20 degrees C

So that's is pretty much officially that.

20C is the temperature at which riding with bare legs is allowed under Belgian Knee Warmers guidelines. Today I headed out the door into 20C. On a related note, the newspaper reported this morning that yesterday's official high temperature was 70F so that milestone is in the bag even though I am fairly certain it never reached that temperature on my side of town. In any case, bare legged riding season is now officially open.

I rode past some tulips in the wild flower yard over on Roselawn.I am pretty sure those are tulips.

I then rode down to the Capital again. Southeast wind again, still reluctant to traverse the light rail construction zone. I climbed the hill behind the Capital and then again circled down to the front, intending to check for weekend parking by large American metal or perhaps to take a look at the other statues there.

Well, the 2011 Tax Cut Rally as sponsored by the Taxpayers League of Minnesota was just winding down. Apparently I just missed Michelle Bachmann. I was parked in the shade from the not Knute Nelson statue just taking things in when a fellow citizen engaged me in conversation.

I know I look suspicious, the facial hair and all but I really wasn't expecting to be grilled about how I felt about the rally, what I thought of the tea party, what I meant by my claim to be apolitical, followed by an inquiry into my voting record. I answered the second question posed to me by replying that I was really just there riding my bike and I did not expect to be interrogated.

But actually the fellow was polite enough, if a little nosy and we ended up having a fairly lengthy and cordial conversation. I told him that I am not a member of any political party and am, in fact, distrustful of all political parties and movements, specifically including for his benefit the political movement whose rally was just breaking up. I said, and believe, that my experience is that all political parties are motivated by interests which may not be in the actual best interests of the people of the country. I was there by bicycle coincidence. He, on the other hand, was pretty obviously there for the rally.

Having escaped with facial hair and bicycle intact I headed over to complete some sort of hat trick of giant snow piles.

The local giant pile that got the most publicity during the actual snow season was dubbed by some as Mount Sears. It is the snow pile dumped in the parking lot of the Rice Street Sears store. Apparently at one point it even had at least one Christmas tree on top.It may have been the largest, it is too late for me to make that determination. But pretty clearly it is now quite significantly smaller than the pile at the Ski-U-Mah lot. In fact, Mount Sears has made an amoeba move and even though it is not apparent in this photo, the pile has split itself into two smaller piles.