Beavers lose

There was another bicycle fatality here last evening at about 10pm. Wireless alerted me to it when she saw it reported on the intertubes as she thought it might be in a spot where I frequently ride. Indeed the accident occurred just east of the intersection of Hodgson and Highway 96 in the east bound lane of 96. I ride through that intersection all the time, it is part of the Vadnais route although for me I am usually east bound on 96 but then turn south on Hodgson. Still I wanted to go out and take a look. I just feel that if I can look at where these things happen and understand how it happened it will make me more safe. So I rode out to Lake Vadnais again today.

This led me back through the Snail Lake regional swamp, er, park. I pictured this beaver dam once before.

Today I discovered that the beavers have lost. The water utility had heavy machinery, a couple of trucks and four men out there. I chatted with the fellow leaning on the shovel.  We agreed that beavers are pests and that at the stage in the process that they had reached he had a wonderful day in which to watch water flow.

There's still plenty of water to flow, by the way.  He pointed out that the water directly in front of where he is standing is still about four feet deep.  And we also both recognized that the beavers will not give up easily.  He thought that a trapper had been arranged for.

Even that process could be problematic as it seems likely that there is an entire colony of beavers out there.  This could take a while.

Today's daily photo blog monthly theme day is tranquility.  Here is a spot on the north end of Sucker Lake where the creek flows into the lake.

Park bench for added tranquility.

And because I was there and because I don't like any trip out there to go undocumented, here is Lake Vadnais on June 1.

Summer is making a comeback as temperatures were at or very close to 70 allowing me to remove a complete layer of gear including off my legs.

1,000

They always seems so far away on those first chilly rides even before daylight savings kicks in. But today I reached one of the big milestones, 1,000 miles so far this year.

I realize that this leaves me quite a bit behind in the family still but it is a pretty good thing for me. I am only 60 miles behind last year's pace and considering the nearly a month I have spent out of town that is plenty OK with me.  Who knows, maybe the big number is still possible.

I had no Guest Rider today (not every day is a reward day) so I headed our for the full 8 lakes tour without her. I hadn't been all the way out there since our return from the desert.

One of the things I do out there is keep checking for broken car window glass in the lower Sucker Lake parking lot. Today I discovered a novel method of avoiding having your windows smashed. Just leave the top off your car.

I recognized it instantly as a Mustang, and a nice one at that. I am a little unclear on Mustang years (I do know that the very first Mustangs were the 64 and a half Mustangs, Mjelde got Mr. Rudow to let Mjelde and I out of study hall one day in the spring of 64 on the pretense that the new Mustangs had just come in down at the Ford dealership in town and it was important that he and I go down and take a look). I think it is pretty early, almost certainly pre-1970 but also very clearly not one of the VERY early years.

It is a short hop from there (about a mile) over to the Vadnais parking lot. Here is yet another LOOK at Vadnais.

I paused in a slightly different spot in the parking lot than the spot where I usually stop. I wanted to look at a different patch of gravel. I found four new small agates. I have decided that finding agates is good luck. Certainly the agates that I am finding are very small and have no value. But they ARE good luck.

Here are the nice agates that I own.

None of them are particularly lucky.

There is a large clue there, however, about our summer (as differentiated from spring) travel plans.

The exotic birds have returned to Vadnais. My theory is that last year in the period when the herons were deciding on nesting sites the water was too high on Vadnais. Consequently they chose other nesting sites and were therefore mostly absent from Vadnais last year. Today I saw a great blue and almost got a nice picture of a white.

The bird decided at the last moment that it cared not for my presence and fled. That makes the focus a bit iffy but I have decided that it is a "soft" focus and that I still like the picture anyway.

Pleasant late September day

If Monday was the first day of summer today was clearly the first day of fall. Not only did I wear a jacket today I added on leg covering. The temperature reached only about 15C.

But I had a Guest Rider today who kept proclaiming it to be a beautiful day. I have no idea what she was smoking. Her interpretation of the word beautiful was based on the near constantly visible patches of blue sky. My issue with her interpretation is that the sun, that thing that produces warmth, appeared in the patches of blue sky infrequently.

