Sunday, September 30, 2012

New record

Mostly we were just out there riding around on a bonus day, a spectacularly beautiful day on the very last day of September.

We rode past our old house and the Emily Tree, an ash that I planted in the front yard the year TCWUTH was born.
It is an ash but it still looks good, no signs of the bug. It looked pretty today, dressed up in its autumn colors with the flattering autumn light making the leaves almost shimmer.

I got the miles I needed for the big new number, the most miles I have ever ridden in the month of September. In a year without any other significant mileage achievements it is nice to have something. It is also the 10th most miles recorded in any month ever.

We shall now see, I only need about one and a half more miracle months and I could still make my annual mileage goal.

Iffy.

But September was good.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

PSPS

I haven't had time to check the sources, did we make that all time record high temperature or not? I only know that it was 20C by 11am and that Yahoo reported 81F when I got back.

Back from what?

I decided to chase the number.

I didn't have time for the full two hour ride even with the early start that 20C by 11am allowed. I set out to ride only to the Port Sheldon Party Store. It was a great ride up Lakeshore, the usual cut across on James and then on up 168th, the jog over through Evergreen Hills to 164th and then on up to Butternut for the run to everyone's favorite convenience store. Here is a view of the parking lot at the PSPS on the not usually photographed side opposite from the picnic tables.
Clearly visible are the high tension power lines running from the nearby power plant to the local substation.

*long pause*

Here's the deal, I set out to ride every single time I ride intending to make myself tired. Tired is what I want. There is no winning the race against time but even as I lose that race I still enjoy the feeling of having tried. My body feels better more of the time if some of the time I make it work too hard. I ride intending to make myself tired.

Today I rode less than the usual amount, I didn't really get very tired at all. It seems just vaguely possible that the change in routine has caused a certain amount of confusion.

But maybe not. This could be a scene along New Holland on the return trip from PSPS.
I mean, I know it isn't, but it could be, couldn't it?

And actually, all confusion aside what made me think of the PSPS as I rode today is that the ride today was similar in length to the PSPS ride.

It sure is pretty around here right now, don't you think?

We had early hockey today. It is hard to go inside on a day of record high temperatures at 3:20pm to sit next to a sheet of ice. You only do that if you love the hockey. We love the hockey. The defending national champions won again today, this time by 11-0 (no 10 run rule in collegiate women's hockey, you have to play it out). The same new kid who got the hat trick yesterday did it again today. That particular new kid looks amazingly like she might be the real deal. The hat trick is rare enough, who does it in both of her first two games?

FC Nantes defeated Lens 4-0 at Nantes. With about one-fourth of the season completed (9 of 38 games) FC Nantes at long last looks to be a serious contender for promotion. With the victory today Nantes is a solid 4 wins, 4 ties and 1 loss to stand fourth on the table, only 2 points from first and only 1 point from the promotion zone.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Cold water

Well, Coldwater Spring it is then. Sufficiently prompted I found lots of information on line including directions for getting around to the front. That's where we went today.
I looked at Yahoo Maps for perspective but the aerial photo that they are STILL using at that site shows 12 buildings still on site. One or another of the internet sites I read today, most likely the National Park Service site, detailed the destruction of the buildings completed by February of this year. The spring and summer of 2012 were spent in construction to restore the area as an oak savanna prairie park to be open to the public. According to the July 3 update, a creek has been re-established between the spring and the Mississippi River.

Here's the state of the other park construction project I am currently monitoring.
That thorough coating of what looks to me like patch master was applied by a water cannon blasting out a mixture of seed, fertilizer, mulch and water. The entire "hydroseeding" was done from a single spot quite near the cul-de-sac. It was totally visible from my front window and created quite a spectacle.

Hockey tonight, defending NCAA Champion Gophers 7, Colgate zip. One of the new kids scored the hat trick. A good time was had by the season ticket holders living next to the patch master pit.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Just another beautiful day

Very, very nice day.

The wind that has been a bit troublesome of late disappeared overnight and we were treated to another cloudless sky, this time with calm or very light breezes.

Pretty darn nice for a bicycle ride.

Whatever wind there was going to be was predicted to rise later in the day and be from the southeast. I rode proactively windwise and headed down into the big city.

I warned that there would be lots of these. Here is another contrast, the two trees probably not of the same species but very similar in branch structure and leaf shape, and quite obviously displaying different phases of the color change.
Those two are down on the River Road in front of the Ford Plant.

I rode all the way down to the confluence and for a change carried my bicycle down the steps, rode across the bridge, carried my bicycle back up the steps and descended the path into the State Park.

