after millions of dollars of advertising directed at changing behavior.  Still on the back roads that do not get picked up the trash accumulates.  About the only thing that would reduce it is the summer mowing program.  Most of this stuff does not breakdown very quickly, so it remains for years.  I am amazed at the degree to which litter is a catalog of our vices.  Mainly beer cans and cigarette packages.  An amazing amount of stuff from McDonald's even when the nearest McDonald's is many miles away, and not a direct route.....most of the stuff are things your mother does not want you to consume.  It does not fall in the vice category, but there is a significant amount of children clothes, particularly shoes....which does make you wonder what the parents thought when they got home....on occasion you see a child's stuff animal, and I sure hope that a parent did not follow through on the threat to throw it out the window if the child did not quiet down....I found a stuff animal one time, it was obviously recently dropped.  I put it on a fence post, and hoped it would be found.   I wondered if some hawk was surprised by the lack of taste in the meal they had found....for what ever reason I did not see it the next time I rode by, but weeks had passed.