Fair approaches

I had good legs today without any infusion of sausage. I reached the standard ride length in under two hours and therefore had to extend the ride for two more miles to reach the desired ride time. This means that I felt strong, I felt fast.

The State Fair begins this week. With a south wind blowing I headed over that way with the idea in mind that I will soon have to start avoiding that route. I cannot ride there when the crowds arrive so today was one of my last chances to ride there. Preparations are already well under way which means that the Fairgrounds are closed to the public. Here is a view of one of the most popular approaches to the Fair, the front gate as it looks today, clearly not open.One of last week's rides in Michigan passed by the Cardinal flowers in the ditch. It reminded me that last year after returning home I discovered Cardinal flowers in a couple of the catch basins near Como Park in Saint Paul. Here is the catch basin at Frankson and Albert.I now recognize the red flowers but I still have no idea what to call those light purplish colored deals. Or the yellow ones. Or the grass.

The turn around point for today's southern route was once again Minnehaha Falls. There has been a fair amount of rain of late and the Falls look fully replenished.This is quite a bit more water over the Falls then the previous two times I have been there, the fairly recent and fairly wet August 2 when we were accosted by foreigners, and the pretty darn dry June 22.

The ride back again featured a stretch on the Minneapolis side. Path reconstruction continues although at what is certainly not a breakneck pace. The concrete work has been done on places where concrete curbs have had to be reconstructed, mostly parking lot entrances crossing the path. Grading seems complete for the laying of asphalt but no asphalt has been put down yet. I suspect the city is waiting for the hottest day of the year in order to require nearby residents to smell tar all day. For those who don't get that reference, don't worry, it is pretty inside, you had to be there.

Closed circuit to Wireless: Go ahead and open that Google translator and type in "I love my thumb levers" and then let me know what you think of the translation.