Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Rest day please

I know, I know, travel is hard.  It shouldn't really count as a rest day.

But I bet it is going to not be as hard as today's bicycle ride.  Conditions were fine, warm enough, some but not too much wind, some interesting new pavement looking for a northern route.  The issue was I am absolutely cooked, slightly overdone.

I wanted the miles, I am extremely glad I rode them.  In the long run it is absolutely the right thing to do.  In the slightly shorter run I have a ride for the past nine days in a row and 15 of the last 16 and I am tired.  My legs are dead.  Partly this plethora of recent rides indicates that it has been a dry July, a complete dearth of rain events after what I believe has been labeled as the wettest June on record.  It also indicates that I need a rest day from my bicycle.

I know TOPWLH is going to giggle over one of the sentences in that paragraph.

On my bike log cumulative page I keep a record of every month when I have ridden more than 600 miles since I started recording the miles.  So today I got to make an addition to that page, the first since last July, and I wish to report that that feels pretty good too.  I am also able to note that I am 162 miles ahead of last year at the end of July.

Isn't keeping records fun?

Tomorrow we travel.  Just filling in a bit of information which is probably of interest at our destination we have Avis'd ourselves and will be arriving at the mountain in a rental car.  Probably just a bit after dinner time.  All concerned should be reasonably certain that once she gets there it will be extremely difficult to get TOPWLH off the dune.

We are going to miss the BNT.
We both absolutely love that tree with complete agreement that the change to the front yard with the removal of the cankered spruce to provide room for the BNT ends up being a very good thing.

Travel tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

30 days hath September

I rode at least 4,000 miles each year for 11 years in a row.  I had started to believe that that was just normal.  Marty at County Cycles once said to me when I told him I rode my age in miles on my birthday, "That is an obviously self limiting goal."  He was right about that, several years have passed since I achieved that age in miles thing and sure enough, 4,000 miles per year was a self limiting goal.  Last year I came up short of even 3,000.  I blamed it on an extraordinarily awful year of weather.  Cold and awful late into the spring and cold and awful early in the fall.

This year started off with cold and awful late into the spring.

4,000 miles is definitely not possible.  My goal for now is more miles this year than last year.

One of the measurements I used through all of that streak to keep on task was that every day of every month I wanted to have averaged at least 20 miles ridden per day for actual days of the month, not merely days ridden for that month.  Particularly for the five main months of the season, the middle five, I wanted to ride at least 600 miles per month.  Most of the time I did.

So today I reached 600 miles for July, the first time I have achieved such a number since, wanna guess?  Last July.  The issue is, fairly obviously, that July has 31 days, meaning I need 620.

*sigh*

I got it last year. I still have one day before travel for this July, maybe I will make it.  In the mean time 604 miles this month feels to my body like a lot.  Probably because it is.

The wind today dictated north but I am still trying to work out a decent northern route which does not include oil covered pebbles sticking to my tires.  The wind wasn't severe so I started with a short southern route (only to the Fairgrounds) before heading north.

The Fairgrounds was closed for I think five days recently including over the weekend for what I heard was a BMW motorcycle show and rally.  It attracted an extremely large crowd, that's for sure.  But what that really means is that I haven't been there for a while.  I like to check in over there, particularly with the BIG SHOW (the actual Fair) coming in only about three weeks.

Preparations have begun, probably partially related to the motorcycle thing, but the BIG SHOW clearly is coming.  Always one of the last concessions to leave every year after the Fair are the Pronto Pup trailers.  For one thing there are lots and lots of them.  I was not surprised to discover that they are starting to return, even if these two are still on the trailer over by the water tower.
That photo probably makes it evident that today was a few gradations short of OOTNDITHOD.  Lots of times blue sky, lots of times really threatening dark grey clouds overhead with blue sky visible in all directions.  I think they call that partly cloudy and it was, it was always warm enough but towards the end it started to be a tiny bit too windy.  And then long after the ride but as I was trying to do a little outdoor cooking we had a very brief but still very much water falling out of the sky rain squall.

Not too bad though, totally acceptable.

EG: 78
CB: 74
AOWG: 86?

Another sign of the BIG SHOW visible today is that the first round of benches have appeared.
After the Fair all of the benches disappear into storage somewhere.  These are just the wooden benches, soon enough we can expect to see the metal benches with sponsorship lettering on them appear.

Meanwhile over at the new West Gate I came across a sign painter in action at the big new concession at that location.
I read a newspaper article about that place (The Blue Barn) and what their menu is going to look like so I bet anyone who really wants to know can get more information from the intertubes.

The key to me seems to be that old real estate mantra, location, location, location.  They are going to be the first food stand for everyone getting off the bus at that new gate and they are going to be the last food stand for everyone getting on the bus to go home as well.

It is probably going to become legendary.

Rant mode.

The big city over to our south has graveled a bunch of streets in proximity to the Fairgrounds.  Unlike the kinder and gentler suburbs the big city declines to even put up one of those "Loose Gravel" signs.  They just go ahead and slather the streets with oil and a huge application of tiny little pebbles.
Given zero warning I rode right into that mess at speed with the intention of turning left.

Really, really not cool.

But a nice ride on a plenty nice enough day.  It feels good to get to 600 again.  I had fun.

Monday, July 28, 2014

North

I rode mostly north today and discovered relatively early in the ride that Shoreview remains closed to bicyclists who do not wish to have little oil covered pebbles stuck to their tires.  That would be me.

I decided to see if I could cross the Snelling freeway at Hamline.  I know I have crossed in the other direction a few times, I wondered if I could go from east to west in that same area.

Nope.

I ended up riding on the shoulder of a 65mph major highway for a mile or so and then had to share a single lane off ramp with those same cars.  I didn't mind the shoulder so much, it was plenty wide, easy for me to be a long ways from traffic, but that off ramp made me tres nervous.  Luckily for me traffic wasn't heavy and when I finally got to the ramp only one car came up it during the time I was on it and that one came when I was nearly to the top.  At the very top there was a brief two lane (right turn and left turn, the road straight ahead leads into a McDonald's parking lot).  I was going left, the car was going right, as luck would have it I hit the top just as the light changed and everything came out just peachy.

