I spent some time this past weekend back home with my Mom in north-central Iowa and two things came to mind.
First, it is very dry in that part of the country and a lot of the corn and soybean crop reflected that in my opinion. There was a lot of that crop that probably died down instead of dried down this year and hopefully it still has a decent yield.
That leads me to my second point…….this crop is getting harvested at a rapid rate this fall and that means a lot of activity on rural roads.
Maybe this is me getting older, but multiple times I came upon a slow moving combine or tractor that had no choice but to take up much of the road as it navigated from field to field. In my high school and college days, I remember being an impatient kid trying to get around this equipment as fast as I could because “I had somewhere important to be!” But, I think your life and the life of the person behind that piece of equipment is more important, isn’t it?
I saw a few times this weekend cases of people looking very impatient. I even had one person almost try to whip around me and back over to our lane in time to beat a combine because I slowed down to safely work past the combine. Common sense driving needs to happen during this time of year.
Our farmers are tired and running hard right now. Give them some space and don’t worry about the extra 30-60 seconds it adds to your drive in your car or truck. Be vigilant and stay safe, before something bad happens that can be easily avoided. -JA