I haven't photographed the historic fort very much over the years. Most times I have been there I had a bad sun angle. Today's angle was good, here is the historic round tower and the top of the bluff side of the reconstructed fort.
The path down into the park took me past the corner tower and the wall along the Minnesota River side of the fort.
Anyone who has followed my travel blogs knows that I like old stuff. This fort isn't old by European standards but it is pretty old for around here.

I like it.

I rode along the path beneath the bluff leading back towards Minneapolis. There is something major going on down there, I came upon an area featuring extensive de-brushing.
That's still within the boundaries of the State Park, I know that there is a historic spring along there somewhere of cultural significance to native people and of historic significance to the arrival of Europeans in Minnesota. I wonder if that is what is going on over there. If I still had a job I would just ask the Parks real estate specialist who made regular frequent stops in front of my desk what was going on. Instead I am probably going to have to find out from the internet.

The ride back from where I was leads past the Falls. The last time I was there the Creek had completely stopped flowing, not a single drop over the edge. Today there was a trickle. You have to look carefully but if you do you can probably make out the very thin stream.
I am starting to think that there is a possibility I could get in a short ride, perhaps an hour or so, before the Saturday hockey early start. Then on Sunday I could extend and try to ride one of my longer (but not longest) rides of the month and maybe, just maybe get somewhere interesting.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Daylight still

I am really getting a lot of miles this month. I am getting so many miles that were it not for the fact that hockey begins this weekend (can you believe it, hockey?) I might well be in line for the most miles ever in September. I will not be able to ride Saturday as the hockey starts at 4pm, too early to accommodate both my preferred arrive in time for the warm-ups hockey viewing schedule and a bicycle ride. As it is, second most miles ever seems still quite likely.

I rode over 700 miles in September of 2004. Who does that? What sort of whacko, a whacko who had a job at that time, rides over 700 miles in the declining daylight of September?

It must have been me.

It has been soooo dry, the radio and TV people are on and on about the need to water even your trees, but the net effect for a bicyclist who doesn't ride in the rain is that almost every day is a potential ride day. Today for example, not a cloud in the sky, temperature about 60 which even though below the average made for an excellent day in late September, a nice day for a ride.

I came upon this one, two, three strikes you're out sequence along Hamline near the appropriately named Autumn Grove Park.
I have been avoiding the east extension of the usual northern route, the part that takes me over to Lake Vadnais because of the construction over there.  Today I wanted to check on the beavers so I headed over that direction anyway.

It looks like Bob has been out with his shovel.  The channel has been dug down a tiny bit so water is once again flowing.
I keep expecting a return appearance by the men with machines.

We have a park closed for construction here too.  There has been some progress at Lake Vadnais but it is a bit difficult to gauge from the top of the former park road.
Fairly clearly, no road anymore but I still find myself stranded over a quarter mile from the lake. They have cleared some trees off camera to the right, I expect that is going to be the site of the new top of the lake parking area.  In additon, there are a few bicycle tracks in the dirt there so I won't be the first bicyclist down to the lake after the road was removed.  But I ride a mighty skinny tire bicycle, I won't be headed in there until the pavement returns.

It doesn't look like anything is going on but I could hear the rumble of heavy equipment as I stood there to take the photo.  My recent experience with observing heavy equipment in front of my house has led me to associate the sounds I heard at Vadnais with a tracked vehicle, probably a bulldozer.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Leftovers deux

Sunrise:  7:04am

Sunset:  7:03pm

*sigh*

11 hours, 59 minutes.  There is absolutely no denying it now.  The slide to the big darkness has passed the halfway mark, we are doomed.

But on a brighter note.  The ash trees in my yard are still doing fine (knock on ash wood).  But when they give up on the light they absolutely rush towards the darkness in an extremely unseemly fashion.  One minute foliage, next minute a bit yellow, first hint of really cold and kaboom, every leaf off the tree in about an hour and a half.

But we are still early in the process and the ash goes through what I think is a quite attractive yellow-green phase, quite attractive particularly when it catches the late afternoon sun. I thought the tree looked very nice today and it may not be possible to get another photo later, today seemed like the time to act. If you miss that hour and a half window later on you have only bare branches in your photo.
Also visible is some more detail on the construction project next to our house.  It appears to me, at least from what I can tell out there looking at the finished project, that excavation stayed far enough back from the backyard giant cottonwood to avoid damage to the roots.  A good thing.