So I had been riding on this major four lane highway that at that point is designated as Snelling Avenue but after hooking left I rode down a half mile or so and came to "Old" Snelling Avenue, the Snelling Avenue that existed before all of that freeway construction out there.

And I think this thing looks really familiar.
I think the very first time I entered Saint Paul I was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by my father and I just can't help but thinking that we drove past this.  It just looks familiar.

My first ever visit to the big cities would have been early 60s I think.  At that time this would have been the real Snelling Avenue and a logical route to take to approach the city from the northwestern part of the state where we were then living.  I think I remember coming down Highway 10 which would dump you right over onto Old Snelling at what at that time would have been fairly close to the edge of town.  The road is on an uphill here, just over the top of the hill would have been Roseville and the Rose Drive-In Theatre and then just a bit later over the top of that overpass just beyond the Fairgrounds with Hamline looming on the left.  For instance, I have a very clear memory of that first time over that overpass, football stadium and then field house on the left.

Memory is tricky, this part of the memory from this spot farther out could all be something I made up later but today it feels real to me. That building is something called Lindey's Steak House, they have been operating on that spot since March of 1958.

That's the corner of Old Snelling and County Road E to the left and Lake Johanna Boulevard to the right.  It was actually Lake Johanna Boulevard I was looking for and the reason I was out there.

A couple of days ago I posted a shot of Lake Johanna taken at the bible college.  TOPWLH and I were looking at the photo and discussing the incident when one of Wireless's grade school classmates accompanied the two of them to a beach out there prompting extreme unrest from the mother of that classmate due to, as I recall, excessive goose poop in the lake.

Well, THAT could definitely happen.

Anyway, we thought we located the beach on the photo and today I wanted to ride down to the other end to find the beach to see if we were right.

And we were.
That tower just rising above the trees frame center is a building at the bible college.

Also, just for clarification, some may notice that there is sign on the chair saying "Life Guard on Duty" with clearly no life guard in the chair.  Well, not to panic, there are actually two chairs out there on that beach.  I'm not sure why but the roped off beach area seems to be divided in two and today the area over to photo left was the one that was being heavily used.  The life guard was in the chair over there on the left.

Why two areas?  Perhaps that Beach Boys song needs to play again.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Cleared off and turned hot

At about the time Nibali completed his routinely astonishing time trial I had pretty much resigned myself to no ride today.  It was darkish out, the radar showed reds, yellows and greens massed in the southwestern part of the state moving generally kinda northeast, towards us.

Nibali?  Come on.  First, Vinokourov's team.  That whole thing smells bad already.

Next up, 7 minute lead coming into the time trial.  This morning the intro crew of Bob, CVdV and that new guy actually mentioned the actual last time such a thing happened.  2005.  The leader that year?  Lance Armstrong.  They actually said his name on the air.

Next up, OK, maybe really, really good in the mountains, some guys can climb.  But then come out in the strong man's show, a long time trial and smoke everyone except the World Champion again?

The morning crew agreed with Bob that cycling is cleaner now than most any other major sport.  That's a bit amusing right there, calling themselves a major sport.  Then the crew went on to describe exactly how cycling is cleaner.  Vandevelde cited himself as an example, admitting that at the start of his career he doped but that it was his team (Garmin) that was the first to institute a no needle policy and to routinely make the blood values of the riders available to the press.  He said that by the time he retired (last year) the team was clean as so was most of the peloton.

That's not a very convincing narrative Christian, leading with yourself as a former doper gone straight.

Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie etc. etc. etc. without even Lancing.

Same with Nibali.  Perhaps the peloton is the cleanest it has been since EPO arrived on the scene.  Perhaps.  But there are still some who just don't look right.

Nevertheless, the TV coverage is compelling and dramatic.  Good stuff.

So, after all that . . .

The GRider wanted another outing and even came down and asked when I was thinking of heading out.  Well, actually, I wasn't.

But I checked the radar again and that whole red, green and yellow blob seemed to be moving mostly east instead of northeast and finally maybe even a bit of the old southeast.

And that is what ended up happening.  It stayed south, the skies cleared from north to south and eventually it was sunny and hot.

The wind led us over towards the really big city off to our west and onto what is now being called by the people over there the Dinkytown Greenway.  This is the new trail revealed to me late last year by TCWUTH, ridden by me a couple of times this year but absolutely totally brand new pavement for the GRider.

She exclaimed with positive delight about the views from the river crossing at the end of the DG.
There are four different river crossing bridges visible from the deck of this pedestrian and bicycle only crossing, five in all within about a mile or so of river.

Again, looking upstream there is the 10th Avenue, 35W and the Stone Arch.

I have ridden a bicycle across both the 10th Avenue and the Stone Arch but not, obviously across the freeway bridge.

We investigated a bit further on the downtown side of the river.  The tunnel under 35W is now officially open.  Here the GRider is in full ride mode about to exit the tunnel as we headed back.
So we headed uphill and onto the West Bank campus.  This part of the ride involved some completely new pavement for me.  I guessed wrong and we ended up on a less than optimum route.  We had to ride down a steep hill past a recently graveled PARKING LOT complete with the obligatory loose gravel sign  (and gravel extending out into the street) and then up another hill.  And then carry our bicycles up a staircase.

I can do better than that and will next time.

But once at the top of the stairs we found ourselves on the Washington Avenue bridge.  It is a double deck bridge with cars below, an enclosed pedestrian crossing and an outdoor bicycle lane above.
From this angle you can see the next bridge upriver, the one where we crossed going the other direction, and the 10th Avenue behind it, etc. etc.

As long as we were over there we made our annual summer visit to Ridder Arena, the home of the 5-Time National Champions Minnesota Women's Hockey team.
We get to the outside of the building about once a year in the summer on our bicycles and inside the building 20 or so times a year in the fall and winter as season ticket holders.

There is a very strong possibility that at the end of this next season they will be compelled to change that sign.  They were 38-2-1 last season, losing in an upset in the national championship game but with reason to believe that they just might be even better this year.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Big stone building day

One of the negatives of the State Capitol ride is the giant and somewhat unnecessary plunge after crossing Dale followed by a really high overpass over the train tracks.  I usually take that ride when we have southeast wind as Como at that point is angled across the grid.  I get all of the south and east out of the way on an early leg and have a long pleasant west ride down Summit and then north to where I live.  This issue then is that climbing that high overpass finds me heading pretty much due southeast.  I say the plunge and climb is unnecessary because there really isn't that much actual elevation change.  The street just goes down into a hole before it gets to the railroad tracks.

