I love rides that take me to new areas- explore

The rain had kept me inside for the last three days on my trainer.  I was itching to get out. A friend had advised me of an area to try.  I am unfamiliar with the riding possibilities. My ride starts out on the quiet streets within the condo development.  That sounds ordinary.

  Most times I do not see anything this out of the ordinary. I drove a VW Beetle for many years and I always like seeing the older body style like this.  I see an ORV (off road vehicle)  sticker for Michigan and I can tell this bug has been through some racing and trails.  The trailer indicates that this ride is strickly for off the road.  Do you like the roof rack and gas can.  You could travel for hundreds of miles in this on a tank of gas.  Are they expecting to go on a safari?  I enjoyed this first stop.

 My next stop was at a branch of the public library.  With the pandemic, public buildings like this are closed.  This sculpture caught my eye.  The sunny day made the highly polished bars shimmer. I love to stop at sculptures when I find them. This one seems in motion.

On the other side of the road were soccer fields and woods.  From the parking lot I moved onto  an asphalt path leading to the field and it connected to the housing subdivision next door.  This was a nice path to allow the kids and families to walk to use the fields.  That beats driving the car.

Along the path I see this at the base of a mature shagbark hickory.  I would call it a fungus.  I ask Google when I get home.  I see that they are called polypores which is a group of fungi that look like this and are also call bracket fungi.  They are attached to the wood causing decay. There are over  

I like the medallion which reminds us "No dumping.  Drains into the river." The opening looks like many  drains all over.  Winter sand and litter block the opening.  Sometimes they are completely blocked.  Not many take the responsibility to say "I will do that."  That would be a good deed for me to do sometime.

I moved to the main road and the shoulder was not always there.  Luckily the traffic was not heavy and I felt plenty safe.  Part of the road was closed except for local traffic due to some  repaving.  A very nice stretch of road.  A great discovery.  

I decided to head down this dirt road.  We had three straight days of heavy  rain.  This road was really in nice shape considering the recent storms.  The traffic gave me plenty of room.  I did pass 4 cyclists that came from the neighboring houses.  Luckily no loose dogs.

I enjoy seeing the home and barns.  This was the most interesting structure.

Soon there will be planting.  Some areas are set and some are showing the crops.  It is mid May in Michigan.

This is in a church parking lot.  I bet that it generates some electricity for the building. I was soon back to my starting point enjoying 2 hours of riding a new area near  by that I had not cycled.  I hope that you enjoyed the  photos.