An early-morning ride

With temperatures most days going into the 90's, it's been too hot to ride Blue during the main part of the day. Last night I put him in a pen near the barn so I could enjoy the early-morning hours today.


The sun was just coming up as we traveled the road to the river bottoms. (I need to trim Blue's bridle path; he's looking a little bit "punky".)


We had to wait for a coal train to pass.



Then we headed east with the sun directly in our eyes.

We've had an abundance of rain this year, and there was still water standing in some areas; the egrets enjoy these places.


Hopefully if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see egrets in the water and also flying away. You can also see my little town's water tower in the distance.

Shadow against the wheat-stubble.

Can you see the tiny new soybean plants?

Heading home, I enjoyed the verdant landscape: Tassled corn in the foreground, dark green soybean field in the distance.

River Bottoms

Since I was asked the meaning of "river bottom" or "river bottoms", I looked up the meaning in an online dictionary and came up with this: "a channel occupied (or formerly occupied) by a river". The way I used the term, it would mean "formerly occupied.

It's the low-lying ground that is the first to flood when the river rises out of its banks. It's very fertile ground, since flooding that comes along every three or four years deposits rich silt and topsoil as the water retreats.

Wikipedia has information about the Missouri River bottoms HERE.

A morning ride

I left shortly after 5 AM and rode to the Missouri River bottoms. My plan was to ride to the edge of the river and take some sunup pictures.

Clouds on the eastern horizon.

Cliff's brother used to have a double-wide mobile home down to the left of yonder tree. It was swept away in a flood and he relocated.

Blue is alert and looking at some turkeys.

I couldn't ride all the way to the river because of all this trash, carried here by the spring flooding. Farmers have been trying to burn the dead trees.

This train was facing east....

and this, facing west... on the same track!


Less than a mile home from here.

My neighbor, Dianne, was walking her dog. I stopped to say hello, then went on home.