Today's ride concluded with a Fairgrounds loop (Cattle barn:  61 at 2:45pm).  They are just about done over there.  This is the last or (I didn't search every square inch of the grounds) very nearly the last mounted on a trailer temporary for the Fair only food stand.

Fans of Ye Old Mill will have no difficulty pinpointing the location.
It is something, maybe ironic? that the last stand was one of our highlights of the Fair this year, one of the best pieces of food on a stick that I stuck into my mouth.

Two skewers of shrimp, four to a stick, nicely done and extremely tasty for a mere $7, cheap by Fair standards.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Fair leftovers

12 hours and 2 minutes.

Average high for the day: 68, nice.

Actual temperature achieved: 77 as I blog and it isn't actually over yet.

Carbone's update to TCWUTH: Yes, we know that they are open. There was a sign out front for a month or so saying "Coming Soon". We had decided that when that sign disappeared we were going to have to go to the VFW. This past weekend the VFW had their big annual Booya. The Booya sign appeared in front of the club, the outdoor Carbone's sign disappeared and that new Carbone's sign appeared in that window.

We agree: Excellent!

Today was obviously a nice enough day for a ride. I was able to revert to a summery costume, short sleeves and shorts although I did begin with arm warmers. The nice thing about arm warmers is that they are sooooooo easy to just push down. It was, however, still way too windy. Take the bad with the good.

Here is today's excuse for having a cheap digital camera in my pocket. These two bicycles have been locked to that traffic sign since the end of the Fair.
Isn't it cool that we have a street named "Priscilla" in the neighborhood?  Actually that's the Mayflower corner of town.  In addition to "Priscilla" there is a "Standish".  And a "Raleigh" and a "Brewster".  What's up with "Brewster"?

I dunno, those bicycles are both in the category of "throwaway" bicycles as far as I am concerned. I have thrown away (at Goodwill) one just as nice as the nicer of those two. So perhaps the people who left them there will never be back.  Except one of the riders took the trouble to leave a plastic bag over the saddle, both have nice racks, and both of those locks are nice, substantial, not at all cheap locks. They care about those bicycles at least a little.

If they are coming back they better come soon, parts will begin to disappear.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Equinox?

Doesn't that mean day and night of equal length?

I guess I don't get to decide but the morning newspaper supports what is going to be my opinion that equinox at the equator, which apparently is the official moment for the planet, is not necessarily the same as equinox at the 45th parallel.

Sunrise: 7:01am

Sunset: 7:07pm

12 hours and 6 minutes.

Discuss.

Class? Anyone? Bueller?

Just sayin' is all.

This development at the Roseville VFW Post 7555 is actually big news for certain of us.
The predicted overnight killing frost did NOT occur in my neighborhood. I was up at the coolest point of the day (shortly after sunrise, see above) and there wasn't any frost on the grass. Our most certainly unofficial outdoor thermometer registered 37.

But that's pretty cold so a ride was in doubt until the force of the sun on this still more than 12 hours of sunlight day popped the number up to a plenty acceptable mid-50s by shortly after noon.

It was a nice day for a ride. As I said to the bicycle mechanic who diagnosed the Mavic death squeal thing for me, I must really like this bicycle riding thing, I certainly do it a lot.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Back to steel

*sigh*

After carrying on about "retiring" the Crown Jewel I today found myself riding the old steel bicycle again.

The last couple of days I noticed a gradually worsening noise emanating from somewhere below me (duh!) and what I eventually was able to identify as behind me. It was intermittent, only when I was coasting and I was able to make it stop by pedaling. I thought at first something was rubbing but eventually I was able to eliminate any possibility of that being true.

The more I thought about it the more some niggling bit of information I used to know kept trying to creep back into my brain. Eventually I internet searched for "howling Mavic hub". Go ahead, try it yourself.

I read the Leonard Zinn FAQ from the October 2006 Velonews. The dreaded Mavic death squeal indeed.

So I now have a part on order at County Cycles along with a recommendation that I not ride it as a possible worst case scenario was that the hub could seize up.

My first plan was to haul the FirstLOOK out of retirement (why stop riding a bicycle that is clearly my favorite bicycle ever? 20,000 miles?). However after looking through the digital log I discovered that I hung that bicycle up at the end of a 1,818 mile season after starting the season with new tires (which were never replaced). So I need new tires on that bicycle before I can ride it again. I have tires but as stated over there on the sidebar, on FirstLOOK I palp tires in an orange colorway. I happen to be completely out of tires in an orange colorway.

