Electrolyte replacement

As I have detailed here before I try to ride on virtually every day when it doesn't rain. I hate riding in the rain.

As detailed here two days ago on my last ride I felt very much like I would benefit from a day off.

Yesterday's bike log reads as follows: "Too hot, too muggy, too windy." I had a day off.

As often happens when I take a non-rain day off the immediate aftermath was overnight rain. It was too wet to ride this morning and it seemed likely to be too hot and too muggy by the time the streets dried. It looked like a really large month of riding would be curtailed by missing riding on the last two days of the month.

But TpluckyOPWLH started pestering me for a ride. How did this happen is what I want to know. But she was right and after checking the street and the radar we headed out in the late morning into not much wind but rising temperature and humidity.

We had a nice ride. The obstacle of the Fairgrounds and continuing southerly winds have got my regular routes all mixed up. I have been to the Falls and I have taken the Capital loop lately so we headed off towards the UofM. I considered a bend to the west just before the stadium to take us across the Franklin Avenue bridge and into south Minneapolis. The wind at the precise moment when I had to decide encouraged me to instead continue through campus and down towards the Stone Arch Bridge. But I have been there enough times for this year. Mind you, it is a great, great bridge for pedestrians.

Instead we followed along Main Street and embarked upon a circumnavigation of Nicollet Island. The DeLaSalle high school football field that many island residents so fiercely resisted leaves one wondering what all the fuss was about. There are some great old stone buildings and lots of picturesque old wooden houses in what is essentially a pretty park-like setting, including a brick road. OK, I guess I can see what all the fuss was about. All those people living in a park-like setting apparently ended up thinking it was an ACTUAL park and wanted to keep it that way.

We ended up at the downstream tip of the island, behind the Nicollet Island pavilion. The GRider provides context for the river just above the Falls of Saint Anthony and the Central Avenue Bridge. I know that people on the downtown side of that bridge usually refer to it as the Third Avenue Bridge. It is Central Avenue on the Nordeast side of the river.I also got a photo of this plaque commemorating the spot from which Father Hennepin first viewed the Falls in 1680. The link here is, of course, Hennepin was traveling with DeLaSalle. I am glad I got the ride in as it ended up being a pretty significant mileage total for the month. I ended the month with 702 miles, the most miles in a month since July 07. It is a lot of miles to be sure but only the fourth most ever ridden in August, trailing all three of the TRAM years.

We got home before it was completely awful but not before it was hot. You know it is hot out when you can get started on electrolyte replacement by licking your shoulder.

Tennis news

We don't get much in the way of tennis news here at gzmoohoo.blogspot.com. But today TCWUTH and TOPWLH engaged in a little bit of wasn't it kind of hot out there for that activity?Speaking of too hot out there I probably could use a day off myself. Today was hot and I came home needing a little lie down.

I rode the Capital loop which on the return trip brings me through one of the most bicycle unfriendly spots that I ride with any sort of regularity. This is the BNSF railroad crossing of Como Avenue.The spaces between pavement and rails are wide and deep, and at an angle to the path of travel for narrow tired bicycles. I try to find a lull in traffic and cut all the way out into the middle of the street and then ride across the tracks in a direction perpendicular to the rails. Even so, it still always gives me the willies. Hehe, he said willies.

Here is today's mining/mineral related content. I was getting the picture of the rails when I happened to spot these. Those very regular and a little too round to be natural pebbles down there in the crack next to the rail?Taconite pellets.

Celebrity

The Guest Rider met a minor celebrity today. We had ridden over to the Falls where she was photographed with a member of the 1958 French national cycling team. Note that the Frenchman is wearing an authentic replica jersey of the 1958 team.As is usual with such replica jerseys in bicycling circles, the jersey displays the home town of the rider on the front as well as a product placement for the long retired rider's sponsor.

Or maybe she and I were at the Falls and Bob stepped out of the crowd and offered the opportunity for both of us to be in the picture.

The FIBA World Basketball Championships kicked off today in Turkey. In Izmir, France, fielding its B-team, one which does not include any of France's NBA players, defeated defending World Champions and pre-tournament favorite Spain by the score of 72-66. The USA defeated Croatia in a game played in Istanbul.

