1,000

They always seems so far away on those first chilly rides even before daylight savings kicks in. But today I reached one of the big milestones, 1,000 miles so far this year.

I realize that this leaves me quite a bit behind in the family still but it is a pretty good thing for me. I am only 60 miles behind last year's pace and considering the nearly a month I have spent out of town that is plenty OK with me.  Who knows, maybe the big number is still possible.

I had no Guest Rider today (not every day is a reward day) so I headed our for the full 8 lakes tour without her. I hadn't been all the way out there since our return from the desert.

One of the things I do out there is keep checking for broken car window glass in the lower Sucker Lake parking lot. Today I discovered a novel method of avoiding having your windows smashed. Just leave the top off your car.

I recognized it instantly as a Mustang, and a nice one at that. I am a little unclear on Mustang years (I do know that the very first Mustangs were the 64 and a half Mustangs, Mjelde got Mr. Rudow to let Mjelde and I out of study hall one day in the spring of 64 on the pretense that the new Mustangs had just come in down at the Ford dealership in town and it was important that he and I go down and take a look). I think it is pretty early, almost certainly pre-1970 but also very clearly not one of the VERY early years.

It is a short hop from there (about a mile) over to the Vadnais parking lot. Here is yet another LOOK at Vadnais.

I paused in a slightly different spot in the parking lot than the spot where I usually stop. I wanted to look at a different patch of gravel. I found four new small agates. I have decided that finding agates is good luck. Certainly the agates that I am finding are very small and have no value. But they ARE good luck.

Here are the nice agates that I own.

None of them are particularly lucky.

There is a large clue there, however, about our summer (as differentiated from spring) travel plans.

The exotic birds have returned to Vadnais. My theory is that last year in the period when the herons were deciding on nesting sites the water was too high on Vadnais. Consequently they chose other nesting sites and were therefore mostly absent from Vadnais last year. Today I saw a great blue and almost got a nice picture of a white.

The bird decided at the last moment that it cared not for my presence and fled. That makes the focus a bit iffy but I have decided that it is a "soft" focus and that I still like the picture anyway.