So today I turned on Dale instead of crossing and went looking for a route through Frogtown.

Yeah, really, part of Saint Paul is referred to as "Frogtown".  The acceptable in polite society version is that that area of town was low lying at the time of original European settlement.  The story says that there were sloughs (I went with that spelling for today) and therefore there were many frogs and that the nightly chorus of frog croaking was quite distinctive.  Hence "Frogtown".

Who knows, that's a story that might even have some truth to it.

So I was on some fairly unfamiliar pavement when I came across one of Saint Paul's most distinguished old stone buildings, the Church of Saint Agnes.
There is some pretty extensive renovation going on there, you do not very often see the front steps of a church blockaded off like that.  I think the parish should promote something like what the French did, have a revolution during which the government confiscates all church property and forever thereafter the government has to pay for maintenance.

I was looking into the sun when I took the photo.  I will do better the next time.

It was shortly after that that I am pretty sure I got "nice biked".

I was at the southwest corner of Como and Rice (back onto Como at the far side of the overpass) waiting for the light to change.  I go straight ahead on Como even though a right turn onto Rice might actually be a slightly more direct route to where I am going because the bike lane goes straight ahead at that point and Rice is a little too busy for me without a bike lane.

A fellow probably several years younger than me but based on his casual mode of dress at mid-day during the usual work week perhaps having the same employment status as me (short version, he wasn't dressed for any job that I can imagine) was coming in the crosswalk across Como heading south towards the Capitol.

When he approached he said, "Man, everything about that bike says speed."  I think a fair translation of that is "nice bike".

As an aside, when I got home I looked at the bicycle a bit and actually I couldn't find the word "speed" anywhere.  As near as I can tell just about everything about that bike says LOOK.

I demurred slightly, allowing as how even though I am still trying the engine driving the bicycle just doesn't produce much speed anymore.

But he hesitated after gaining the curb and insisted on his view and we had a nice little chat until the light changed.  At which point I slowly rode away.

Here's what I mean about Saint Agnes.  I and my fellow citizens are all paying a share of the cost of this massive renovation job.
That is, of course, the local seat of government.

This is the local seat of religion.
Something I learned in France is the difference between a Cathedral and a Basilica.  A basilica is designated by the Pope as an important church building.  A cathedral holds a bishop's throne (a cathedra) making it the home church of the archbishop of the diocese.

A basilica may or may not be a cathedral, quite often they are not.

I learned this at the Basilica of Saint Denis in the suburbs of Paris.

Here's a photo I took that day when I was there with my brother.
Having already displayed the local seats of government and religion I finish today with what was at one time undoubtedly the local seat of commerce.  The James J. Hill house on Summit across from the Cathedral.
It was a big stone building day.

Sure enough though, as I approached home the southeast wind that I started out in turned around to pretty much west.  Last couple of miles home into a headwind.

That couldn't ruin it though, it was a nice ride on a nice day.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

GRider mileage

She mentioned yesterday that her Tuesday night class performance was her penultimate appearance.  All that really means is that there are likely to be more opportunities for her for vigorous middle of the day exercise.

Very, very pleasant day here today.  Riding in the early afternoon was absolutely not a problem.  It was sunny and 70s, light winds, low humidity.

What's not to like about that?

We ended up with pretty much the same ride I took yesterday.  We saw Lake Johanna, Lake Josephine, Twin Lakes, that pond on the Roseville 9 hole glof course and a couple of other water bodies probably more correctly identified as slews including that nasty bit next to the park where Tiffany hit all those home runs now so many years ago.  That slew at Oasis Park is along the third base line and yet I remember a batting practice session when a left handed hitting member of the team sliced one back into the water.  I also remember battling through the underbrush to see if recovery was possible, but, no, another lost ball floating out in the middle of the swamp.  In the long run it ends up OK, I currently have a 10 gallon bucket of softballs in my garage.  And a few others which are not in the bucket.

Along the way we visited the bible college again.  That ride is a natural when we end up in that part of town.  Today the GRider observed the alert on the bridge going out to the Lake Johanna island.
It really is a pretty spot.  It is a shame that car traffic considerations make it such an unlikely destination.  On a positive note on the potentially ugly crossing of Snelling back to where we needed to be to complete the route we scored big time with a totally green light.

She has almost enough mileage to be able to try the big 8 lakes tour.  That is, she would have enough mileage to try that ride if I could figure out any possible way to get there without riding through the loose gravel carnage that is the streets of southern Shoreview.

Stay tuned.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Yikes!

Yesterday I was neither a mad dog nor English.  I observed the TdF rest day and the widely advertised "heat warning" by taking a rest day.  I don't actually know if it was really hot out there as I pretty much did not leave the house, not even out to the mailbox, until the worst was over.

One forecast I saw for today predicted a bit more of the same but that turned out to be wrong.  Today was an extremely pleasant day for a ride.

The northwest wind worried me.  I had a bad experience out there last week with the loose gravel.  Yikes!  Today I discovered that the gravel is moving ever closer to me, now closing off yet another of my much ridden routes.
That's the corner of Hamline and Hamline.  I ride that street around the west side of Lake Josephine, oh, virtually every time I head north.

Not today.

I turned back.

I got over to one of the northern crossings of the extremely busy state highway known at that point as Snelling Avenue.  I hate crossing at those crossings up there for a couple of reasons.  The lights are interminable for the extremely busy state highway, you can sit there for a couple of minutes waiting.  And since there is a right turn lane a wise bicyclist moves over to the left out of the right turn lane to the edge of the straight ahead lane.

Which leaves you sitting out there in the middle of the street for a couple of minutes while cars go by you on the right.

Awkward.  I don't care for it.  And once you get across you are going to have to get back.  The set up from the other side is even worse as you are still sitting out in the middle of the street but also on an upgrade.

So I really don't go that way very often unless, as today, forced to.