More miles at home this month than in NSW

Another milestone today, I have now ridden more miles at home during this month than I rode during our vacation in Australia. Those present at the final vacation mileage computation will know that I had quite a few miles while away from home. Surpassing that total here at home means that it has been quite a good month. I feel strong.

It was warmer today. I should have ridden in the morning. But I enjoyed yesterday's afternoon excursion and thought today might provide another such experience. It was warmer today. I reexperienced the joy of perspiration. The good side of perspiration is, as all bicyclists know, the miracle of evaporative cooling. The down side is that if you are sweating, it is hot.

I was JRA again and I wandered away from the local festivities over towards downtown. I have taken plenty of pictures from the Stone Arch Bridge but today I got a picture OF the Stone Arch Bridge.I was stopped in the shadow of the new Guthrie, or maybe of the old flour mill next door.

I rode parts of Minneapolis that I don't get to very often, heading south from the Stone Arch back towards Franklin. That whole 35W thing majorly gets in the way of any relaxing ride in that direction but eventually I found a multi-use pathway leading from under 35W back up and around to the 10th Avenue bridge. That bridge has a nice wide shoulder/bike lane and I was soon back on familiar ground.

This evening in France FC Nantes has played its third home game of the season and has for the first time produced points. According to the story on the FC Nantes website (wanna practice your French?) Nantes dominated the game with Vannes getting only one good chance. Final score FC Nantes 2:0 Vannes OC. Nantes rises once again to mid-table.

3,016

The Fair started today. For those who might be interested, yes, they do have a fireworks display the night before the Fair starts. That means it will be 13 consecutive nights where early to bed isn't a very reliable strategy because there are going to be bombs bursting in air at around 10:30 or so.

But actually, I don't mind. I like the Fair. I like the change that it brings to the neighborhood for those 12 days every year. The Fair is good.

It was still cool overnight so today I did something I haven't done in a long time. I delayed the ride until after lunch to wait for warmer temperatures. Today's ride was an afternoon ride.

And a big milestone on the yearly quest was achieved. I finished today's ride with 3,016 miles for the year to date. I looked at the bike log and the numbers indicate 1,014 miles in the last 47 days. I feel strong, I feel good.

Today's ride was really JRA (just riding around) wearing the rubber off the tires. I rode over to the edges of the Fair to reacquaint myself with what is still possible over there and what needs to be avoided. I rediscovered the Saint Anthony Park detour around the Fairgrounds and proceeded on my way down into a south wind. But I wasn't going ANYWHERE. I was JRA. It was a nice day and a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a spectacularly pleasant afternoon.

I ended up in our old neighborhood and rode past the Emily tree. It is an ash but it still looks pretty good. I planted that tree and I planted that hedge in the back yard too.Speaking of TCWUTH she came by yesterday and inspected her new dishes. She declined to take possession, however, requesting that we run them through our dishwasher first. She has no dishwasher. It is an entirely reasonable request and TOPWLH has already accomplished that task. There was also some discussion of acquisition of a few additional pieces.

Usually on our vacation to Michigan we see lots of cardinal flowers on the rides out into southern Ottawa County, aka New South Wales. For one reason or another I only saw a few this year so when I rode past this rainwater runoff catch basin garden I noticed.I stopped and got a photo. An observant viewer may notice commercial activity going on in the background. There is visible evidence of neighborhood residents parking, for a handsome fee, the cars of Fair attendees in their yards. This a traditional activity in the neighborhood near the Fair and it is one of the ways that the neighborhood changes for the Fair and it is one of the things that entertains me about the whole 12 day extravaganza.

3,016 is a lot.

A tiny bit of a nip

Obviously enough 65 should be and is plenty reasonable. But after all the recent riding in temperatures 15 to 25 degrees north of there, today's 65 left me riding in what I am a little chagrined to admit was a state just a few shades short of comfortable. There was a tiny bit of a nip in the air today.

I rode in the morning with a Guest Rider, stopped when she stopped, had lunch, and finished up the two hour ride by recycling when the temperatures had reached 70. Truth? Still a little brisk when riding into the north wind.

