Labor Day

Days like today are the reason we live in Minnesota.

On the last day of the State Fair I headed out towards the north today even though the wind was again from the south. It was just a whole lot easier today as the rule of slight differences completely changed circumstances. Yesterday the wind was from the southwest, even south southwest. The predominant vector was south. This ride is mostly north-south so riding into a predominantly south wind is the hardest work you can acquire. Today the wind was from the southeast, but mostly east southeast. The predominant vector was east. Just a whole lot different deal, today was easy.

I rode to Vadnais again today and it occurred to me that I have often stated that the ride down the access route to the lake is very remindful of a north woods experience and yet I have provided photos only of the lake itself. I decided to fix that today.

The first picture is shortly after entering the access road from the north. This is the first set of stately red pine that you come to, still about a quarter mile from the lake itself.

You roll along a little farther into that curve and you come to the spot from which the second and third photos were taken. The second is of a side road, uphill into the sand and the pines. By this point the smells are distinctly not city, very distinctly north woods.

The third photo is from the same spot but turned back to face down the road to the lake.

It was a spectacularly beautiful day and a spectacularly beautiful spot.

Nantes traveled to the Corsican town Bastia for Monday Night Football. An interesting look at one obvious reason why Nantes will not be in this league long was provided again today. Last week Nantes was quite disappointed to play a League Cup game with only 11,000 people in the stadium at Nantes. Today they played before a near capacity crowd in a stadium with a capacity of approximately 10,800. Nantes belongs in the next higher league.

The rest of Ligue 2 played their games on the regular league night, Friday. The increasingly troublesome Le Havre dumped FC Gueugnon by 4-1 to temporarily move 3 points clear of Nantes into first place. Grenoble stumbled on the road, being held to a 0-0 draw by Clermont Foot to fall out of first. Dijon climbed back into the top three with a 1-0 victory at Stade de Reims. Troyes, like Nantes relegated last year from Ligue 1 and looking to win promotion back to the top rung, pulled itself into the upper group with a 3-1 victory at Chateauroux. Going into today's game Nantes was temporarily fifth.

The game in Corsica turned on a free kick in the 36th minute. Taken by David De Freitas, the kick eluded the Bastia keeper but found only the woodwork surrounding the goal. The ball dropped down outside the line but onto the foot of Nantes attacker Thomas Dossevi who tucked in what would be the only goal of the game. Nantes 1, Bastia 0, Nantes returns to the top of the table.