I rode into the bible college campus (do you think that guy will show up and harangue me again about how it isn't technically a bible college?).  It's a really pretty spot on the shore of Lake Johanna.  They have a private contemplation island which I have never attempted to visit.  They have a sign saying "Private" and I try to respect that sort of thing.

But today I noticed that they have an asphalt path down to where the "private" sign is located.  I rode down that far to the bridge connecting the island to the mainland.  This photo is from the bridge deck looking out towards Lake Johanna.
They are pretty serious about private, it looks to me like they have planted a hazard to navigation in the channel to keep folks from using that piece of public waters of the state.

Aside:  information available to me from many years of toiling at the plant means that I know they really, really can't do that.

But private means private so I left.

I headed further west and got some north over on that side of town.  I was in Arden Hills, a municipality I visit only occasionally.  But at least even with Shoreview completely not available I still got out of town.

Eventually I got back into town and did a bit of exploration around Langdon Lake.  This looks to me like two extremely large hatches of geese (with a third just coming into view camera right) and an almost unbelievable lack of predation.
Family groups lined up in pecking order behind maman but so, so many getting beyond the duckling snatched by a snapping turtle stage.  Also, we have coyotes in our neighborhood meaning they MUST be over there too.  Are coyotes geese averse.

I thought briefly about riding that path visible camera left out across the isthmus between the two halves of what is also sometimes referred to as Twin Lakes.

I thought better of that plan before I even reached water's edge.

That many geese?  More than a little goose poop.

I turned back.

ESPN has a 90 minute edition of "30 for 30" starting at 7pm (8pm eastern) this evening entitled "Slaying the Badger".  Lemond defeats Hinault.  There promises to be excellent bicycle content.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

July selfie

I did ride today.  In fact I rode in the middle of the day.  Conditions were pretty near the boundary for what a fellow of my age should ride in.  It was 85 or so which is too many but on the other hand the humidity was not particularly punitive.  It seemed necessary to ride today because the authorities have issued a "heat warning" for tomorrow.  The temperature is expected to be a bit higher and that ugly humidity is also expected to arrive.

A mad dogs and Englishmen day.

At least tomorrow is a rest day so perhaps I can get out in the AM before all of that occurs.  The worry is that the conditions that produce too hot and humid very often also produce thunder boomers.

At least for now everyone is home, safe.

It is always a little strange riding in conditions like today.  Riding into the wind is too hard but it produces evaporative cooling.  Switch around to down wind and the riding is easy but without the wind evaporating my sweat pretty soon my body temperature eases up into the area of too warm.

So I was most of the time uncomfortable in one way or another and never felt much like taking a picture.

I rode over to the Dinkytown Greenway river bridge crossing and explored a bit on the far side of the river.  That thing dumps you out pretty much at what we long ago referred to as 7 Corners.  It's hard to find anywhere to go on the streets from there but there are trails leading off in a couple of directions so more exploration is called for.  It looks like it would be really easy to go downtown.

I swung around Lake Como on the way home.
I think the absence of a clear blue sky color might indicate that it was too hot, trending towards hazy.

I am not much of a selfie guy but I got one today after I got home.

I was hoping for a better rendition of the lines on my wrist.  My hand being turned upwards when my hands are on the bars means that there is a crease where the sun doesn't shine.  You can sorta see that but now that I see the photo I like the other lines better.
Opaque terry cloth piece over the thumb (we all know what that is for) and an opaque edge piece at the top of the glove and then mesh over most of the back of the hand.

Tan lines.

You should see the ones on my thighs.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Love Street

The Doors third album includes a song titled "Love Street".  Go ahead, right click and let it play in the background.

It was always Orlando Pete's favorite tune.  He had a 45 (anyone remember 45s?) and a record player that when the control arm was left up would automatically repeat whatever platter (like that one?) was on the turntable.  He would put the song on, leave the arm up and automatically repeat.  We heard this song a lot.  Like A LOT.

One of the verses goes like this:

I see you live on Love Street
There's a store where the creatures meet
I wonder what they do in there
Summer Sunday and a year
I guess I like it fine, so far.

So today I rode deep into the working portion of the farm campus.  By working portion I mean the part completely removed from the classroom buildings,  By working portion I mean the part given over to barns, greenhouses, labs and the like.  I have ridden to this part of the campus before a couple of times but not very often.

I came across this:
First, it mostly reminds me of the anti-rocket bunkers from 1970 and 1971 at Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Vietnam.  Those were typically large culverts like this (although not quite this large), surrounded by heavy timber supports and then the whole thing buried in sand and sand bags.  This looks like a not so much underground but more like an earth covered "green" installation of some sort.

As I rode up to it all I could think of was, "I wonder what they do in there?" and Orlando Pete's favorite tune started playing in my head.

I stopped in front of one of the culverts and it turns out that what they do in there is something involving "Specific Non-Pathogenic Poultry".
I am fascinated by that description and by the fact there is no admittance.  I wonder what that means.

Mostly I find myself still wondering what they do in there.

There's a store where the creatures meet.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Too windy

SSE at about 20mph.

I was riding towards the south thinking I that I've ridden lots of times in stronger winds than that.  I have also ridden lots of times when I felt stronger than I felt today.

I wasn't have much fun heading south so after a while I tried to work a little bit to the east.  That also turned out to be pretty hard.  Meanwhile the predicted partly cloudy was mostly cloudy with the occasional quite dark patches.  The air started to get that fresh and full of water feeling that often precedes rain.  I decided two different things at more or less the same moment.  One, I was too far from home.  Two, it was too windy to keep trying to ride south.

It was premature but I started a move towards home.

There's some digging going on in a park over in South Saint Anthony.  I couldn't tell exactly what it was from Raymond so I detoured down into a neighborhood I visit only very occasionally and came across this.
That's an outline of Lake Superior with an opinion message.  That is the first such sign I have encountered.

I spent quite a chunk of my time back when I still went to the plant every day engaged in activities which facilitated the mineral exploration that eventually identified the locations where the sulfide mining is now proposed.  So I have an opinion.

I often said to people at the plant that sooner or later people in the big cities were going to get wind of this proposed mining and they were absolutely not going to be happy. And that is what has happened.