I feel spoiled by summer, what is still coming is so much less pleasant. *sigh* Is it really already time to start digging into the drawer with the "gear"? Do I already have to start adding arm warmers, and base layers, and all of the other stuff? *sigh*

The Fair starts tomorrow and I rode over to sneak a peak. They have new things every year and this deal is new. I suspect it is some sort of wind power demonstration project but the truth is I don't have any actual idea. That upright deal is a blade from a wind turbine. That's just one blade, so if you have a turbine in, for example, a wind farm off shore in Lake Michigan, the tower needs to be more than twice that height just to get the blades up out of the water. Just saying.Mostly I avoided the Fair but even riding around the neighborhood there are lots of signs of the crowds about to descend upon the near northern suburbs. Here is a harbinger of the Fair in Renee's back yard. From the spot where I took this picture I only had to turn my head and I could actually see her house.I took this picture at another spot which will be serving the same purpose. This spot was the one closest to my home. Turn your head a little sideways and you can see.A little too cold today but it is always, always, hot, hot, hot for at least part of the Fair so summer isn't quite over yet.

Missed the train

There was a major change today. It was a little too cool to ride first thing in the morning so I had to wait around a bit for the temperature to rise back into my current comfort zone, something close to 70.

I headed out towards Lake Vadnais. I have pictured the train horn doesn't blow sign before. Today the train horn blew. I have ridden there lots of times and I may have seen a train on those tracks before but if I have the memory of that occasion has vanished. I was surprised to find a train blocking the entrance to Lake Vadnais. That truck heading back towards me had just completed a U-turn which included having to drive up over the curb and was heading back my way.I rode up to the front of the line and watched for a while. It appeared to me that the Soo Line was hauling some unused cars out of their storage yard up there. The cars were so unused that several of them had significant issues with rusted up wheels which were barely turning. There were five locomotives on the front end of that train and they could barely haul the line of cars up that hill. In fact, eventually the whole deal ground to a halt, still blocking the road.

I never actually made it to Lake Vadnais as the completely stopped train convinced me to seek out one of the available alternative crossings of that set of railroad tracks. I only very rarely ride off the pavement and almost never with my road bikes but today I found myself riding on this road? through the Grass Lake section of Snail Lake Regional Park.It had rained last night so there were a couple of muddy spots. The bottoms of a couple of hills featured accumulations of loose gravel. All in all it wasn't ideal terrain for today's vehicle but I must have made it home.

I rode past the Fair today

And I won't be doing that again until after Labor Day. There was a major traffic tie up at the Como gate nearest Snelling. The right hand lane was full of people waiting to turn into the grounds. I had to go out to the middle lane and ride amongst the cars to get past there and then watch carefully to assure that the trucks turning out of the grounds saw me before they made any impulsive moves. It came off okay but . . .

Too dangerous.

But having ridden past the Fair I was free to ride down into the big city.

I actually passed a youngish rider on Summit. That never happens, Summit is home to RacerBoy. But this youngish rider had full panniers front and back. He looked to be packing maybe 40 or so pounds of stuff. I rode beside him for a bit and asked him where he was headed. "New York", he replied. "Ambitious", I offered and he agreed adding "I am just a little bit crazy". I offered that everybody on two wheels is a little bit nuts. He actually hung on my wheel for a bit but when the street turned uphill he had too much stuff on his bike to hang with even such as me.

I rode on down to the Cathedral, hoping to get a picture of the tourer when he passed. I waited a bit but apparently he had chosen another route, probably down Ramsey Hill. With as much stuff as he was carrying that again was an ambitious choice.

Here is some more early signs of fall on lower Summit Avenue in front of the James J. Hill Mansion.It was a pretty day, if a bit humid, and I have been short of photos of stone churches for the last couple of months. The Cathedral was standing out against a blue, blue sky.This afternoon I met golfingal in the parking lot of Maplewood Toyota to complete delivery of a recent eBay transaction. She happened to be coming to Saint Paul today so I didn't even have to go to Monticello. I am now the owner of these.And of 53 similar pieces. Wireless promises to take 6 or so place settings and any extra cereal bowls off my hands. That leaves 4 dinner plates, 5 salad plates, a few cups and many saucers, a gravy bowl and some miscellaneous probably not really matched up salad bowls.

Nice, huh?

Any takers?

Return to thumb levers and palping tires in an orange colorway

The wind indicated a ride towards the south but we went north. There is a big doing about to be done over to the south. The Fairgrounds have been closed since August 9. The first 12 or so days of that closing affected me not at all as I was in New South Wales.

