First look at the river

It was another chilly day, although not quite as bad as the prediction. The predicted high was 40 on the day when the average clicked up from 46 to 47. I found some information on the weather in the newspaper which will confirm that this is more than just idle complaining on my part. The average temperature for the month is slightly more than 4 degrees below normal. There has been only a single instance of a temperature reaching even 50 which occurred on March 13, more than 2 weeks ago. The forecast tomorrow says rain, possibly turning to snow late in the day. Cold enough for you?

But it was sunny and seemed pretty nice as the mercury edged up to 45 or so, almost average. I went for a ride.

I went back to the vest with jacket combination and also went back to the gloves. I did retain the full balaclava, although I had it down the whole time, only using it to keep my neck warm. My feet got cold again, and one finger on my right hand. The layering was a success.

Trying to stretch distance is really, really hard at this time of year. I tried to stretch it a couple more miles again today, making the second day in a row of stretching and a third day in a row of riding. I rode to the river and the long uphill away from the river once I turned towards home was extremely difficult.

Here is the first look for this year at the Mississippi.This is an look upstream from just below the Marshall Avenue Bridge. Unlike that slightly further upstream bridge that fell down, this one is poured concrete and looks to me like it isn't going into the river any time soon.

I was surprised on the ride to discover that street sweeping has begun. I start out from home and cross first into Falcon Heights and then enter the City of Saint Paul. The streets in the Como Park neighborhood have been swept. Como Avenue all the way down through Saint Anthony Park is swept and when I eventually got there the portion of the River Road that I rode on was also swept. Street sweeping is a certain sign of spring. Now if only the weather will take the hint.