It was cold today, the coldest yet. Eventually the sun was strong enough to get the temperature up near 60 by the time I got home but most of the ride was in the low 50s and into a brisk north wind. Cold. I only saw about a half a dozen others out riding, a sure sign of suddenly too cold.

But it was fine. I have the gear and actually I am at least 10 degrees from the bottom end. I still have several items in the drawer including the heavy weight jersey, the balaclava and the wool mittens. Sometimes I forget how much fun it can be to be out there riding when it is too cool for most other enthusiasts.

This time of season is now arriving with a vengeance, there are going to be lots of these.
That one is in Roseville, but barely, over there at the very north edge before I cross into Arden Hills. I was out there just giving my camera a ride when the sun suddenly appeared and this tree demanded a photo.

This one is in Falcon Heights as I neared home.
TOPWLH would probably say that it was a beautiful day. I would say that it was pretty. And pretty cold.

Of course, it will be quite a bit colder way too soon.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Two ends of the street

Today I discovered another bit of residue from the path project across the street.  Virtually every ride I ever take begins with this piece of pavement just around the corner from the street where I live.
Always before that pavement has been the shoulder.  The white line marking the shoulder defines for the cars where they should be and the shoulder has always, always been available for bicycling.  I have no complaints at all, that bit has always been plenty bicycle friendly.

But NOW.  But now it isn't just the shoulder any longer.  Now it is a designated bike lane.

Nice.

Here's what it looks like down at the other end of the street.
The neighbor just called. He talked to the city inspector while I was out riding. He passed along the inspector's message that the giant trench in the street to put that pipe (and lots of other segments of pipe not pictured) into the ground will occur on Friday.  The city inspector says if I want to use my car that day I should park it somewhere up the street.

My other concern is that Friday is trash pick up.  I suppose someone has to call Walter's.

It was warm enough today after jacket, tights and full finger gloves (and SmartWool socks) yesterday. But the wind absolutely howled. It was way, WAY too hard. As always though, I am home, I finished, I'm glad I did it.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Here's a surprise

Fall descends.

It rained over night and dawn produced temperatures around 50 with a prediction of not much improvement. It was windy and mid-50s by lunch. The sun was out and I could have . . .

But it just seemed like too big a change to try to absorb all in one big gulp. Instead I stayed in and watched the beginning of construction next door.

They are building a storm water reservoir over there. It is their land, I have no control over what they do.

But you live somewhere for 25 years and you start to think you know quite a bit about your immediate surroundings.

They dug down about three feet over there and this is what they pulled out of the hole.
I understand the categories and I do not believe that qualifies as "clean fill". I believe that is what is usually characterized as "construction debris".

My concern with the project has been disruption of what I had come to view as the natural surface and sub-surface water flow. It now appears to me that whatever it was we have had for the past 25 years it was something other than "natural".

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Football?

There aren't enough 70 degree days just past the middle of September to justify watching football.  I wonder how it came out.

Seeing Minnehaha Falls dry yesterday made me wonder about the state of the other local waterfall.  I rode over to the Stone Arch Bridge to get a look at Saint Anthony.
There is more water there than at Minnehaha to be sure but even so the flow is hugely diminished from the last time I was there.  Minnehaha can be partly explained by the likelihood that the dam where the Creek leaves Lake Minnetonka may well have been closed to raise water levels on the lake to minimize winter erosion problems.  Although there is a dam only a few miles upstream from Saint Anthony, this is Mississippi after all so that is probably not the reason for low water here.  It looks dry, I guess it is dry.

This was set up at the Dinkytown end of the Stone Arch.  It certainly caught my attention.
What's going on there is a food truck has pulled up and set out some tables.  I don't know if that is a successful business model or not but I wish them all the best.

My life experience has been that conversation is almost always free.

So I rode back through campus, cutting over to the River Road on Oak Street and then across the Franklin Avenue Bridge.  I took the first left turn off the bridge which is actually pretty OK from a bicycling standpoint as there is a left turn lane, a stop light and a green arrow.

This put me on 31st Avenue South, I rode one block and then cut over to 30th Avenue South.  31st is narrow, has quite a bit of traffic and absolutely awful pavement.  30th is also the way I access the Greenway.  That wasn't my intention today but I wanted to follow 30th out and see how far it went.

Well, it gets squeezed by Minnehaha Avenue at 34th Street, ending temporarily (although it begins again on the other side of Minnehaha and Hiawatha at 38th Street).  I followed 34th Street back towards the river past Longfellow Park to where I came upon the clear star of today's ride.

