It's snowing . . . in Wisconsin

But not here.

Here it is cold but sunny and pretty. Here the wind is howling. Here the wind is blowing much, much too hard for bicycling.

Too late, I have already finished my ride. But, I must admit, it was hard, particularly at the end. It was hard.

Just to make sure here, there can't possibly be anyone who thought that because I moved a bicycle into the basement that I was through riding for the season, can there?

I didn't think so.

Here is a a corner of my garage, which I didn't realize until I took the picture is clearly the Bianchi corner.And none of those bicycles is the bicycle I rode today. Today I left behind this year's sojourn on steel and returned to crabon fibre, taking my newest bicycle out for another ride. Today's milestone is that I have now ridden NewLOOK more miles this year than I rode it last year in its inaugural season. Pretty puny milestone but I do like to be able to announce something.

I know I won't get many more chances to ride the 8 lakes tour so I set out today to check that off my November list. I also hoped to see the swans on Vadnais.

I arrived at the entrance to the Sucker Lake portion of the Snail Lake Regional Park to discover that cars are no longer being admitted. The pavement looks closed.I checked the paper notice posted on that ironic Welcome sign but the closing is NOT because of the vermin culling. The archery deer hunt's next iteration is scheduled for November 14-16, next week.

As I was contemplating this a comfort bike lady rode up to the gate from the other side, looked chagrined, and turned to ride away. I cyclo-crossed around the gate and followed her back into the park. I passed her and thought to offer a greeting. I opened my mouth to say hello and a giant bug ricocheted off both lips narrowly missing the opening.

I am not sure what today's lesson is but I fear that it might be that being friendly is not always the right thing to do. On the other hand, the giant bug bounced off.

I rode through the Sucker Lake portion of the park and over and down towards Lake Vadnais. The gates at Lake Vadnais were open. As noted once previously, different jurisdictions, different rules.

It was cold and windy but it was extremely pretty. Here is a NewLOOK at Lake Vadnais.The swans were not to be found today, a disappointment, but it was such a pretty day that I believe I am going to pronounce the whole thing to have been a success.

It's snowing in Wisconsin.