Day 40 Hartville to Fair Grove 6/12 “Downpour and Cows”

Stats:
Miles: 42.23
Calories: 3,574
Top speed: 33.5
Average speed: 9.6

We left the courthouse lawn by 7:30am and rode 2 blocks to the local diner. We enjoyed breakfast and our caught up on our blogs. We finally left about 9am with thunderstorms looming. A few miles out-of-town we passed a small house with an emaciated horse (a Paint) and cow. I can only hope they were rescues and the new owner was fattening them up. But I think that is what I want to believe. At the bottom of the hill was a feed store. How ironic, starving animals just a short distance from a feed store. Further down the road a ewe, dead in a fence, her head trapped in the wire. Some harsh visuals for the morning.
As we headed to the town of Marshfield on route to Ash Grove, thunderclouds gathered. It was looking very dark when the storm opened up. With lightning in front of us we decided to head for cover; a home down the road had a covered carport. We tucked in and began to wait it out. I knocked on the door to let the owner know we were “learking about”. A few minutes later the door opened and we met Robert and senior that raises cattle for market. Robert invited us in and set us up with good cup of coffee. We talked cattle and learned one of his “girl’s” is 20 years old and still has a calf every year. Others in his herd are ten years old and he keeps one “lucky bull”. They have names and I can tell he cares for “his girls”. The calves stay with their mothers for 6 months and are then sold to other ranchers or feed lots to be “fattened up” for market. The said he lost 2 calves this year, one was breach, and another didn’t make it. The rain stopped, the dark clouds had moved passed so we bid Robert goodbye.
The ranches of beef cattle and dairy cattle gave way to crops of soybeans and corn. As we entered the town of Marshfield, the town had an eerie stillness and Lisa and I began to wonder about tornadoes as we noted concrete storm shelters in many of the homes yards. But, it was a cool day rather than warm so tornadoes were not in the forecast.
We stopped for lunch at a pizza/sandwich place. Unfortunately gluten-free was not on the menu so I settled for a can of clams and crackers in my panniers. While Lisa finished up I rode ahead and found a McDonald’s to get more soft serve ice cream, again, I’m going to need soft-serve rehab!
As we left McD’s it began to rain, no not rain, pour, by the bucket full. I had put on my rain pants rolled up to the knee so my shorts stayed dry. My shoes sloshed, full of water. The roadways were covered with 1/2 to inches in minutes. Large earth worms made their get-away slipping and sliding to the other side of the road. I’m not sure what they will do over there but they sure seemed intent on getting across.
After riding in the rain for about an hour the storm let up. We arrived in Fair Grove about 4:30pm and set up in the city park that included a covered pavilion.

We quickly showered in an adjoining building , changed , and set up camp. Shortly, a young man who had been running stopped by to see if we needed anything. “A tire pump if you have one” stated Lisa. He did and off he went to retrieve it. When he came back he brought not only the pump but some fruit and ice tea. He was with the National Guard and recently come home from Afghanistan. We talked a bit of policy and politics, thanked him for his service to our country and headed to bed.
“Melinda’s Philosophizing” – Thinking of the beautiful horse with its ribs showing, it comes down to responsibility. I couldn’t help feeling, perhaps the owner of that horse and cow should be refused food for 30 days and then they can let me know how that feels. Keeping animals as pets for joy, sport, or to work requires responsibility. A few weeks ago when we had lunch in Elizabethtown and the happy playful dog kept following us down the road, I had stopped at a home to see if they might know who the dog belonged to, from a window in the trailer up popped a Yorkie covered in bloated ticks. Who would allow their dog to be covered in ticks and most likely develop anemia.
I then think of Robert the nice senior who let us take shelter from the rain, he raises cattle for market yet I could tell he cared for his “girls”, they have names, they are, in a way, part of his family. Personally, I tended to think of cows as having little personality, I was wrong, Robert set me straight on that. As I ride past numerous cows I note: some are curious and playful, while others are nervous, bored, and defensive. I guess it comes down to perception, if animals are perceived only as creatures without feeling without emotion it is much easier to abuse or mistreat them. Isn’t that what humans do to other people as well? The famous Milgram Experiment taught us that!

……I’ll keep you posted.

Pictures:

An old road grater

A spider was busy during the night weaving a web by my handlebar bag.