At 34th Street and 39th Avenue I came upon this massive old elm tree.
In fact, there is a little pocket of them there, I was standing under another one across the intersection to take the photo.

This has to one of the last soldiers left from the army of elm trees that once marched up and down the streets of both cities.  It's been a while since I last saw one.  That house never lost its shade when most of both cities lost all of those shade trees.

It is pretty hard to ride from where I live to anywhere in Minneapolis without passing the Fairgrounds coming and going.  Here is a better view of the cow figure I posted just before the Fair began.  This time you can actually see what it looks like.
I am pretty sure that there is going to be a beef expo over there next month.

This was parked next to the big cow.
I mean, I knew (who doesn't?) about the head sculpted in butter but I didn't know she has her own float.  It seems logical, I suspect that she has a pretty busy parade schedule.

Colts 23, Vikings 20, you can find out just about anything with about three clicks on the internet.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Drum roll please. Milestone.

Actually, for me, mileage continues good for the month, quite lackluster for the year.  It turns out though, that I am not the only one here who rides.  TOPWLH today achieved a quite significant mileage milestone.
She joins the select group of individuals (which cannot be THAT select as it includes every person living in THIS house) who own at least one bicycle with at least 5,000 miles on the odometer.

You may notice that immediately upon her achievement a representative of Edoardo Bianchi, founder of F.I.V. Edoardo Bianchi S.p.A, the world's oldest bicycle-making company still in existence and the manufacturer of her machine, appeared as if by magic and presented her with the Bianchi USA Lifetime Achievement Award, which she displays on her left wrist.

There's more.

Honest, I have more.

Within minutes representatives of the local historical society arrived at the spot where the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented and designated the spot as significant enough to merit inclusion on the local Heritage Trail and immediately erected a sign so stating.
She took it all in stride, for the most part shrugging off the accomplishment although I have an inkling that mention of the mileage may show up on her social media account website.

It was a nice ride, another nice day.  We rode to the Falls where we found no Falls.
I have been there before when there was very, very slight flowage over the Falls but today was a first for both of us, there was absolutely not discernable even a single drop of water going over the edge.  The rocks are still damp but there doesn't seem to be anything falling and the pool below was absolutely dead calm, showing no signs of anything even running down the wall.

The not always Falls.

Here's something I have discovered just today. If you upload photos in "Compose" mode they upload at 212x320. If you upload in "HTML" mode they upload at 300x400. Of course, it is always possible to edit the 212x320 to 300x400 later in HTML but it just seems quite a bit easier to do the uploading in HTML mode.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Walk in fishing only

OOTNDITHOD. Extraordinary.

I really didn't get much of a look at what was happening at the lake at Lake Vadnais yesterday. The park was closed at the top end of the park. I mean, the road construction is interesting in and of itself I suppose but what I was able to get to yesterday is about a quarter mile from the actual lake.

In order to actually see the lake today my plan was to ride the usual ride in reverse and thereby arrive at the south end of the lake.

You don't really see things if you only look at them as you pass in one direction.  This is a view I would usually never really consider for a photo.  It is at the top of the hill (you know, usually slightly knackered) on the usual departure from the lake.
I think the photo shows nicely that it is a double lake.  Well actually it is a single lake with two lobes and road that was CONSTRUCTED a long time ago for the usual reason, human convenience, by filling a short gap between the peninsula extending down from the north and the separated by only a small gap south shore of the lake.  I know this, I used to work at a place where I had very easy access to the original government surveys.  I have seen the survey of what a government crew saw out there when they took that survey way before anyone thought it convenient to just go ahead and pour some dirt into the lake to make a road.  Boy, you couldn't do that now.

Anyway, long digression there, the photo also shows, if you look closely the presence of some construction equipment out there on the narrow (now) isthmus where the road used to exist.

The road exists no more.  It is totally gone.
And that's about an eighth of a mile or so from what used to be the parking lot where the most in number and in frequency users of the lake used to congregate to fish.  There is, at present, at it appears to me, in the future, walk in fishing only at Lake Vadnais.

Have I mentioned, actually I know I haven't, that the GRider and I were present out there a couple of weekends ago when one of those anglers reeled in an in excess of 5 pound bass?

A 5 pound bass is a REALLY large bass, especially for Minnesota.  People will still be walking in, probably just not as many.  I believe we can  count on the 5 pound bass guy and his fishing buddies to be walking in fairly regularly.