After getting a little closer to home I tried to work a bit to the east to increase the total mileage of the ride to something acceptable to me.  East was much easier than south.  I got over to Como Park thinking that if I could get to the southeast edge of Lake Como it would be mostly downwind all the way home.  I was trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible so I ended up riding someplace I only very rarely go.

This is inside the park, the engraving on the bridge identifies it as part of the Como-Harriet street car line from 1898 to 1954.
Imagine that, we used to have public transportation on tracks.  Now we use that bridge as part of the continually expanding system of asphalt paths in Como Park.

What had attracted my eye though was a field of wild flowers that park management has planted and allowed to flourish just below the bridge, just off to my left in the above photo.

I thought the best angle for a photo would be from up on the bridge.  Luckily I happened to have a bicycle with me so I was able to ride back off to the left a hundred yards or so to get onto the section of path that crosses the bridge where I was able to get the photo I wanted.
Too windy but I managed to get a ride in anyway.  I believe that is the Auckland Rule.

In the final indignity of the day after I had gotten myself that far over to the east as soon as I started back the wind did one of those Hauraki Gulf nearly 90 degree wind shifts, coming smartly around to pretty much SW.

*sigh*

My remaining miles were more south that west but the miles west that I did have to get to get home I rode into a cross head wind.  It ain't right.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

GRider gets to a destination

No jacket required again.

North is out of the question anyway and a mostly westerly wind led us south down into the big cities.  I absolutely do NOT condemn any of them for being there but there were too many people at the Falls.  But, geez, a balmy wonderful day in July, why wouldn't just about everyone head over to one of the nicest parks in the entire area.  I would, however, suggest that the place that rents those four seater pedal cars might want to impose some restrictions on where people should ride them.  There is a shunt on the river road path where the path swoops down from ground level to go around a turn.  The path severely narrows with a concrete wall on one side and a heavy wooden fence on the other, maybe four feet wide.

Those pedal cars are about two and a half feet wide.

When we rode through there there were three of those things queued up on the south end waiting for traffic to clear.  Well, thank gosh for at least that level of awareness.  The thing is they were outbound from the park.  Which meant that at some point they were going to have to return and there were lots more of them coming behind them.  It is inevitable that at some point two of those things will meet at the bottom of that little valley.  Worst case?  Someone gets hurt.  Even the best case is that between the 8 of them they have to figure out who goes back and how they accomplish that.  Probably one set of riders has to get out and push.  It could get ugly and that is the best case.

On the way home we diverted through the roundabout at the Falls end of the park and over onto city streets the other side of 46th Avenue, avoiding all of that bottleneck and most of the path.  We cut back over to the river at what is now Minnehaha Academy South campus but what I always think of as Breck, its former identity.  We stayed on the city side of the river road, riding that parallel sorta service road sort of deal over there, eventually jumping back on to the path at 32nd in order to catch the off ramp up to the Lake Street bridge.

Before getting too far on the details of the ride home I should provide some photo evidence of the GRider reaching one of the prime destinations for anyone riding a bicycle with a starting point at our garage.
Right next to her Bianchi there was a pretty nice Surly U-locked to that railing.  Geez, that's a pretty nice bicycle to leave out there with nothing but one of those mostly useless U-locks for protection.  Can you still open those things with a Bic pen?  Someone is going to lose a nice bicycle.

Throngs of people down at the main Falls viewing area although somehow I managed to get a photo with none of them in it.
Obviously still a huge volume of water going over the Falls.  Please note her left wrist with the special Bianchi award she received when her bicycle passed the 5,000 mile mark.

Possibly also of significance, today her bicycle became the bicycle in this house with the second most miles ridden on it this year.

We were shaving some miles on the way home to keep her mileage within her hasn't really ridden that many miles yet this year comfort range so instead of the preferred route circumnavigating the Fairgrounds, we cut through.

They are setting up for another big car show over there, it was actually a pretty amazing level of activity for a day when they are not actually holding the State Fair.

But they were hosting more than a few members of the M family.

But:

EG: 80
CB: 76
AOWG: 80

OOTNDITHOD.

I dropped off the GRider at home and went out to finish the desired mileage.  With a strong west wind the west loop down to Lauderdale seemed about right.

I thought this would happen and I thought it would happen pretty soon.
Freeway access restored.

Tomorrow the first real mountain including a summit finish.  I predict there will be no trees along side the road.  I predict Porte will be a factor but I really hope to be wrong.  I am now sorta for the American kid and I also hope for the best for Valverde.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Access interdite redux

Ono Joe, dem is trucks.

Very nice day today, several degrees warmer, more consistent sunshine, less wind.  The wind direction again encouraged me to think Vadnais and I set off.

I knew about the loose gravel over at my usual Lexington Avenue crossing so as I rode I formulated a route which would take me out to the lakes without going through that choke point.  The core of the plan called for me to get farther east earlier in the ride, crossing Lexington several miles south of the trouble spot and then proceeding up Victoria and diverting to Lake Owasso Boulevard.  The plan was to enter Lake Vadnais from the bottom end instead of the almost always entry point at the top of the lake and then to ride the rest of the way in reverse of the usual route.

I had planned my work and I was working my plan when completely without any warning I came upon this halfway up the west side of Lake Owasso.
It wasn't even at an intersection.  The lake is off to the right at this point.

I turned back.

And found the street I wanted to take me back over to Victoria.  It wasn't far but it turned out to be a testy little uphill bit to get out of the neighborhood and back onto the main street.

I altered my plan, now considering a straight north run on Victoria and back onto the usual lake tour route.  This didn't work out real well either though as every side street I came to had loose gravel and at every one the gravel and oil were spread completely across the shoulder and out into the traffic lane.

Fortunately traffic was light and I was able to take the lane without peril to ride as best I could around each of those hazards.

And then I came upon this.
*sigh*  But it wasn't a huge wait, probably only about 40 railroad cars or so.

The way things were going I diverted from the plan B and decided to just go to Grass Lake.  For that I turn right just after crossing those railroad tracks.  Finally things seemed to be going my way as that stretch of road runs alongside the track and therefore has almost no cross streets, no loose gravel.  I reached the start of the path and came upon this.
Road closed wasn't news to me, I knew about the flood down at the other end.  But I didn't particularly want to ride through anyway.  I just wanted to ride in and out so I rode around the blockade and continued on down.

