Another beautiful morning

Here is a picture of the person who validates my credentials for yesterday's holiday.She bought me that scarf as my holiday gift. It is an FC Nantes fan scarf, not readily available on this side of the Atlantic. She recognized that the one that I had was getting pretty ratty. She is a most excellent dafter.

I had a couple of nice morning rides over the weekend and briefly deluded myself into believing that weekend mornings were a really mellow time to ride. Today reestablished very clearly that Monday morning is a much superior time frame for being out in public. There just aren't very many other civilians around.

This is the first one of these I have seen in person, it is an ash borer trap, hanging in an ash tree near Jefferson on the River Road in Saint Paul.This is a bit troubling because this location is about 3 miles south as the crow, or perhaps, as the beetle flies from the primary infestation site. The tree looks diseased and the whole depressing affair makes it appear that the bugs have already appeared over a fairly wide range.

I rode across the Mississippi over to Minnehaha Falls. There was a very small crowd gathered, a shame as the Falls are looking particularly scenic right now.I rode back on what is for me the seldom ridden Minneapolis side of the river. This is actually a nice diversion for the out and back route as it means that both directions are ridden on the riverbank side of the street. The riverbank side is more scenic.

My main impression of riding the Minneapolis side today is that the pavement is in a bit worse condition over there than it is in Saint Paul.

While on the Minneapolis River Road I rode past the spot where in 1972 on my Schwinn Varsity I passed a car. Obviously I don't pass motor vehicles very often. But a bit earlier I had come up behind one of those new motor bikes that have been in the news of late. I was initially a bit irritated as the operator was outside the white lines on the street, in the area of pavement which bicyclists generally believe belongs to us. But it worked out OK, as I say I came up behind him. He was an older gentleman (at least 60) and he was noodling along at perhaps 10 miles per hour. This was probably a wise choice on his part as he was not wearing any helmet or other protective gear. As fate would have it, the stretch of pavement where the encounter occurred was a downhill tailwind section for me. I gave him a "Howdy" and blew on past. Obviously I don't pass motor vehicles very often.

I rode through the fairgrounds and did not see any of the old cars around. The temporary food stands (mostly trailers) were mostly still there with people cleaning up in preparation for moving the trailers back to their storage area until they are needed again. There were also lots of exhibition tents with workers in the process of taking them down. The old cars are gone and there are already several horse trailers in the parking lot as the more regular users of the grounds move back in. I bet there is a horse show there this weekend.

Two door or four door?1957 Ford Fairlane, black and red.