I was out by 7:30am. I was struck again by how unpopulated the city is at 7:30. I crossed Snelling Avenue without a car in sight in either direction, most unusual. I circled back to the house by 8am and TOPWLH joined me and we set out for an Independence Day ride.
The wind was very light but what there was seemed a bit out of the south. With this in mind we headed away from the lake tour towards the river. We rode through the University campus and visited the site of our winter hobby. For the past three seasons we have been season ticket holders for University womens' hockey. The games are played here, at Ridder Arena.
Of course, it is normally a bit colder when we visit Ridder. That season will come again soon enough. Just in case anyone is keeping track, my preseason prediction of order of finish in the WCHA is 1. Minnesota 2. Wisconsin 3. Minnesota-Duluth.We crossed the Stone Arch Bridge and rode out to the end of the road. This is our rest stop shortly after the turnaround. The riverfront is all park land north from Hennepin Avenue all the way to Plymouth for sure, possibly to Broadway, possibly to the end of the road. There is a commercial presence on the river bank immediately after the road ends but I think it may be park all the way until then. This area of the park is opposite North 4th Avenue, quite near to the outlet for Bassett's Creek. As recently as 1985 this was all railroad yard.
I had not intended to picture the corn. But in the 4 days since the last picture on June 30 the corn has made amazing progress. For every photo until now my vantage point has been sitting down on the grass. For this photo for the first time I had to rise from that sitting position in order to get a reasonable perspective.
This photo was taken from my knees. Babe for scale.We cleaned up and headed out to Canterbury for the annual free hot dog horse race show with Jim and Herb. Emily won some money, Barbara didn't lose as much as she usually does, I cashed lots of tickets but none for any large payouts and kept my losses well within budget. I think a good time was had by all.
2 comments:
It sounds like an excellent ride. While looking at your second photo, Nikki said 'it must be nice in Minnesota in the summer time.' It is a very pretty spot. That corn is amazing. She's lost in it. I also noticed that she is in all three shots. Some sort of compromise? The SLO's are literally counting the weeks until 'the family' arrives. (4)
I'll have to ride over the Stone Arch Bridge. I haven't been there this year and it's a pretty and interesting area of the big river.
That corn is amazing. It makes me want to get my flashlight out and get ready to do some harvesting. Field corn or sweet corn? It really makes little difference. Just put some sugar in the cooking water to turn "field" to "sweet."
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