Accosted by foreigners

It was down into the 50s again! over night but the warming this morning began on a schedule more suited to August than to the late September-like warm ups we have been experiencing of late. It was about 20C (68F for any US citizens tuned in) at about 10:15 when we hit the road. It was, for me, a tiny bit not quite warm enough yet (I prefer 70) but within a few miles the day was well on its way to what it currently is, spectacularly nice.

A southwest wind led me to ride over to Minnehaha Falls. It was reported last week in the local newspaper and recently verified elsewhere on the internet that the Falls are dry. I was motivated to ride to the Falls because I wanted to see this for myself.

Alas, there have been a couple of overnight rains recently which may have provided some flow but actually the prevailing sentiment amongst people at the Falls who overheard my comment was in agreement that "they may have turned it on for the weekend".I like that picture of the Falls as a picture of the Falls the most of the ones I took but the truth is that TOPWLH was along on the ride and she also agreed to pose with the Falls as a backdrop, so here she is:She doesn't actually detract from the scene, just sort of interferes with the image. My photography instructor, J. Valentinetti, proprietor of ImageSmith (most of you have seen the tee shirt, a fair percentage of you have worn it, I believe that TCWUTH may still have the shirt in her possession for occasional use as jammies) espoused "interfering with the image" as a photographic technique. She interferes with the image.

We were making use of the facilities available in this high quality City of Minneapolis regional park when a fellow with a bicycling themed t-shirt (a really old fellow, maybe about 60) asked us the location of the actual Falls. He was visiting from Winnipeg and it was his first time in that park. He further revealed himself as a guy who has done pretty extensive bicycling in Minnesota, all over the northwestern part of the state (for US citizens tuned in, that part of Minnesota closest to Winnipeg) and has even ventured into northeast Minnesota. He reported that on one trip he and his fellow rider (or perhaps it was riders) rode 1,000 miles in 6 days. By this time his spouse had emerged from inside the building and in the style of spouses of all nationalities asked him if maybe he didn't mean 1,000 kilometers (Canada, of course, uses that pesky metric system). In either case, miles or kilometers, 1,000 in 6 days is some serious bicycling.

We had a really nice chat, definitely directed them to the Falls, and also tried to recommend a few other things of scenic beauty in Minneapolis and environs.

We rode towards home on the Minneapolis side of the river and as recently confirmed elsewhere on the internet the bike path on that side of the River is currently non-existent. The old pavement has been ripped out and preparations are underway for new pavement.

Near to home we stopped to inspect the corn. It seems to me that it is a tiny bit taller than it was last time we stopped but the most significant change is the emergence of cobs.TOPWLH displays her mad skillz as a display model by placing her hand behind a new cob for the purposes of providing a framing for the new cobs but probably much more importantly also providing scale.