
Today’s bike ride totaled 30 solo miles on the Heritage Trail, which a friend jokingly told me awhile back he won’t ride by himself for now because of the bears. For the non-Iowans who might read this, black bears have become a thing in the eastern part of the Hawkeye State. No bears were spotted today — just the one dog that chased me. And some of the herd that was out and about at Dusk Till Dawn Alpaca farm east of Dyersviille, along with plenty of cows and calves grazing in pastures along the trail. Seeing the cattle reminded me of a recent cartoon by Brian Duffy, the former editorial cartoonist at the Des Moines Register. (And I’ll never understand how someone at the Register thought it was a good business decision to eliminate Duffy’s position during one of the many rounds of budget cuts at the newspaper.) Maybe Duffy was right, but I don’t see any bears hiding among the cows.
