Definitions

I have been riding past this pile of gravel for about a week.The pile is in the parking lot of Falcon Heights Community Park on Roselawn and Cleveland. With a nod to the Geology Guy I am going to go ahead and say it isn't actually gravel, it is crushed stone.

Anyway, it has been obvious that there is some sort of street project about to commence. I feared that it might be Roselawn as I REALLY ride there a lot, I was hoping that it would be Cleveland.

It was neither.

We rode directly into it after crossing Snelling at Garden. I stopped in time but the GRider (yes, she has been riding quite a bit lately) proceeded straight ahead through the oil coating and the crushed rock covering on the street. What we discovered is that Falcon Heights is doing ALL of their streets. That tar and toilet paper patch project from last week was only a harbinger, as of today all of the streets in that city are full on under repair, each sporting a sign "Loose Gravel". No kidding.

Well. This is horrible. I need Falcon Heights to gain access to almost anything and everything. The worst is that cars drive through that stuff and carry oil covered pebbles with them out into the otherwise unoiled streets. The result is that already by noon there are oil covered pebbles everywhere, EVERYWHERE within about a block of Falcon Heights. You get a few of those on your bicycle tires and until you stop to clean them off your ride is punctuated by a sound track of "click, click, click".

OK, this isn't quite BP oil spill in the Gulf oil on the beaches, but it is a royal pain in the butt.

*sigh*

Once we were free of the tar and had stopped to clean off our tires, we rode down into the big city. I was aiming for a specific destination but when we passed this spot the Guest Rider was heard to say, "Oh, our wedding florist." So we stopped and got a picture.Apparently this greatly amused an MTC bus driver as he stopped, opened the bus door and engaged me in conversation. His part went "Pretty as a picture". He was having fun and being nice so I filled him in on the wedding florist back story.

We rode on to Macalester. The campus, like most college campuses, is quite pretty this time of year. LOOK at Macalester.A close examination will disclose the building in the background is the college chapel (you should be able to make out the cross in the overexposed sky near the more centrally located of the two trees). They have a church right in the middle of the campus but I don't think anyone ever thinks of Macalester as a Bible college. Yes, I'll get back to that.

We rode to the Monarch way station. The Guest Rider wants to know when butterfly season is as she couldn't see any butterflies today.Someone should ask Susan.

*pause*

That would be you, lazerquest, if you should happen to be looking in on this one. It is only two cubicles down.

And while you're at it someone who has their phone number should call Central Region Trails and tell them they have a tree down mostly blocking the Gateway Trail.That's between Arcade and Edgerton.

I took that picture yesterday. I did ride yesterday but didn't blog, an unusual occurrence. I rode north and east into yesterday's wind hoping to get all the way to the northeast corner of the City of Saint Paul. I was riding along the north city limits and I came upon a spot that I hoped was the eastern limit. I took a picture. It was hot, I didn't feel like going any farther, it was uphill into the wind if I did go any farther, I had a picture, I turned back.

I got home and checked the map to discover that the eastern limits was still a mile further along from my turn around point.

I was so completely shattered by this turn of events that I was unable to summon the creative energy to post a picture and a few simple words. I feel better today, except for that oil and crushed stone business of course.

Unfinished business. I am willing to concede that Bible College has a specific meaning in an academic environment. I even thought that might be true while I was making the blog post. Please notice that I did not refer to the two institutions as Bible Colleges. I said we have Bible colleges in this town and we rode to two of them. I am not willing to concede that the academic definition applies each and every time the two words Bible and college are used in a sentence. I think there is a more generic non academic usage and by not capitalizing college I intended to refer to the two in that generic non academic way.

But I must say, I am a little surprised that someone who works at an institution which has a mission statement proclaiming its Christian faith and role in promoting that faith would find any fault with an off hand bicycle blog characterization of that institution as a Bible college. That mission statement has Bible all over it.