The sun had ducked out from behind the big cloud as we neared home so we stopped for a corn check. This area was under water but it looks like maybe these plants were well enough established that they are going to survive and perhaps even thrive.

Guest Rider for perspective.

We both did pretty well considering that neither one of us is really well trained at this point. I dropped her off at home (after 20 miles) and took another loop for the desired mileage (it IS near the end of the month).

Here's a marker I had never noticed before, perhaps because given that it looks quite new and that I ride past there fairly frequently it probably hasn't been there for long.  Certainly the school has only been gone for four years.

It wasn't anything very imposing, a one room frame building.  If I had known while it was still standing that it was special perhaps I would have paid it more attention, but alas. I guess the current owner of that parcel of land (looks like the University to me) tired of maintenance and had it razed.

The really most interesting thing to me is that the location of Rose Town's first school is so very clearly now in Falcon Heights.

Decorative . . . cabbage?

Yesterday was summer, today was not.

It was mostly gloomy all day but precipitation was never seriously likely. What WAS seriously likely was a blowing and gusting west wind. It was mostly straight out of the west though so I tackled the problem by trying to ride only north and south. This is, of course, not completely possible, particularly when you live, as I do, on a cul-de-sac on an east-west street.

But what I could do was try to ride all of the westerly legs on a downhill. This requires some intricate planning as well as a complete and detailed knowledge of the local topography. I ride lots and lots of miles with virtually every ride beginning in my garage. I know every detail of the near by topography.

So west off Fairview down to Lauderdale, south all the way to and across University, back north with a Fairgrounds loop (the westerly portion of which can be ridden on a downhill), over to Hamline. I spotted this decorative planting on my ride through the Fairgrounds (EG: NA, CB:60 AOWG: 66):

I recognize the yellow flower centerpiece but is that really cabbage?

Never farther east than Hamline, north to the intersection with Snelling. There's a westerly leg in there that involves a downhill on Terrace. Back with a detour over the where County Road C2 was until very recently a dead end from both directions with 20 or 30 feet of grass and brush separating the two. The new housing development over there is coming along nicely and the street now goes through.

The house there on the right with the real estate sold sign was the last house on the left of the old off Lexington cul-de-sac.  Apparently they didn't want to live on a through street.

OK, I got caught there and had to ride some into the wind and then when I got close to home I had to do some into the wind but I felt so strong on the easterly legs that I still compiled a fairly good time.

If you noticed the Fairgrounds temperatures and can do the conversion you know that today's high was less than 20C. Sleeves and a light jacket returned to the costume. Yesterday was summer, today was not.

First day of summer

The riding plan for this year calls for Monday to be a stretch day. Once a week I want to ride something longer, a chance to get beyond the boundaries of the usual rides. I haven't ridden much lately so I wasn't sure if stretch was a good idea today. However before I had even reached the end of the street I was pretty sure I was going to try to stretch. Today was the first day of summer.

As intended I rode some new pavement today.  I rode over to Minneapolis and followed the Midtown Greenway to where it merges with the Cedar Lake LRT Regional Trail.  I rode to the boundary line of Saint Louis Park, where I have been before, and determined to ride a mile further (I wasn't feeling THAT strong, one mile seemed enough) to see what I would find.  One mile into Saint Louis Park the trail comes to Highway 100.

New stuff.

Here is a LOOK at Lilac Park where the trail crosses the first Twin Cities beltway.

The dome shaped deal is a fire enclosure hand constructed in 1939 by the unemployed stone masons who contributed to the series of parks along the highway.  The picnic table is also a signature of those parks, also constructed of limestone.

That pavement in the background is an off ramp for the highway.

I also discovered that I had added another water tower to my collection.  Not all of the words are visible in this view but this is the best sun angle I was going to get and I think the message can be decoded by most.

I felt pretty good all the way home but after a bit of a sit down I am willing to admit that I haven't ridden much lately and I am a tiny bit overcooked.

