Reminder of consequences

Over the past couple of years I have eschewed the use of anti-inflammatory medications. Yesterday's really good legs provided me with a reminder of why ibuprofen is often in such high demand. I rode hard yesterday, good legs. Today I woke up with aching muscles. I had to ibu up even before breakfast.

I repeated the dosage at mid-morning and headed out into another glorious late summer day for another ride. The Fair is still going on and the wind was still out of the south so I headed towards Lake Como. At the far side of the lake instead of following Wheelock Parkway towards Phalen, I veered down Como towards downtown.

After a couple of detours I arrived at Rice Park, immediately adjacent to the Xcel Center, the site, beginning tomorrow, of the convention. I recognize the uniform of the Saint Paul City Police and the officer who approached me as I coasted towards 5th Street past the Landmark Center was clearly an out of towner. He's the one in dark blue standing next to the bicycle officers (who ARE Saint Paul officers).He politely informed me that "they" didn't want any bicycles beyond that point. I was fine with that as I informed the officer that I was probably as close as I wanted to get anyway. We had a nice chat but I noticed that he stood right next to me until I got clipped in and headed the other direction.

A guy with a cell phone in one hand and a roll of gaffer tape on the opposite wrist hailed me with "You must ride 10,000 miles a year, I see you everywhere." I gave him the correct number (closer to 4) but otherwise accepted what I suspect was meant as a compliment.

I stopped in front of the Saint Paul Hotel and got an across the street shot of the set up in Rice Park. Rice Park appears to be this week's broadcast home for MSNBC. This is the venue from which Joe and Chris and Keith will be pontificating Monday through Thursday.I faced the other direction and got this shot of the fairly unusual topiary in the garden in front of the hotel. I suspect that plant may be rented and may be on its way back to the owners as soon as all of the elephant sympathizers leave town.One of those bicycle cops visible in the first photo was just leaving for some patrolling so I waited until he entered the shot. It is a bicycle blog, you know.

I rode back up past the State Capitol and got this shot of citizens peacefully assembling to petition their government. Although actually, there was a CNN truck and I think this is the CNN broadcast location for the week.I headed up Summit and discovered that late Sunday morning is not ideal Summit Avenue bicycling timing. There are lots of churches on Summit, most of which seemed to be letting out as I rode past.

I was well aware when I selected this route that heading down Summit meant that the only way home was going to be past the Fair. But the Fair has been going on long enough that most of the broken glass in the bike lane has been crunched off to the side. The ride was without severe problems except for being stopped 3 times to let pedestrians cross from the parking areas to the Fairground gates. My major impression is that the reserve police officers directing traffic on Como all had an attitude, an attitude that contrasted sharply with the real cops that I interacted with downtown.