There is a reason I have added that Grass Lake path to my list of acceptable routes ever since the path was paved.  It's really pretty.
And down at the end, just as advertised, still closed.
Big white bird for scale.

After a bit another big white bird flew from my left over to the one sitting there and grunted out some sort of warning and they both flew away.

Very weird bird call those things make.

So I got back out of there and started for home.

I was riding back towards the area near the railroad crossing.  Every street I crossed seemed to have loose gravel.  It appears that Shoreview has graveled up the entire south end of the city.  I was hoping for the best but eventually what HAD to happen happended.  I was trapped.  I came to an intersection and the road ahead was graveled.  The cross street was graveled in both directions.  Trapped.

I did what I believe any self respecting road cyclist would do in that situation.

I rode on the sidewalk.

It was only for a block and eventually I managed to get away from all of that by riding the Island Lake path back over to Lexington.

So I am forced to declare Shoreview closed.  This forces me now to completely reconsider how it is I am going to get miles to the north when wind conditions dictate that I go that way.

It's a problem but in the big picture a minor problem.

Very nice day today and in the end a very nice ride, no jacket required.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Rest day musings

Three days off in a row in mid-July.  How can this be?  Surely in the absolute middle of the season there has to be bicycling, right?  This cannot possibly have ever happened before.  Turns out the last time this happened was LAST year.

But rest days are good.  I have been nursing along a right big toe sprain.  Nothing at all serious, it doesn't hurt when I walk, it doesn't hurt when I ride.  It only hurts after I ride when I am trying to settle down for some quiet relaxation.  Three days off seems to have totally fixed that deal.

How three days off?  Saturday it rained.  Sunday World Cup final, a must see even if it occurred right in the middle of the most likely part of the day for bicycling.  I watched with TCWUTH.  We spent part of the second half looking at the Germans and trying to find someone who did NOT have an umlaut in his name.  Actually it was pretty easy:  Klose.  Lots and lots of the others did have the double dot above one of the vowels in their name though.

Then yesterday was the coldest July 14 ever experienced in Minnesota by each and every living Minnesotan.  The high temperature for the day was the lowest for that date since 1874.  Did I mention that it was also extremely windy?

This morning it was still pretty dang chilly, I think 53 when I went out to get the newspaper at about 6:30am.  I was starting to wonder about four days off in a row.  But it was sunny enough and eventually by about 2pm it was in the mid-60s.  Well, mid-60s?  I ride lots and lots of times when that would be balmy.  I went to the closet and got the gear and went ahead and started out to see if I could get some miles.

It was pretty nice for a jacket weather day in July.

A northwest wind had me thinking Vadnais until I came to this.
That's an important choke point in the ride north.  Sometimes I ride up that hill, sometimes a turn left and go down a block and attack a slightly more gentle version of the elevation change.  Today I looked across the way and all I could see was little oil covered pebbles on my tires.

I turned back.

So it ended up being a bit more of JRA than what I was hoping for but did I mention that it was pretty nice?  For jacket weather in July?

I had to ride a loop to the south to get enough miles.

EG: 69
CB: 67
Always optimistic WG: 75

That west grandstand thing has to have its temperature sensor in a spot exposed to direct sunlight in the afternoon because 75 it was not.

I was thinking the gravel would be the only photo but on the way home I rode past the rain garden and it occurred to me that it is nearly time for those red flowers to appear.  I doubled back to have a look.

No red flowers yet but the rain garden is entering a pretty attractive phase.
There are never enough photos of orange flowers.

I was pretty sure that was that when quite unexpectedly wildlife appeared.

I learned a lot about taking pictures from Joe Valentinetti and Joe always emphasized that to achieve good photos you HAVE to learn to and then force yourself to edit.  One of the photos is the best one, figure it out and dispense with the others.

This time I couldn't decide.

OK, actually I think the first one is slightly better.  The upright stalk on the right there is further removed from the edge making it a far more interesting element and there is even some orange up in the corner.  The second one has a more close up view of the wildlife.

And now for the continuing cynical review of the bicycle race.

First, those weren't even mountains.  There were trees next to the road.  When the race gets to the mountains the summit finishes will be above the tree line.

But they were really steep hills.  But short.  But really steep.

So OK.  Porte hangs with the lead group as it gradually winnows down to an extremely elite set of riders.  Eight guys!  And Richie is still there.  The good news for the race though is that in the end eighth ended up being the best he could do.  Five of the guys ahead of him in the general classification could not do even that well.  Porte moves up to second.

There has been a lot of talk about how with Froome out one of the strongest teams (Sky) was removed from the front of the peloton.  Well, welcome back to the front of the bunch for Team Sky.  They now have to defend Porte's potential position on the podium in Paris.

And that is just what the race needs to remain interesting after Contador's broken tibia.  Will Astana and Sky work together to get to the final time trial to let that stage decide the race?  Or will they attack each other?

Apparently Contador's bike got broken in a car accident, not in the incident where he broke his leg.  Read the article though, lots of guys saying pretty negative things about Alberto.  Like "his own mistake", "didn't seem necessary", "very stupid".  Good stuff.

Relatively flat stage tomorrow, rolling with four small climbs (a 3, a 3, a 4 and another 3) quite near the end of the stage.  Sagan?  Or maybe Kittel.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Porte moves up to 7th

This is shaping up as suspicious on a truly epic scale.  Van Garderen crashes, gets up and rides a teammate's bicycle to the finish but still loses a minute and a half and as one result Richie Porte the new Sky captain moves up to 7th overall.  There are at least 4 guys ahead of him right now (Fuglsang, Sagan, van den Broeck and Gallopin) who don't figure to be ahead of our new hero after some bigger hills, aka mountains, and in fact 3 of those guys are not likely to be anywhere in the top 30 by the time Porte rides into Paris.  Will Richie have a podium spot locked up by then?  He is rumored to be a good time trialist, the final stage before Paris is the only time trial of the Tour, could we be already looking at this year's nominee for starring role in Sky wins le Tour?

This is shaping up as suspicious on a truly epic scale.

