Paved streets still in evidence in northern portion of Roseville

One of the reasons I have been giving for quitting my job is that I wanted to be able to keep riding a lot of miles longer into the fall by being able to ride during the best part of the day rather than being relegated to riding always after work.

Today was a big never mind on that explanation. It was cool this morning, imagine that in the last half of September. The Guest Rider was hoping to get in a ride today but it was still low 60s when her window of opportunity closed at about 10:30. She went to work but finally at 12:30 with the temperature at about 64 and completely overcast sky I again made peace with fall by dressing appropriately for fall (base layer, sleeved jersey, arm warmers, jacket, helmet liner) and went out for a ride. As I got my bicycle out of the garage I started to think I had overdressed. I even paused in the driveway and considered removing my jacket. Then I started to ride into the east wind. As I began making my own 15 to 20 mph windchill I quickly decided that I was glad to be dressed as I was.

The weather channels said the wind was from the east or perhaps a bit ESE. I thought it was worth a try to try to ride out to the north to see if there still exist paved streets over in that direction. I rode for two hours and I am quite prepared to state that pavement is still in evidence over there and also that the wind was slightly ENE, maybe something like EENE. North was good.

But I had started the ride during the absolute worst part of the day, it was dreary when I started out. At about the 8 mile mark the sun made its first stab through the overcast. By about 10 miles the sun was starting to make regular appearances. At the 15 mile mark I had to stop and remove TWO layers, jacket and arm warmers.

The woman who lived in the house that I was stopped in front of came out of the house to drag her trash can back in from the curb. She looked at me curiously as I folded and rolled my jacket to be stashed into my jersey pocket. I offered the comment that it was warming up very rapidly. She responded that she had just returned from her walk on which she was generally too cold and now it was suddenly too warm. For the second day in a row I ended up in a cordial little chat with a neighbor. We were both surprised at how suddenly and without much warning summer had returned.

So what did I find out to the north? The streets are paved over there but does anybody know what the heck the deal is with Fernwood between Larpenteur and Roselawn. About a month ago there was some excavation on Fernwood just north of Garden (between Larpenteur and Roselawn). One result of the excavation project was nearly a block of brand new nearly curb to curb bituminous. Now, still same construction season, someone has been out there with one of those pavement grinders and ground about an inch off the pavement for the entire distance from the Rainbow entrance just north of Larpenteur all the way to Roselawn. Including the just laid brand new pavement. Very curious.

I rode an abbreviated northern loop, just out past Lake Owasso and then around and back. I needed a longer ride to get my full two hours in so I ended up riding south a bit and around Lake Como. This is about the furthest south for today, after days and days of deep penetrations into Saint Paul, today I got no farther than the south shore of Lake Como.Here's a look at the odometer on the LOOK just before I wheeled the bicycle back into the garage.I went into the house and got the ignition keys for my by now secondary mode of transportation and got a picture of the odometer in that.Bicycle miles is catching up. Bicycle miles may still move back into the lead. Wouldn't that be fun?

The only thing I regret is that I should be able to photoshop or something those two images and get them to display as a single photo. Does anybody know how to do that?

I think it is also worth noting that even though the thermometer inside my car is reporting 70 that that is the temperature inside the garage. Other sources available to me inside the house continued to indicate a temperature below 70.