Yesterday was a really nice day for a bicycle ride. We had hockey. When you commit to hockey you know you are committing to a hockey game on some days in late fall. You don't really expect that those days will be as nice as yesterday was, you don't really expect that you are committing to passing up one of the last nice days for a ride. It is with great regret that any day at this time of year as nice as yesterday is omitted from the riding schedule.
*sigh*
Today though, was at least as nice as yesterday. I rode my bicycle. It was another nice day at the Falls.
Riding back from there I passed lots and lots of spots where the bare trees are now revealing picturesque views of the river valley.
Every ride feels like the last ride even when temperatures reach the 60s (59 at the Cattle Barn, 62 at Petkoff Agency). The sun is so low in the sky that by about 3pm visibility on all parts of the ride vaguely in the direction of that very low sun have very questionable visibility, even for a bicyclist wearing bright colors. I also drive a car, I know the issues. When the sun is low in the sky and shining on your windshield you have glare issues, it is hard to see. I know this and it makes me as a bicyclist very, very nervous. Even at 62 the waning of the season is quite apparent. Every ride feels like it might be the last ride.
Yesterday while we were at hockey celebrating a couple of career achievements by a member of the Minnesota Women's Hockey team the other student athletes representing the local University were producing much more disappointing results.
For example, yesterday in Iowa City the Hawkeyes reclaimed the pig. The Gophers win Floyd at least some of the time and actually fairly regularly of late. But for this year the trophy has returned to Iowa City and will therefore not be available for a photo next August at the Minnesota State Fair.
Floyd was available for a photo this year. I remarked in my
post that day at the Fair that I was able to obtain photographs of what many Minnesotans for many years would have considered to be impossibilities, what many of us thought might be a once in a lifetime possibility.
That's me standing outside of a glass enclosure containing Floyd.
A couple of weeks ago the most famous of all college football trophies, the Little Brown Jug, also left the state. Come August of next year anyone wishing to view this old piece of clay will probably have to be somewhere near Ann Arbor, the Jug won't be anywhere near Saint Paul.
So it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to be photographed in close proximity to those two college football trophies.
Goodbye Floyd, goodbye Jug.
But fortunately for us another one of these is still in play.
Six times national champions including three of the past four. Today at Ridder Arena our beloved lady rodents dispatched nationally #4 ranked Bemidji State by a shockingly easy 8-3. Gopher superstar Hannah Brandt matched a program record by scoring 5 goals in a single game and also became the program's all time leading scorer. They are yet again a team which most likely at the end of the season will be in contention for winning the big trophy.
By then the bicycling season will definitely be over.
4 comments:
Excellent post with great pictures. Too bad about Floyd and the jug but at least we have the State Fair pictures . . .
Good thing you took advantage of the opportunity to photograph Floyd.
It was a beautiful day for riding. If I was still in any shape to do it, I may have enjoyed a ride. As it was, Andy did a 50-miler. He's hard core.
It was a beautiful day.
It's not looking good for more bicycling. Sometimes there's a warm spell and you can get out, but more often it seems like some single weather event shuts it down until April.
It's the activity, not the number that counts. (Or so I tell myself.)
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