Macalester Street

I took an unusual route today, spurred to do so by a wind which I couldn't decide whether it was SE or SW.  I knew I was riding south but the whole east west orientation kept changing.  I rode into the big city on Lexington as opposed to my usual Raymond.  I then rode past the Emily tree and on down to Aldine, then north across University and the freeway.  I found my way back over to Aldine but it got complicated after that as Aldine turned quickly into a one way against me at the crossing of Selby.

I can stomach a certain amount of salmoning but the wrong way on a one way street?  Doesn't seem like a good idea.

Speaking of which I experienced something quite new in salmoning shortly after crossing the new multi-use bridge over the tracks on Lexington.  I turned down Hubbard, I think, and was met by a couple of teenagers, one male, one female.  They were both riding next to the curb but the two of them had each selected a different curb.  The young female person (who was the one salmoning) seemed to be unaware of me until the last minute.  When she noticed me she shot a look of disdain and veered over to where her boyfriend or brother was riding.  I glanced at him but couldn't read anything in particular into his look.

At the crossing of Selby I found my way over to Pierce Street and then on down to Cambridge when Pierce ends at the crossing of Summit.  Cambridge ends at Saint Clair and I found myself on Davern Street.  Davern is a through street and eventually I decided the shade was better on Macalester Street, one more block to the east.

The last time I was over there was last year some time and nearly every street was under construction.  What this means a year later is that there was a bunch of new pavement making for pleasant riding conditions.

I circumnavigated Mattocks Park in there somewhere.   Long ago there was a school there (Mattocks School would be a good guess).  The good folks in that neighborhood seem to be showing off just a tiny bit with this stop sign post.

I bet you have to get special permission to do that.

Up closer it brags about the fact that it is a flower, not just a simple post.

Seems to me with all the effort put into the post that they could maybe, just maybe put a little effort into the grass.

I cheated, this is actually back over on Davern but for most of the time I have been aware of Carbone's (since about 1965) this is what Carbone's was, the, for me, original shop on Randolph.

I got all the way to Highland Parkway but at that point I had passed out of the zone of last year's construction and unexpectedly entered the zone of this year's street patching.

As complained about previously, the Saint Paul patching crews use an extremely oil rich patching material.  You can get stuff on your tires.

I turned back.

This is the corner of Macalester Street and Stanford Avenue.

They must be feeling pretty hoity toity there, I think this roundabout is just showing off.  There certainly aren't enough cars there to justify anything other than a meeting of two extremely low traffic streets.  But it's OK, if they want a roundabout, why shouldn't they have one?

I rode back through the campus, this is extremely picturesque Kirk Hall Commons.

I lived there on the right during the 66-67 academic year.  It never looked as nice any single day of that span as it looked today.

Of course, that was the academic year, not the summertime.

Extremely nice day, very nice ride.