I obviously couldn't get through the park from the south any more than I could get through from the north so today I circumnavigated by heading out and riding around the east side of the lake.  It extends the ride by a couple of miles but I quickly discovered, probably actually re-discovered, why I don't do that more often.

It is HILLY out there.

Tres hilly.

But I have ridden there before and I am quite pleased to report that even though it has been a couple of years at least since the last time that I missed not a single turn, always recognizing the correct street and never having to ride somewhere I didn't plan to ride.

I am also pleased to report new or at least relatively new pavement on Koehler Road, one of the key elements of the Vadnais circumnavigation.  That old cracked pavement was always a problem in the past.

The reverse route also meant that I rode through Grass Lake in the opposite direction from what is almost always the case.

Did I mention it was a nice day?  Grass Lake looked, I thought, quite grassy and pretty from a viewpoint at what today was the exit from the lake instead of the usual entrance.
So on the way home I was hailed by a nice middle aged lady who rode me down from behind on a comfort bike.

*sigh*

Who knows how far she was riding, I was nearing 25 miles, further I had crossed into the center turn lane on Hamline to negotiate a left turn so I was going slowly when she came salmoning up the left shoulder and pulled alongside at Saint Rose of Lima.

*sigh*

She wanted to ask about my Rabobank jersey.  Her husband is Dutch and they bank at Rabobank when they are in Holland (the country).

She was a lady on a comfort bike and nice enough if slightly out of breath, she was also not wearing a helmet so I didn't point out that I was not only wearing a Rabobank jersey, I have the matching Rabobank helmet.
Who knows, she might not have been impressed but TOPWLH (aka Ms Matchamatic) is like, WAY impressed by my wardrobe selection.

Two things there, most will notice that there is about to be construction not only at Lake Vadnais but also quite near to where I live.

Almost no one will notice that I have had to go back to my old gloves.  They are yellow Specialized, I have like 4 pairs of them and for many years wore them exclusively.  I have been wearing red Castelli gloves for last couple of years.

I originally adopted the Specialized gloves because they promised to remedy the "bicycle palsy" hand numbness that I was experiencing way back then by providing an appropriate pad on the heel of the glove to protect the ulnar nerve.  I had not had any recurrence of the numbness for a long time but a couple of times recently I have had to shake my hand to restore feeling.

Today I decided that it would be much easier to find the old gloves.  I have like 4 pairs of them.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pining for the fjords

Many will know that "pining for the fjords" is what the Norwegian blue was supposedly doing during the Dead Parrot Sketch.

It was a nice day for a ride, I got out on the usual right after lunch schedule. By then it was warm enough to allow for a summery costume if not the actual summer look (sleeves and base layer).

I could hear this one before I could see it. After riding past the no more beavers beaver dam up at Sucker Lake I exited the parking lot (no broken glass of late) to ride up the short hill to the entry to Lake Vadnais.
The road is closed, the park is closed, construction has begun.
That lake has been a staple of my rides for several years. I have cut through the water works property on nearly every ride out to the north but today I had to begin to figure out a way around.

And the way around meant that after riding north I took a small loop to the south to finish the ride. It already seems like more than a week and a half since the Fair finished its run. Most of the really large temporary stuff has been dismantled and removed. There are still a couple of those big tents up on Machinery Hill and there is also this display along one the streets up there.
70 at the Cattle Barn at shortly after 3pm, by the way.

It rained pretty steadily yesterday, never particularly hard, but steady. I spent probably way too much time trolling YouTube, a harmless enough diversion most times. It is in fact what I must admit is a fairly regular occurrence. Here's the jewel that I unearthed there on my latest expedition.

He calls himself apetor, and information he has shared at his YouTube page discloses that his name is Tor Eckhoff, he is 47 years old and lives in Vestfold county in Norway. I am not sure I can endorse any of the activities portrayed in Thin Ice 4 but I will say that I think his exploration of the concept of video reveals an interesting and quite unique world view. That particular video is approaching 2 million views. Yup, 2 million. I haven't watched all of his videos but I did watch and quite like his newest submission, "Lawnmower Problems".

Apetor is way, way more famous than Gzmoohoo.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Get into my big black car

Politician seems appropriate as the election looms.

Jack on bass and vocals, Ginger on drums, I am just not sure I recognize that guy on guitar. He seems pretty good though.

I want to show you what my politics are.