It rained really hard at about 8am this morning and it really, really looked like no ride.  The rain stopped though and after a while the amazing effects of 80 degrees with the sun out started to make the streets look, well, dry.  More rain was predicted for after 4pm but around 2pm we decided a few miles are always better than no miles at all.

The sun was out for, oh, maybe about the first 3 miles.  By the time we reached Snelling and Como it was apparent that we really weren't going to be getting that far from home.  As I put it to the GRider, we are definitely not going to the Falls.

We ducked into the Fairgrounds.  I am certain I have seen this building dozens of times but only fairly recently have I started to take note of it.
GRider insisted that we stop for a photo.  We have heard that there is a really big party tonight to which a member of our family has been invited.  We weren't invited.  We don't work there.  I suspect that at least some details will become available somewhere on the intertubes.

EG: 82  CB: 77 AOWG: 82

In case anyone wanted to know.

It was really quite unsettling all the way home but we managed to get enough miles to qualify as a ride and got home before the rain started.  Then in an upset, it didn't actually rain.  It remained extremely threatening with that damp rain feeling atmosphere though so we decided that we are completely comfortable with the decision to abandon.

Microsoft rant:  My most recent episode of really important updates to Windows has caused my computer on start up to fail to recognize my home wi-fi network.  And I am not talking the remote connections, those all work fine.  No, the wired connection from the router to the desktop is the one on the fritz.

It is annoying.  I open the network connection thing, it indicates that networks are available, I click on mine, it says connected.  Well, it isn't.  I click on disconnect and then go through the list of clicks again and this time click on connect and I am again allowed access to the internet.

This is annoying.

I know the drill.  I recently went through this with the latest update to Firefox.  When I closed Firefox it wouldn't actually close.  The screen image would go away for sure but the program remained running in the background.  So when I tried the next time to open Firefox I would get the message that Firefox was already running.  Open task manager, close the Firefox.exe, exit task manager, restart Firefox, everything is fine.  Eventually Firefox finally responded with another even newer version of Firefox which fixed the problem and everything is back to normal.

How long will it take Microsoft to offer another update which will undo the damage done to me (and probably every other Windows 7 user) by fixing whatever they did wrong so that my system will again recognize on start up the direct wired connection from modem to desktop?

And yes, I know what will fix all of these issues.  But no, I don't want to upgrade? to Windows 8.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Kittel flats and some other German guy wins the stage

I guess to be fair about it someone (probably me since this is my blog) should mention that Greipel IS the German national champion.  But what's the deal with that?  Does this mean they don't let Jan Ullrich enter the national championships anymore?  Because I have heard that he is a giant beast of a man.

I am beginning to contemplate life with futbol but before we move on to that I would like to revisit my predictions for the Copa.  Which were:  Argentina and Germany in the final.  Argentina winning the Cup.  Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.

Without futbol I was forced to ride my bicycle again today.  Don't cry for me Argentina, I like riding my bicycle.

There are road paving projects going on just to my east and also just to my west.  What this means is that it is now officially impossible to ride my bicycle out of my street without getting several dozen oil covered pebbles stuck to my tires.  I ride until I am out of mess and then stop to clean my tires.  When I get home I stop before riding into the driveway (because I don't want the pebbles in my driveway) and clean my tires.  This is a fairly significant damper on the enjoyment level of the ride.

A mostly south wind of not very significant velocity coaxed me over into the big city immediately to my south.  I crossed the Marshall Avenue bridge and cut south along the river road to the Falls.  I think I got two different nice views of the continuing high water over there.  The first is from the end of the gorge.
There were a couple of other people there pointing their phones at the Falls.  What's up with that?  One of them said, too many trees.

I disagree.

This is from over by the rock wall next to the Falls.
Please note that at the second location I managed to avoid the inclination to take a video with my inexpensive pocket camera held in the orientation which produced this image.

See?  Trainable.  Probably a bit dim but definitely trainable.

There's probably an explanation in there somewhere for why the water remains so high at Grass Lake.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

High water

The rivers have receded from flood stage after last month's monsoon.  I hadn't been out to Grass Lake in a couple of weeks so I went by to see if the flood was over out there as well.

Nope.
I took this picture from part way up the hill.  From this angle the entrance to the tunnel is visible (right center).  So the tunnel isn't completely underwater but looking at the water level on the right I estimate that the tunnel is in 6 or so feet of water.

It'll be a while before there is ride through there.

The extremely high water has turned what has always been mostly dry into another significant arm of the wetland, wet enough that the big white birds have moved their habitat over to this side of the path.
It was a very pretty day out there.  With one end of the path closed the whole park is virtually deserted, particularly down at the underwater end.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Auckland rule

It probably gets worse than this on the Hauraki Gulf.  Today was warm enough, sunny enough and entirely too windy.

It's OK, I am a grown up and if I decide to go out anyway I am expected to just DEAL with it.  I made it home safely and not much the worse for wear.

Entirely too windy.

I ride past this on the downhill into the wind western loop.  I have looked at it quizzically a couple of times in the past and today I decided to share.
It's whimsical.  Is it a tree?  Or maybe a picture of a tree?  Or a tree seen in a mirror?

Futbol?  I picked Germany but no person on the planet could reasonably have expected 7-1.  It's like the Germans aren't even supposed to celebrate because it would be unseemly to be happy in the face of such complete devastation for the Brazilian fans.

Amazing game.

In TdF news, down goes Froomy, down goes Froomy.  Here's a quote from the CyclingNews story about Froomy's trip to the medical center after the conclusion of the stage:

"Doctors said that there was no break visible on the x-ray, but a further examination would be needed to confirm that diagnosis."

Monday, July 7, 2014

9 + 17 with rain in the middle

Part of the time the weather worked with me, but most of the time it worked against me.

I started in the sort of marginal conditions that I ride in all the time.  The sun was out but it was a little too hot and quite a bit too windy.  My standard response to strong west winds is downhill into the wind setting up the back uphill but with a tailwind.  This usually works pretty well.

An inevitable side effect of this approach is that having ridden a loop to the west I pass back fairly close to home after having ridden a few miles.

I was 7.56 miles into my ride and on the wrong side of Snelling when suddenly it was misty.  Misty means to me a fairly large amount of really small water particles but not really rain drops.

