Only a little above average - but nice, very nice.

The wild temperature extremes seen so far this month can make feeling that whole average thing pretty elusive. Today was just a tiny bit above average and it was way, way nice.

I started the ride having already moved down one magnitude in gear and even so ended up removing a couple of articles during the ride. Some of the nicest days of the season are some of the last days of the season.

I wanted to ride over to the main campus despite wind direction. We had mostly WNW and I wanted to head SW, meaning a head wind on the return. I tried to mitigate the problem by being a bit circuitous both coming and going. On the way out I toured Lauderdale and cut back through the Saint Paul campus. Most will know that they have cows on the lawn there.Pretty idyllic looking, don't you think? A wonderful day for hanging out on the mall if you happen to be a college student.

This one shows what a pretty day it was in the immediate neighborhood. Anyone who wishes is welcome to invent their own caption.Mine goes something along the lines of I didn't even know that the legalization movement had advanced that far in this state.

I was gradually getting closer to campus. I knew this street wouldn't take me to TCF Stadium but I wanted to see what was down there anyway. I thought it was a nice sort of edge of town look at an intersection that is actually immediately adjacent to the railroad yards just across the tracks from the stadium. It was pretty there.Here is what I was really looking for. This is the view at about 20 minutes to kick-off at the intersection of Oak Street and University.For those who may not know, the University of Minnesota colors are maroon and gold.

What then, you might ask, is the deal with all of those people wearing red. Red is the color of the Gopher opponent for today, the University of Nebraska. We have often heard tales up here on the tundra about how well Nebraskans support their state university football team and how many of them will travel to away games to express that support. This was Nebraska's first opportunity to show their red in Minneapolis as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

I would say that the Nebraska fans lived up to their reputation. By the way, Nebraska 41, Minnesota 14.

I rode through that crowd and it was harrowing. There were very, very many people who were seriously distracted from their driving and walking (and bicycling). Surprisingly though, it wasn't pedestrians who were the greatest danger. Usually it is pedestrians who scare me the most. Pedestrians are usually totally, like TOTALLY oblivious to the possibility of a bicycle being in their immediate vicinity.

Today it was such a huge crowd with so much going on that pedestrians had to, for their own safety, be hyper-aware of everything going on around them. It translated into them being aware of even bicycles.

Often when I ride I get a comment from someone or another along the lines of "Nice bike". This occurs because when I am riding I am almost always riding a really nice bike. Today my bicycle and I were exposed to a crowd of the sort that saw many, many more persons than usual observing my bicycle and I got not a single "nice bike". I did, however, get a "really nice mustache" from a red-clad Nebraska fan. I was waiting for the light to turn (as was he) and we had time for a short but very cordial chat about my facial hair.

He said he would really like to have a mustache like that. I heard his comment before I turned to look at him (I was intent on the traffic situation). When I turned to look I saw that he had full facial hair with nothing very remarkable going on. I informed him that it doesn't happen overnight and advised him to start working on it.

It was a nice day at the Bank for those dressed in red.