Harvest time, or dodging trucks

It is harvest time for soybeans and corn around here. The combines are running from early morning until late night. It's not so bad when they are doing corn, but when they are harvesting soybeans the dust is pretty bad. The wind takes the dust from the soybean leaves and blows it for quite a ways, clogging your breathing. You can see it billowing across the fields toward you. At least that gives you a warning before you get into the dust cloud.

But, the trucks are another thing altogether. Most of the year, the back roads are quiet and wonderful for bicycling. But, come harvest time they become highways with tractor-trailers full of soybeans and corn. They don't go slow, either, they fly, making runs from the fields to the storage and back for another load. It's kind of fun, but scary at the same time. It only lasts for a few weeks, and then peace descends on the roads until the next fall.

This morning riding in was beautiful. The magical light of predawn was causing the yellows and oranges on the trees appear almost luminescent. I wouldn't have been surprised to have some elves step out from behind a tree and tell me that I was a captive and had to appear before Galadriel and Celeborn.