Sunday Ride

 
Tideman-Johnson Nature Park

On Saturday, I got a new bicycle basket. On Sunday, I decided to test it out by tossing my camera in it and hitting the trail. We went from about SE 29th past Johnson Creek Blvd., then wove in and out of little side streets in the neighborhood near the creek.

 
Adirondack chair and apple tree: my dream.

These photos look simply pastoral and bucolic, I know. But in fact the Corridor runs along some heavy traffic around here; the trail is rather crowded, and the neighborhood can be sketchy.

 
Tree-trunk table, and a gate to the creek.

I don't know what streets we were on — the view above is from a little bridge that led into the neighborhood. We pedaled forward with a sense of disorientation and uneasy wonder: We'd driven down busy Johnson Creek Boulevard (fast with traffic and lined, at this point, with industrial businesses, warehouses, and barbed-wired lots) probably a hundred times, but turn just a bit to the south, go only a few yards down a road that is more gravel than pavement, and you're in a shady fir grove.  

 
Someone's yard, tucked into the ferns.

It reminded me, in the strangest way, of a campground I'd been to many years ago in Quebec, with horse-shoe pits and shuffleboard, and sites tucked far back among towering trees — one of those places where people had been coming every summer for fifty years, their campers seemingly permanent and hung with lighted strands of bulbs you can't find replacements for anymore. The houses looked mossy and dim, the yards padded with inches of pine needles, the gardens half-wild or forgotten.

 
Keep Out. No Trespassing.

We pedaled up and down the looping roads. A wheelchair left under a tree. A tilted doghouse with a chain. An enormous buckskin teepee. A rusted boat under a buckling carport. A stack of firewood as tall as the house. A border of rhododendrons dusted with powdery mildew. It was very quiet. I wondered what pockets of forgottenness there were all over the city. Places that look like they haven't been bought or sold for fifty years.

 
An Alice-ish playhouse

Everytime there was a turn to make, we turned toward where I thought the creek and the road that fronted it should be, and eventually, miraculously (since we really had no idea where we were after a while), we came out right where I was hoping we would, and got back on the trail, and rode back into the woods.

 
Andy sits on the wall near the waterfall thing.

I asked Andy if he remembered a spring day we spent in Galesburg, Illinois, seventeen years ago when we were first together, when he drove me from Rock Island to the train station in Galesburg after I'd come to visit him for the weekend. It was Sunday morning, and raining. The train was delayed several hours, and we were so happy. We went to Pizza Hut. We sat and talked and talked and talked. He remembered.

A strawberry-bedecked basket.

Sometimes I forget that there were two years in the beginning when we lived two hundred miles apart.

Comments

[Sam]

the two of yuo may be the cutest couple i've ever heard stories of. thank you for the smile today and the lovely pictures... i can't wait to go home for summer when i will have my chances to relax and enjoy sunshine. :)

[Sam]

the two of you may be the cutest couple i've ever heard stories of. thank you for the smile today and the lovely pictures... i can't wait to go home for summer when i will have my chances to relax and enjoy sunshine. :)

[UK lass in US]

You might have just stopped me from buying a bicycle that I do not need, just because I want the basket that comes with it...

[Kathryn]

What a wondeful adventure and great commentry.

[amy j]

That very last sentence...

I so know how you feel. I can't imagine years from now, when my husband and I are old and gray and one of us passes...the loss of the person I've spent every day of my life with for most of my life.

We're coming up on 20 years together and I'm only 38. Young love that turns into forever is just one of life's most wonderful things!

[Anna]

Such a treasure hunt for the mind! Doesn't it make you wish you could open a door and peek into life along the route years ago when it was bustling with new life?!

[ThePomegranateGrl]

I LOVE the shot of the bike! Great post.

[jodi]

What a magical find. Love the bike and basket.

[Walter Helena Photography]

What a gorgeous place you're capturing (although it sounds like the wider view is a little different than the shots you're focusing on...)

If you’d like, please stop by my blog for a chance to win a fine art photographic giclee print...by me :)

[Glenda]

Oh Galesburg, Illinois! I do recall they have a lovely old downtown. My Mom and Sisters and their families live near Galesburg and they shop there frequently. When I visit from NY we always seem to make at least one run there. I may be going out to visit my family with my daughters this spring. If I do, I shall be sure to take some photos and put them up for you to see. Thanks for giving me a neato idea to add excitement to our next Galesburg shopping trip! I'll try to find some memorable places to photograph.

[Laura @ PARING DOWN]

Oooh, I love that basket!

[amy sprouse]

Lovely post. Want the white/gray house with the steep front porch stairs. Love the part about Andy remembering. *sigh* You two are special.

[Suzan]

Lovely, thank you.

[ali]

The Alice-ish playhouse looks like a child's dream!

[Becky]

That ending reminded me of my own many days in Galesburg (for college), where we took the train back & forth from Chicago, & had some very lovely rainy spring days (lovely dogwoods & Virginia bluebells at the Carl Sandbur house, especially).
Thanks.

[Teresa Williams]

I'm an Illinois girl too & I love the house with the big front porch. It could be so cute! I hate to see homes with charm & potential sitting empty. It reminds me of my favorite childhood book, "The Little House." Thanks for sharing the photos, they are great! Love your bicycle basket too.

[Tracy]

Ooh, I want a bicycle basket now! My 12 year old son and I have been sharing my bike for over a year now. He outgrew his and my husband hasn't gotten around to choosing a new bike for him yet (bike choosing is one of those things that I leave up to my husband). If I put a wicker basket on my bike, I bet that would make my son pretty much demand a bike of his own!

[beth]

So, you were riding parallel to the Springwater Trail, as opposed to on the Trail?

[Alison Gibbs]

What a fun way to spend the day together

[Tracey]

My husband and I were separated by about 800 miles for about 2 1/2 years with some summers together. I still get choked up at the airport when we say good bye for one of us to go to a conference or a trip without the other. Weird how airport music brings back all those painful goodbyes!! Makes you stronger when a lot of your relationship is spent on the phone.

[Claire]

stop being so pRECIOUSSSSSSSSS

[The Hungarican Chick]

That big manufacturing company on JCB is where I work. You probably passed right by my office

[Leigh]

Charming and more Charming!

[Linda Starr]

what a lovely bike ride and beautiful rememberances.

[steph]

I love the bike basket ! The bike ride looks so relaxing .