Crown Jewel retirement ride

Honest to god, the last two days were SO hard that I was seriously considering whether I could even continue with this bicycling thing. Suddenly the act of riding was making me feel really, really awful, almost physically ill.

Today I rode in the late morning with a starting temperature of somewhere in the low 70s and with breathable air instead of pea soup. The last couple of days have taught me again about the universality of human experience. When they say that at my age I should expect decreased lung capacity and lessened respiratory efficiency they do, in fact, mean me. I am not immune.

But today was better, I felt strong, I felt (sorta) fast.

I am putting the steel bicycle away for now, perhaps permanently. It now has 10,000+ miles on it, that was one of my major goals for this season. I really like that old bicycle but today as I was preparing for tomorrow's ride (by getting NewLOOK down from the garage rafters) I was reminded that I really like most all of my bicycles. NewLOOK is scary, scary light and has less than 10,000 miles on its odometer. I can see a clear path ahead and on that path I am riding NewLOOK.

There is some street sealing going on out in Shoreview which has caused me to very slightly realign my northern route. At the corner of 96 and Hodgson Road instead of cutting back to the south and riding through the neighborhoods to reach Sucker Lake I have of late been staying on 96 and riding on down to the entrance to North Oaks and accessing Sucker Lake from there. So I haven't ridden past this place very many times at all. Today it caught my eye.

What with the recent wildlife photos from Tanzania perhaps wild birds aren't exotic enough.

I rode down to the beaver dam and while there had a really fun moment. The water level is dropping slowly. It appears to me that Bob has to bring his shovel over and cut down the gap in the dam to let more water out. It has been a long time now and there is absolutely no sign of the beavers.

I was taking this all in when a couple of roadies passed me going the opposite direction from my facing. The wind was from behind me and one them had a voice that carried well so I overheard a snippet of conversation. It was clear that they were discussing me. I suspect that the one fellow said he had seen me out there before.

"Unmistakable", said the other, "what with that moustache".

Gzmoohoo is way more famous than I am.

I rode on down to Lake Vadnais to discover that I may soon be cut off from that route, too. I don't know for sure but I am pretty sure I can guess what this giant piece of equipment in the Vadnais parking lot is for.

As soon as they start removing the road surface out there this fall they are going to use that machine to grind the surface into bits, the conveyer on the right will deliver the ground bits into dump trucks which will haul it all away. I suspect that it will be recycled, perhaps even recycled for use in the new construction out there of a multi-use trail (10 foot wide sidewalk).

All signs indicate that construction should begin soon, I doubt that I will be able to ride there after construction begins until after it is fully completed. Every ride I take to Vadnais now has the potential to be my last ride out there until next spring.

Here's the big news from Roseville over night.

The newspaper reports that a neighbor says there was a small barbecue grill up there previously. The newspaper also reports that the building is at least temporarily uninhabitable. When I rode past the front of the building there was a large gaggle of folks clearly representing ownership, insurance and construction talking about what had to be done. I heard one fellow forcefully state that you will never get rid of the smoke smell without a complete gutting and rebuild.

After being ready to give this bicycling thing up just yesterday I am today energized for perhaps a nice ride tomorrow. I had a big month, the most miles in any month so far this year, the first month since March when I had more miles this year than in the same month last year. I am way behind my mileage goal but I am getting close to being back on track for my fitness goal. Why wouldn't I keep on riding?