That sign says no skateboarding, no bikes, no rollerblading, no pets. The Fair starts Thursday.There has also been a lot of progress on the new softball field. I feared before we left that the field would not include a leveling of the outfield. Never mind, they have torn up nearly all of the turf over there. It looks increasingly like this thing is going to be done right.We rode in the cool of the morning but we could feel the heat of the day rising as we returned home. It is a hot summer day out there.

But with the Fair about to begin I think it is time to start checking around for other signs of the waning of summer. Our neighbor across the street has a maple tree that gives up early. It is already starting to give up.Orange tires instead of blue, thumb levers instead of throwing the whole lever mechanism to the side. We are home, I love my bike.

Message from above the clouds

It was spectacular, Western Michigan is always spectacular. The spot was idyllic, the hosts were genial, a good time was had by all.

But click the ruby slippers together and repeat along with me.There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

There's no place like home.

West Michigan monuments

Today I rode out to the north in search of a few miles. I got photographs of several scenes which are for us iconic to vacationing in Western Michigan.

Here is the horse barn along Lakeshore. Over the years this building gradually fell into disrepair but has now been completely refurbished. It seems as though someone may be considering boarding horses there again.Along through the woods to the abandoned stone wall and gate. The land behind the wall once formed the no doubt palatial estate of some rich person. Now there are several people living back there behind the wall. The wall is Michigan's Stonehenge.This is the wide spot in the Pigeon River where it empties into Lake Michigan. I think they call it Pigeon Lake. Purple loosestrife has a firm foothold.On the grounds of the power plant is an "Environmental Enhancement Park". It is no doubt good public relations for the power company. For a bicyclist it is a welcome public source of drinking water.This is the West Olive One Stop. I intended to go in but after stopping to take a photograph I realized that I had already used up my one stop. I rode on.Here is another of those views that we just don't seem to have in Minnesota. This is 160th Street in late morning. We have city streets that look like this and we have some rural areas where pine forests shadow the road. We just don't seem to have enough like this one, hardwoods creating a tunnel for the road to run through.The P-ster was here and she said she had told the people at her work that she was going to eat blueberries until she turned blue. I got a pretty good look at her just before she left and she was blue tinged but certainly not completely blue.

On the other hand, here is a photo of Bowerman's, our preferred source of blueberries.At Bowerman's they have eaten so many blueberries that their house has turned blue.

I am quite sure that our hostess will be able to review this set of photographs and quite accurately detail just exactly what my ride route was. It was a nice day, a nice ride in beautiful West Michigan.

Sun setting again

Every day the sun comes up. This is followed by a day of assorted activities. Evening arrives and pretty soon the sun is setting yet again.Yesterday in Nantes, FC Nantes 0:1 Evian. The match report on the FC Nantes website (in French) says that Nantes dominated play. It says that Evian had only one good opportunity on goal, and scored. Nantes had numerous good opportunities including at least three off the woodwork including two in the closing minutes. In a classic coulda woulda shoulda Nantes did not and the Bottled Waters defeated the Canaries.

Foreign territory

This isn't actually a foreign country but for the GRider it could just as well be Estonia. This is a place that she just does NOT get to very often.For the record, as I was watching she looked into the mail box and we can report that you have mail.

Climate note

This seems to confirm the reputation of Minnesota winters for harshness. In this part of Michigan a much kinder and gentler winter signs in when it shows up.At least that's what it looks like to me.

Here's part of the village emerging from the rain forest at Hemlock Crossing County Park. They had been lost in there for, oh, about two minutes so the hardship was not excessive.They have a nature center there clad in decorative stone. I was looking at the rocks and thought some of them looked quite familiar. I asked the nature center lady if they were native stones. Almost. They are from Minnesota, a landscape rock dealer in Bagley. Well, I DID think they looked familiar. I even think that I have heard Dennis talk about Minnesota rocks often enough that I might, just might, be able to identify some of them.This one in particular looks familiar, I think Pojar had a bunch of this on his desk for about 10 years when his desk was over by the window.Okay, New South Wales it is not, but it is definitely not home either.

