It rained overnight and I had to wait until after noon for the streets to be dry. The sun was actually out when I began but it quickly disappeared as the predicted bad weather started to assert itself. At about 7 miles I felt a few sprinkles and beat it for home and was under the garage overhang at 10 miles, no rain yet.
The sun came out.
I convinced myself that the sprinkles I had felt were not really rain. They didn't feel like rain, they just felt more like some ambient moisture hanging around in the atmosphere as a result of some raining that was happening somewhere else.
I decided to defy the weather gods and headed back out.
At 12 miles it got iffy again for a bit but the sun emerged and by about 15 miles it was suddenly a full on really nice day even if a bit windy, strong from the southeast. It stayed really, really nice for most of the rest of the ride.
As I approached the final mileage total I hoped to achieve I gradually worked my way upwind, getting south and east for a bit of a tail wind to finish. I turned for home at 24 miles and noticed that a wall of extremely dark clouds had sneaked in behind me. But I had that tail wind and where I was the sun was still out.
As I made the final turn north for home at 25 miles the cloud bank obscured the sun but I was OK, reveling in the mostly south wind. At about 25.1 miles the front passed and just like that I found myself riding into a strong and distinctly chilly northwest wind. This time it was very apparent that the gods were serious about this bad weather deal. But only a mile, I made it under the garage overhang again without feeling a drop. TOPWLH came around the garage to greet me and we agreed that my timing was impeccable. It is NOW unrideable out there, too threatening.
During the really nice spell I rode to the Luther Theological Seminary. They have this really old church there, the Old Muskego Church.
Fairly obviously this is not a stone church. I think that wood would be called rough sawn. But it is, for Minnesota, a really old church. They have this sign out by the parking lot describing the history of the church.
That church is nowhere near as old as this one. This is the Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides, also known as the Eglise du Dome. It was finished in 1679.
The church is notable as the site of the tomb of Napoleon. Napoleon died in 1821 and was initially interred on Saint Helena. The king arranged for his remains to be brought to Paris in 1840. Eventually, in 1861 Napoleon was moved to the a tomb in the most prominent location under the dome.The church is also the burial site for some of Napoleon's family as well as many French military heroes. Those buried there include Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's elder brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother, Napoleon II, son of Napoleon, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an army captain, author of France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, and Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, Allied Supreme Commander in the First World War, as well as many others.
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Slightly?
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