It feels good.

I spent some time, I forget, was it early this season or late last season, investigating a bicycle fatality at the intersection of Franklin and West River Road without ever figuring out exactly where the accident occurred.

Today I passed a ghost bike where the path along the river crosses the parkway to climb up to the Franklin Avenue bridge.

The street is divided at that point. I was stopped on the center median to take the picture when a south bound automobile passed between me and the ghost bike in the north bound lane. Unfortunately for him, there was a north bound car using that lane at that point. The half street is narrow there and both motorists stopped before property damage or worse occurred but then something of a stand off occurred as the motorist in the right declined to back up or otherwise yield right of way to the motorist in the wrong.

I had about as much fun watching as is available to a bicyclist in such a situation.

Familiar climate, familiar miles

The plan originally was to be home on Wednesday which would have made Thursday a bicycle day.  The whole landing gear diversion to Chicago meant we were not home until Thursday.  The rain that was NOT the reason for our arrival one day after schedule ended up being epic, extending from Wednesday pretty much through the entire day Thursday.  The total rainfall was around 3.5 inches including something like 2.5 during Thursday, an all time record rainfall for that date.

In consideration of our week in the desert, then not in the desert, then in the desert again the familiar May pattern of a little rain and temperate temperatures was actually quite welcome.

The sun was out when I started today's ride, it all seemed quite familiar. The corn has made great strides in our absence but is probably going to be set back a bit by the large rainfall.

I am pretty sure there is a corollary to that knee high by the 4th of July rule for good corn that says also not under water on Memorial Day.

The first time on the bicycle in a while but I felt pretty strong. The sun went away shortly after I started and I ended up staying close, riding miles that are very familiar. Every inch of pavement covered today was pavement covered dozens of times previously, not a single unfamiliar diversion of any kind.

I did get over to the Town and Country Club where I discovered some evidence of what Wireless has reported as fairly high winds. It looks like they have lost a tree and suffered damage to the fence.

They have done the right thing by completing the clean up in an expeditious manner. Of course, as a high brow country club they have plenty of staff on hand to do the clean up.

There's no place like home.

Chicago was nice

The plane left on time and we were on it.  There was a storm brewing at our destination.  Wireless reports that while watching the progress of our flight at the Delta website she observed that we were circling over Nebraska.

On board the airplane the captain and crew characterized the delay as weather related.

Eventually we landed in Chicago.

Delta sucks.  They dumped us off the plane to a ground crew of, oh, about 3 people to deal with interrupted travel plans and lodging and feeding issues for a full plane of, oh, about 200.

After about three hours standing in four or five different lines at O'Hare we ended up with hotel and food vouchers.  Then the shuttle to the hotel where we had a voucher did not have enough room to take care of all of the people who had vouchers to get to that hotel.  Some found a cab.  We had no idea where the hotel was so a cab was a gamble.  The shuttle schedule was every 30 minutes so we hung on and with a bit of chicanery got ourselves onto the shuttle the second time.  Among our group of 21 on the shuttle that time was at least one individual who had missed two shuttles.  We got to the hotel just as the restaurant closed but while I was checking us in FT managed to use some of our vouchers to score a salad and a sandwich from their snack bar.

While having a 10:30pm sandwich I took a close look at our vouchers.  The vouchers revealed that the reason for "interruption of travel" was "mechanical".

This morning checking in the baggage check in lady asked casually if we were of the group from Las Vegas that had had our travel interrupted.  "That was the landing gear issue, right?" she said.

So Chicago was nice.  FT and I got about 1 and about 3 and a half hours of sleep respectively.  But it was a nice enough hotel and the landing gear held up just fine for the landing.

There is a cable TV show that I like to watch featuring two aging sports writers yak yak yakking about mostly nothing.  Today during a break Tony asked Michael how many pairs of shoes he has.

150

I think that provides a bit of new perspective to that whole 6 bicycle thing.

There's no place like home.  There's no place like home.