More miles here than at home this month

We are having a good time here in New South Wales and getting in a fair amount of bicycling. Today we road past a "party store" in Port Sheldon, a suburb of Gold Coast City, something called the Port Sheldon Party Store.Immediately next door is one of the signature retailers of this part of Australia, the official outfitter of the Gold Coast.Upon arriving back at the mountain after the main ride, the GRider and I rode down to the Anchorage to acquire news from home. We were pleased to discover an overseas edition of the New York Times, the International Outbacker.

Later on the GRider photographed me, for a change, and for scale.That's one of the four or five nicest bicycles that I own.

Edit: Sunset with a sailboat.

Australia

Those who have been there will no doubt recognize Sydney Harbor in this view from the north side of the harbor near the Manly Lawn Tennis Club.The perspective should be more clear in this photo than in yesterday's as the x-axis has returned to pretty much the horizon and the lighting is better for enjoying the view across that section of the harbor.

Here is a photo taken nearby in the French neighborhood of North Sydney.Perhaps we are in France after all.

Not in France

This should be pretty conclusive evidence that we are not in France. If you had a rooster lawn ornament in France it just absolutely could and would not look like this.I'm not sure they even have lawns in France. I am also not sure if the placement of this rooster actually qualifies it as a lawn ornament. Driveway ornament? Garage accoutrement?

This is a bicycling blog and today's bicycle bloggable moment is the Guest Rider joining the parade.Earlier in the day there was a ride through Waukazoo Woods. Lots of really big hard woods combined with early morning light made for some interesting lighting conditions.Here's more proof that multi-tasking while operating a vehicle is a hit but mostly miss proposition. The framing isn't too bad but the x-axis is more than a little bit askew. I am going to come right out and say that in the end I kinda like the result.Not every photo needs to be perfectly aligned. Further, no one was injured in the production of any of today's images.

Deep into the second half in Troyes this evening and FC Nantes has just taken a 0-2 lead over homestanding ESTAC in Ligue 2 Week 2 action. If the result holds Nantes will climb into the top half of the table.

More clues

Here's a morning view of the deserted beach taken from the dune top deck.Later on in the day the same view would always feature at least a few human beings.

An afternoon ride to the State Park produced a picture from the main parking area.It has been hot here, with extremely uncomfortable dew points. This is a very small crowd for this beach.

Today's early morning ride north through the beech woods.Sometime later a brief pause was made at the Port Sheldon Party Store.

Another on the fly photo taken while heading south along 168th Street near Ransom.Not exactly Tahiti but the location is idyllic and the pace is just right.

On vacation (again?) (still?)

Guess what? Guess where?The actual day of travel always uses up just a little bit more energy than I actually have available.

Today in Nantes FC Nantes have opened another season of ignominy in Ligue 2. It only gets worse as this time they lose by two at home, 0-2 to LeMans. FC Nantes opens the season tied with one other for last and next to last place, tied for last at zero points, tied for last in goal differential at minus two.

*sigh*

Up north

Friday morning in August, a time when lots of Minnesotans head up north. We decided to join them. We did deviate somewhat from the norm, however, in that most of the others were loading up the truck, hitching up the boat trailer and heading for Brainerd. We hopped on our bicycles and headed for Lake Vadnais.

I was leaning against the picnic table in the parking area while I waited for the model to come back from make up or wherever the heck she was. I had the camera already fired up and was just goofing, doing not much of anything when this appeared in the LCD screen on the back of the camera. So . . . A bicyclist's feet.It's my blog, I can goof off when I want to. If you don't approve, well get your own blog and try, TRY to be serious all of the time.

The model finally appeared. It was, might I say, just another routinely spectacular day at Lake Vadnais. There was only one person fishing, a pretty unusual occurrence but since she was using the picnic table as a staging area for her fishing (tackle box on the table, bait in the shade of the table etc.) we ended up having a nice chat.OK, a dissenting opinion has been entered. There suddenly exists a fairly strong argument to be made that these are actually pelicans. I dunno, big white birds, birds of a species I just rarely ever see. Pelicans, storks, I just don't know.I remain pretty sure the other dudes are cormorants. In fact, that is part of the problem. Our Birds of North America book has a section called "Pelicans and their allies" which features white birds quite a bit like these and also double crested cormorants. I do not know.

The newspaper reported last week what I have already reported here, it is a good year for corn in Minnesota. The newspaper reported, if I recall correctly, that 90 percent of Minnesota corn is classified as "good" or "excellent". It is unquestionably tall.Guest Model for scale.