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.