First day of summer

The riding plan for this year calls for Monday to be a stretch day. Once a week I want to ride something longer, a chance to get beyond the boundaries of the usual rides. I haven't ridden much lately so I wasn't sure if stretch was a good idea today. However before I had even reached the end of the street I was pretty sure I was going to try to stretch. Today was the first day of summer.

As intended I rode some new pavement today.  I rode over to Minneapolis and followed the Midtown Greenway to where it merges with the Cedar Lake LRT Regional Trail.  I rode to the boundary line of Saint Louis Park, where I have been before, and determined to ride a mile further (I wasn't feeling THAT strong, one mile seemed enough) to see what I would find.  One mile into Saint Louis Park the trail comes to Highway 100.

New stuff.

Here is a LOOK at Lilac Park where the trail crosses the first Twin Cities beltway.

The dome shaped deal is a fire enclosure hand constructed in 1939 by the unemployed stone masons who contributed to the series of parks along the highway.  The picnic table is also a signature of those parks, also constructed of limestone.

That pavement in the background is an off ramp for the highway.

I also discovered that I had added another water tower to my collection.  Not all of the words are visible in this view but this is the best sun angle I was going to get and I think the message can be decoded by most.

I felt pretty good all the way home but after a bit of a sit down I am willing to admit that I haven't ridden much lately and I am a tiny bit overcooked.

It feels good.

I spent some time, I forget, was it early this season or late last season, investigating a bicycle fatality at the intersection of Franklin and West River Road without ever figuring out exactly where the accident occurred.

Today I passed a ghost bike where the path along the river crosses the parkway to climb up to the Franklin Avenue bridge.

The street is divided at that point. I was stopped on the center median to take the picture when a south bound automobile passed between me and the ghost bike in the north bound lane. Unfortunately for him, there was a north bound car using that lane at that point. The half street is narrow there and both motorists stopped before property damage or worse occurred but then something of a stand off occurred as the motorist in the right declined to back up or otherwise yield right of way to the motorist in the wrong.

I had about as much fun watching as is available to a bicyclist in such a situation.