Wednesday, June 20, 2007

One Ludlow

It was a pleasant day albeit a bit too warm and windy again. But it looked good so I bolted for home to ride my bike. It WAS hot but I had a destination in mind so I headed right out.

At about three miles something happended to the day. The sky rather abruptly darkened and huge black clouds started forming up on the western horizon. I was on Como in front of Commonwealth Terrace. I thought I felt moisture on my leg so I jerked to the right on Raymond and headed for home. But by the time I cleared the farm campus it hadn't gotten any worse. I was close enough to home that I felt comfortable adding a loop through Lauderdale. I would still be close enough to home that I could sprint for it if need be and not be out in the rain for too long.

Well, it never rained where I was. I looped through Lauderdale, back past home, up to Snelling again, then down Larpenteur past the golf course. I took a little sit down at a place where I could see the western sky and watched for a while. Encouraged, I headed into Saint Anthony Park again.

It was very strange. There was never a moment after those first three miles when the conditions were such that I would have left my garage if I had been home. It was ugly and very threatening. But I was already out so I stayed out, and it never rained where I was.

The down side is that the lighting conditions never were suitable for a photo. I found the destination I wanted to photo but it was just too grey. However, as I suspect is true of all photo bloggers, I have a couple stored in the "My Photos" folder which, while not the A list on first impression, are good enough for now.

This is One Ludlow, a house in Saint Anthony Park. Roy, Knobby and Amos, and I think Rick the Deputy lived there in the late 70s. There was a major 4th of July party there.Now some of the details are fuzzy, it was 30 years ago after all. But anyone interested should get BB and I cornered and ask for the details. We were both at the party and I bet between the two of us we could hit all of the high points. Just to whet your curiosity, there was loud Sousa, lots of people, a patriotic parade, and a . . . well, ask us sometime.

One Ludlow is at the end of a dead end, or perhaps the beginning, right next to the railroad tracks. The street was named Nourse Street until the name was changed in 1940. Hehe. For Christmas I got a book about street names in Saint Paul.

For example, yesterday's photo is of a building located at the corner of Snelling and Larpenteur. Snelling Avenue was named for Colonel Josiah Snelling, commander of the military post that was given his name. The street follows roughly an early path and before that an American Indian trail leading from the confluence of the two rivers to Little Canada.

Larpenteur was originally Minneapolis Avenue. The name was changed by the city council in 1904. Auguste L. Larpenteur was one of the first twelve settlers of Saint Paul. He helped lay out the original city and laid claim to 160 acres near Lexington and University. He was engaged in fur trading and merchandising and was one of the last survivors of the original settlers.

Good stuff, huh?

But nothing compared to this:

Emily sent me this. She says she googled Gzmoohoo and found this French language site about FC Nantes. If you scroll down you will find this blog linked as a site where FC Nantes is being discussed. As Emily says, random French people could be reading my blog. And exactly as she says, that's pretty cool.

7 comments:

Santini said...

That's a lot of stuff for one blog entry. Sounds like an interesting 4th of July. The house looks like something from a Hollywood horror film, somehow. And very old. Built before paint?

I checked out the French language site, and found your listing. The power of Google. Somehow these seemed like little 'family' blogs, under the radar. A web crawler found you. It is both cool and creepy.

Weather -- I'm trying to figure out if I should ride, or at least how far. The radar and the weather channel aren't matching up with what is outside my window. And it is windier than predicted. Biking season -- may it last and last.

Jimi said...

I did the google of gzmoohoo, too. You are a known quantity in France, Nantes number one fan in USA. Good job.

Where is this One Ludlow? It sounds like a good story, one that I haven't heard.

Anonymous said...

I would just add two things to the One Ludlow teaser: many police cars were also in attendance.
BB

Anonymous said...

Whoops, I said two things: hopping a slow-moving train is the other.

Santini said...

Is Anonymous off her meds again? Slow moving train? That must be some story.

Emily said...

I demand to hear this story next time I'm home. It sounds like it was a good time...

Anonymous said...

Turns out it was 2 good times. Mr. Moohoo informs me that the train-hopping occurred at a different One Ludlow party (the smelt fry).
We had alot of fun there.
BB