Bike ride with Bobby

Bobby and I went for a bike ride Sunday. It was a beautiful day, high in the low 70s - very cool and lovely, and unusually so for this time of year. We rode down to the Raccoon River park.

Bobby met a new friend, who he named "Shelly."



I hadn't seen a turtle like this since I was a little kid playing in the swamp near the home (since filled and replaced with a house - they must have a lovely basement). Shelly has a beautiful underside, and this picture doesn't do it justice. Shelly had been sitting on the bike path, which we thought might be dangerous, so we carefully left our friend off to the side so he wouldn't get run over.



We stopped for a cookie break by the river. The river marks the south end of the Des Moines Lobe of the last glacial advance. 14,000 years ago we'd have been on ice, I suppose, in that spot, and the mastodons would have been wondering what those silly people were doing sitting on a glacier.



Bobby cooled off in the swimming lake at the park by hunting shore creatures. He caught a crayfish. I took a picture of the crayfish, but it didn't turn out well.



Turtles, cookies and crawdaddies - It's hard to imagine a better bike ride.