Same guys about 40 years earlier:

Bicycle content: I found this to be a compelling read related to the whole bicycle racing doping thing.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Crabon fibre

I reported a while ago while I was riding steel on the somewhat anomalous occurrence of steel taking the lead as the frame material on which I have ridden the most miles this year. The anomaly was that even though the bicycle I ride in Michigan is a steel frame, beginning with when I acquired (and built) FirstLOOK, my first crabon frame, I just haven't ridden my Minnesota steel bicycle very much. Except for that very early season period when aluminum leads the frame material standings, crabon has been for several years the dominant material.

This is an unusual year, lots of things about this year are out of the ordinary.

Today I fixed all of that by reestablishing the usual as the usual for this year as crabon fibre reasserted its dominance as NewLOOK surges past the combined total mileage of the two steel bicycles I have ridden this year.

It was really, really windy today so I may have been slightly confused but I think this is where I was when this bicycle momentous milestone was achieved.
I wasn't tagging bridges even though I think that is a really interesting idea but I was on the other side of the Mississippi and I know I crossed Minnehaha Creek at least twice (once going, once returning, I know it was Minnehaha Creek, I checked the map) so that must make at least four for today, or perhaps two twice. And that's just bridges over water, if you count street overpasses I got a bunch more.

It was really windy, I may be confused. There are a finite number of days in any one person's life as nice as today was. It seems a shame to spend very many of those days indoors. Much better to be on a bicycle. I had a nice time out there on a beautiful September day.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Sliding towards Fall

Sunday just shortly after noon is a very nice and calm time for riding. The football season has begun and kick off moves a significant portion of the population to a position in front of the TV instead of behind the wheel.

So I guess we missed some excitement. The thing about football, though, is that there will be plenty more later.

I am getting a lot of miles for September to this point but we all know that the weather becomes less bicycle friendly as September goes along. We are already under 13 hours of daylight each day and a temperature below average now means a temperature not completely comfortable in the summer costume. Then there is the whole changing colors thing which advances a little bit each day at Lake Vadnais.
But it was plenty nice enough, the winds which were punitive yesterday were light and variable today. It felt pretty good.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Unfinished business

Sunday is the big Saint Paul Classic Bike Tour. The ride always is held on the Sunday after Labor Day. The organizers advertise this as the largest one day bicycle group ride in the state, and I suspect they are correct. I mean, why say it if it isn't correct?

We have ridden this thing a few times in the past but as all my close associates know, since a rider was killed on TRAM 2005 I pretty much avoid riding with people I don't know. Too dangerous.

Still, I recall a few things about the SPCBT, particularly that it often marked the first ride of the year that was clearly fall, clearly not summer. The streets for the ride are closed in the morning but only until 1:15pm. That means you need an early start. But you always need an early start on those big crowd rides unless you want to ride the entire thing with the M family. It is bad enough at 7:30am when the ride officially begins but the late arrivals make the route after about 9am officially perilous.

I digress.

I recall that most years that ride to the start at Saint Thomas would have to be made at the time of day when the low temperature for the day usually occurs. That generally meant the first appearance of the year for base layer, arm warmers, helmet liner, full finger gloves and perhaps even leg covering. Pretty much full October dress is required at 7am on the Sunday after Labor Day.

Instead this year the first fall ride occurred today.
Two things about that, yes, the Fairgrounds has officially reopened. And take a look at the sky. At noon sun time it was 65 with a leaden sky and a stiff breeze from the northwest. It was chilly. I held off on the leg covering and the full finger gloves but all of the rest of the above described fall costume changes were initiated today.

We started out to ride north but at about the 8 mile mark we each felt a couple of drops and we turned and fled for home. It was mostly cloudy but it never actually rained while we were out there. We made it back to the Snelling Avenue crossing to discover that the sun was out.

You cannot quit when the sun is out so we ducked over to take in a Fairgrounds loop. That's where the Cattle Barn picture came from. It is also where the final confirmation of the new Home Depot on the grounds occurred.
You can see a small patch of the blue that kept peeking out. There was, in fact, lots and lots of blue sky time but there was also those also visible looming greys. But we both got the miles we wanted and we didn't get rained on.

All things considered and now that we are dry at home it is pretty hard to find anything not to like about the ride. Any day you can ride your bicycle is a good day.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Hopkins

New pavement today.

After a bit of a false start on Tuesday when temperatures rose yet again into the 90s it now seems apparent that Fall has arrived. Today's temperature was about average, mid-70s and humidity seems to have gone back to where it belongs, the dog days of summer. It was a bit windy but overall it was a splendid day for a bicycle ride.

I stretched it out a little and into a west wind I found myself riding the into the wind slightly uphill leg of the Midtown Greenway. I felt pretty good so I went ahead and explored new terrain.