Still, 7.56 miles in I was less than 1.5 miles from home and mist seemed like a pretty good reason to turn back and get closer to the garage.

Sure enough as I got closer to home with something in the 8s on the odometer I was thinking about trying some near in loops to get to at least 10 when the mist turned to rain drops.  I got this photo from under the roof overhang of my garage with not quite 9 miles on the odometer.
I thought about getting out a lawn chair to just watch out there.  But I have technology inside the house for weather tracking so I locked up the bicycle and went inside.  I took off my shoes and helmet but stayed in my bike clothes and went down to the computer to view live weather radar.

I was looking at the radar thinking that the yellow and red stuff was all to my north and that there was a fairly good chance that if I just waited a few minutes I could go out and finish my ride.  Then the rain started to pelt against the window.

*sigh*

I hate a 9 mile ride.

I took my bike clothes off and moved upstairs.  After a bit though I noticed that it was unmistakably true that the sun was out and after a further small bit it was unmistakably true that it was mid-afternoon, the sun was out, the pavement was drying, the rain had slightly mitigated the heat and behind the rain the wind was abating.

So 9 + 17 with rain in the middle.

After I got home from the second bit it completely clouded up again and another kind of nasty bit of rain occurred.  At shortly after 6pm it was so dark out that it seemed as though night had arrived.

Then that passed and lo and behold it still really isn't night in the land of 15 hours days.  Day light returned yet again and TOPWLH is currently out enjoying a walk in what looks from in here like fairly pleasant conditions.

Contador and HIS team looked strong today.  My personal belief is that Froomy was sandbagging.  His medication program results start to look really, really suspicious if he is the absolute best rider on every single stage.  He doesn't need to and in fact can't afford to be THAT good.  He doesn't want to lead just yet.  Today he stayed near the front and lost no time without garnering significant camera time.

The race still has significant entertainment value.  To me this Kittle guy is lots and lots of fun.  Big German guy who absolutely shows up and absolutely produces in his situations.  Furthermore I think today's bicycle result absolutely foreshadows tomorrow's futbol.

I predict Deutschland dismisses the host country Brasil.  The combination of injury and suspension removing Brasil's two best players is just way, WAY too much for them to overcome.

Germany to the final.

Tour de France to France.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Too muggy

We tried to ride a bit after Stage 2.  Incidentally I would like to revise my answer for the Contador or Froome question.  Froomy looks way suspiciously like he has his medication program back in order.  That easy acceleration at the top of the 33 percent grade while still seated looked just way to much like the Froome of old.

Froomy.

Definitely Froomy.  Did you see Porte coming from a minute behind to rejoin the lead group?  The whole team seems to be back on whatever it is they are on.  Definitely Froomy.

So we tried to ride even though it was nearly 80 and quite humid when we started.  We did discover some orange flowers at my favorite rain garden, more tiger lilies.
That rain garden is an attractive look, we should try to get something like that going in the weed patch growing at the bottom of the storm runoff pit next to the house.

We eventually got enough miles to qualify as a ride but it was just plain too dang muggy.  Breathing is compromised when the air is that thick and after a while we gave it up and got ourselves home before we were going to have to call for assistance.

Before we did we rode through the Fairgrounds as the GRider wanted the see the impound lot and the new gate construction.

EG:  87
CB:  For the first time that either of us can recall the sign was not working.
WG:  89

Also probably too hot.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Cross blog?

I almost think this should go on the cooking blog.

Has anyone else seen these?
3 for a buck.  Which is pretty dang expensive for kraut, even "Quality Kraut".  But TOPWLH and the P-ster were going to go to the track today (I begged off, futbol don't ya know).  The deal at the track on the Fourth of July is free hot dogs.  The dogs are free but the condiment selection is severely lacking.  Our family tradition is to bring our own mustard (although anyone who knows me will know that I always maintain that the cheap yellow mustard is a GOOD mustard) and kraut.  Packing a tupperware container of kraut isn't THAT difficult but geez, singles?  Way, way easier.

Convenience rules.

I admit to fairly significant disappointment with the results of both futbol games today.  But at least I was able to get in a ride between games.

Something is going on, I feel like there is climate change or something.  Today was plenty warm for May and actually even OK for July but really totally not what my DNA says July 4th should be like.  The sun came out for about 0.4 miles at about the 17.56 mark of the ride.  Otherwise, complete cloud cover.

Ugly.

But I did find something that I am pretty excited about.

The last time the temperature clock at the east Grandstand at the Fairgrounds was featured on this blog was September 17, 2011.  It should be apparent from the photo taken that day that something was out of order.
Today after almost three years without a display on that board here is what I came across today.
So in the spirit of many, many posts of the past I can today report:

WG:  77,  CB:  74,  EG:  77.

Isn't that fun?

It was a little strange over there today, this must be the only weekend of the relatively temperate season when there are no events scheduled anywhere on the grounds.

Le Tour starts tomorrow.  Boy oh boy, tomorrow is going to be a busy, busy TV day.

The TdF TV broadcast kicks off at 5am (6 eastern) but according to the VeloNews official Tour de France guide the race actually starts at 6 (7 eastern).  It's Leeds to Harrogate (yes, ANOTHER start for le Tour in a country other than France).  There are 3 categorized climbs (2 cat 3 and a cat 4) but 60km from the last climb to the finish.  It looks like a sprinters' stage.  A start in England has lots of folks declaring Cavendish the favorite.  I like that big German fellow, Kittel.

The Wimbledon women's will be on during at least an hour of the race, I don't know what to do.  I really like this new Canadian kid, Eugenie Bouchard.  She is 20, was the Wimbledon "Girls" champion (under 19) two years ago.  Furthermore her mother is some sort of royalty geek so Eugenie and her twin sister Beatrice are named after those crazy hat wearing princess daughters of Andrew.  And incidentally 7th and 6th in the line of succession to be monarch.  Obviously the Brits are fans.  I am too, she doesn't scream like Sharapova or Serena or Azerenko or Kvitova for that matter.  The time has come for the cheaters to be ousted from the game.  Deliberately distracting your opponent by making a loud noise IS cheating.  I am certain I am going to have to watch at least some of that.

And then comes the futbol.  Holland and Argentina.

If anyone needs to contact me I will be in front of my television.