Small craft advisory

The morning clouds rolled back leaving behind one of the prettiest days we have had for quite some time. The high sun and some cumulus clouds conspired to put on a show and it was a dandy. All was not perfect, however, as the wind blew and blew hard. It might have been the mightiest wind I have ridden in in at least a couple of years. It blew so hard that it caused me to look up who issues small craft advisories and under what conditions. I don't know for sure if the corollary, "inland lake wind advisory" was actually issued here today but I do know that the wind blew hard.

It blew so hard that on the occasions when I had a straight cross wind it was just a tiny bit tricky keeping the bicycle upright. And that is why I thought about the whole subject, because anyone who hasn't considered the matter carefully may not have concluded that a bicycle is a small craft.

The ride upwind was hard, really hard. It took most of an hour to reach this spot on the northwest shore of Lake Calhoun.This is my furthest penetration into Minneapolis this year. In fact, I was so far into Minneapolis that I almost rode all the way through and out the other side. Shortly before turning to the south to get over to the lake I saw a sign indicating less than a mile to Saint Louis Park.

I also stopped and got a picture of Lake of the Isles.I was riding down East Calhoun Boulevard where the street passes underneath the Midtown Greenway when I encountered the perhaps largest pothole ever. It was about 8 or 10 inches deep and at least two feet across. The lighting is always iffy underneath an overpass like that and I did not see the pothole until it was too late to avoid it. The chasm was so deep and so wide that it crossed my mind that I might be going down. Then it crossed my mind that I could damage my bicycle.

The ride home was made in the direction where I felt strong. The problem was that the ride over was so dang hard that I was a bit knackered and did not feel quite as strong as I had hoped. Even so there were periods when I was just coasting along soft pedaling, not doing much in the way of work, and still topping 22 mph.

So I guess even though I did not feel strong, I most definitely should have felt fast.

I found these orange flowers on the way home. I like orange, I think these are poppies.Some may have noticed that there is at least one paragraph in this blog post which contains only one sentence. Any (that means you Mrs. Smith) who question this are invited to read the most perceptive comment left to yesterday's post by the inimitable Marz Volpatz and be informed that in matters pertaining to content of this blog that the artist retains total artistic control over the work product.

Further the artist sayeth not. At least for now.