Here is a NewLOOK at Excelsior Boulevard.
I got there by riding an abandoned railway right of way turned into multiple use trail. There used to be a railroad here. Visible across the street is the also abandoned (but not as a coffee shop) Hopkins Depot.

We had a much nicer one downtown.

A ride to Hopkins ended up being a three bottle ride, I only have equipment on my bicycles to carry two at a time. On the way back I was pretty much out of water and looking around for a public water source. I found one at Lake of the Isles.
That's a particularly handy public water source.  There is a fountain for short people (with water running for this photo), a fountain for slightly taller people, another one around on the back side for, I guess, dogs, and a faucet on the side ideal for filling a water bottle.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Long day at the end of summer

I rode my bicycle at more or less the regular time.  TOPWLH was off tending to her other duties so I rode alone.  It was a bit hot and quite a bit windy.

The wind was from the southeast.  With direct south pretty much off limits due to the big goings on at the Fairgrounds I was pretty much stuck with the Capitol loop in reverse, a ride I have taken many times and one that usually provides some rewards.

I finally got MY first look at the new HHH plaza on the Capitol grounds.  As I was advised elsewhere and earlier on the inter tubes the statue was way easy to find.
I like the statue, the overall plaza features some strong statements of principle made by the Minneapolis mayor, United States Senator and Vice President of the United States during his 30 year career in public service.  It is a very nice spot but for me, my favorite Minnesota progressive remains the subject of another of the Capitol grounds statues, Floyd B. Olson.

Look him up, I am betting there is a Wikipedia article.  In addition to his other accomplishments, Governor Olson is distinguished by having a bronze pig football trophy named in his honor.  Take that Hubert Horatio.

Here is a key factor in riding when it is hot and one which it occurs to me I may have been neglecting.  Hydration.  Here is a NewLOOK at a public source of water, the drinking fountain at Langford Park in Saint Paul.
Very nice park, thanks for having the fountain turned on, it helped a lot today.

Later on when TOPWLH got home I unexpectedly (for her) played my we can have dinner at the Fair card.  It would probably have been cheaper to have dinner at any other place but the Fair comes once a year and today ended up being my only opportunity to go.  We had dinner at the Fair.

I have posted this place a bunch of times this summer.  It is the site of a former church dining hall which closed after 50 years of service after the Fair last year.  I have ridden by a bunch of times and had most recently theorized that it looked like an Old Mexico or similar Mexican restaurant.
Hats off to the geology guy (and grape growing hobbyist), it is the new home of the Minnesota Wine Country exhibit.

According to TOPWLH her friend Bonnob got an extremely small glass of wine (which was advertised as the LARGE size) there earlier this week for only $12.

We stopped by the DNR building to see if Heather was there.  She wasn't but we did get a look at one of my favorite Fair displays, the artwork created from materials recovered from the public waters of the state.
This one is called "Scuttled".

I haven't been able to get onto the Fairgrounds for about a month so it was good to be able to find the Cattle Barn and get a temperature report.
85 at after 6pm is totally a confirmation of the fact that today was quite a bit hot for this time of year.

I went into the Swine Barn to see the state's largest boar.  I have been doing that for lots of years, I have seen lots of really large pigs.  Today was the first time that I can recall when I saw this:  The state's largest boar stood up.
Usually he just lies there.

I don't know what made him stand up, but there it is, the state's largest boar up on all fours.

Anyone want to guess what he did next?

OK, trick question.  He laid back down.

Of course.

I encouraged TOPWLH to take a cell phone picture at this spot on the Midway. 
The phone that she has used to be mine.  At the time I acquired the phone there were lots and lots of advertisements on the TV with a celebrity endorser, Ozzie Osborne.  She has Ozzie's phone and that's Ozzie's likeness gracing the front of that attraction. I am a bit clueless about what the attraction is but I do know that she was not aware that I was taking the picture.

In fact, later on she asked me if I had taken any pictures at the Fair.  Well, we had missed out on getting a photo of Heather but I did get a picture of my summer long TC offering local weather personality Sven a beer.
All of the information available to me indicates that Sven IS a short guy.  I don't know if he is actually that short though, maybe someone else knows.

We were up after our bed times (well, mine at least) as we headed towards the exits.  Here is the other Fairgrounds location I have been speculating about.
It is, just exactly as I thought, a Home Depot location.  I promise a better photo some time later this month when the grounds are once again open for bicycling.  For now, I was correct on the Home Depot, way, way off on the Minnesota Wine Country.  One out of two is the best I can do.