I swear to you, until I moved to Michigan six years ago I had no idea that sugar beets even existed. I knew of red beets only because my grandmother used to pickle and can them, and that I avoided them like the plague. Unbeknownst to me it turns out I’ve probably been eating sugar beets most of my life in the form of sugar. In years past when I saw piles of sugar beets from a distance I assumed they were potatoes or something. Seems I was wrong.
A friend of ours told recently told me about an area they were harvesting a shit-ton of sugar beets a few miles from my house. Since I was riding today anyway I couldn’t resist getting a look at the huge piles of Beta vulgaris awaiting shipment to a sugar factory near you.
I wanted to get some shots of the sheer volume of beets that were being harvested but like a dunce I took my 55-200mm lens and couldn’t find a place that allowed me to frame a quality shot without being creamed by a semi. The best I could do is the snapshot above, and the slightly better close up at the top of the page. I know how much people love photos of sugar beets, and I feel like I let everyone down. My sincerest apologies.
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On this Deer Day Eve, a few deer were out and about. The ones above paused long enough for me to get a shot from distance but then took off into the cut corn field. In the distance I could see two deer blinds and hoped to God that they weren’t occupied and that I wasn’t about to see one of these deer get blown away by someone with some sort of special Pre-Season Corn Field Deer Blind Monday Morning license. They were lucky today, but tomorrow bullets are gonna be flying all over Michigan, and they might not be.
Today was not one of my better rides, but after the past few weeks that I’ve had, to get a 28.5 mile ride in on a Monday morning in November is pretty OK.
Still undecided about whether to brave the dirt roads tomorrow, or chill and run/lift to avoid any possible sucking chest wound via an errant bullet intended for one of my furry friends. Either way, I’m glad to finally be feeling well enough (physically and mentally) to be able to make that choice.
Later.