{lack of internet last night didn't allow me to post Ride Day Eight...here it is now. Stand by for Day Nine}
We just spent two great rest days in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, staying with a college friend and his wife and getting a chance to see a couple of other long-time friends. On Friday our friend Dennis, who was the editor of our college newspaper the year before me, and for whom I served as business manager (read “ad salesman”), took us to Como Park where we visited the conservatory.
He also took us to St. Paul’s City Hall, where we saw this giant sculpture by Carl Milles. He was commissioned to create a WWII memorial and he came up with Native Americans smoking a peace pipe and invoking the Vision of Peace. It’s an amazing piece of sculpture, weighing 60 tons.
We visited the St. Paul Cathedral — a magnificent building — on the way to dinner with another college friend. We ate at the Commodore, a revived restaurant from the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Chicago mobsters. It was great spending time with friends of 50 years, with whom we still have a lot in common. There was great conversation about everything from personal reminiscences of college days to current politics.
On Saturday we were escorted about town by our friend Don Drake, the first director of the Whatcom Community Foundation, whose jersey I was wearing today. Don lived in this area more than 20 years ago and returned a couple of years back. We visited the Wiseman Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota where we saw a great pottery exhibit, in addition to parts of the permanent collection. The building is a Frank Gehry creation.
We also saw two iconic Twin City bookstores. Louise Erdrich’s “Birch Bark” book store.
The store has a comprehensive collection of Native American books as well as offering fine Native crafts. It’s a beautiful store.
We also visited Garrison Keillor’s store, “Common Good Books.” It’s a great general bookstore with a terrific selection in both fiction and nonfiction categories.
This morning, after bidding farewell to our hosts, I hit the road on a very typical Midwestern fall morning — not too warm, not too cool…just right for riding. The sky was a bit overcast and it was a bit breezy. Given recent events in Houston, the Caribbean, and now Florida, it seems pretty pathetic to mention riding into 13 mph winds.
Much of the first leg to Stillwater was on roadside trails, and the last seven miles or so dipped into the woods on a beautiful paved trail that was being used by walkers, bikers, and skaters, this lovely Sunday morning. One of the features along the trail was this display.
Which was accompanied by this explanatory sign.
From Stillwater I crossed the St. Croix River into Wisconsin and encountered this sign.
Riding through the Wisconsin countryside I encountered several of these signs, but never the actual horse carts. It’s possible that they’re not out on Sunday afternoons.
We’re beginning to see the first signs of fall here, with leaves beginning to change color. I stopped to take a photo of this beautiful tree.
While stopped I noticed that just across the road was this beautiful weeping willow. I couldn’t resist taking its photo.
I spent the last five miles or so on the Red Cedar State Trail, along the Red Cedar River. Here’s a sign for the Wisconsin trail system that’s near the beginning of the trail.
Tomorrow I’ll ride a number of miles on this trail, as well as the Chippewa River State Trail between Menomonie and Eau Claire.
My playlist today was a bit eclectic. I began with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, then moved on to Derek and the Dominoes, the Drifters, Clapton Unplugged (guess I didn't hear enough of Clapton in the second album today), John Prine, Roy Orbison, and Joe Cocker.
Oddly enough, according to Google, Wisconsin has two towns by the same name, though spelled differently. I discovered it yesterday when I checked the distance between Circle Pines, where we were staying, and Menomonee. When more than 200 miles popped up I gasped. I wasn’t ready for that ride. Turns out Menomonee is actually Menomonee falls and I was looking for the town of Menomonie — someone should tell Google about that I guess.
I did have two dog encounters today, though neither turned out to be too threatening. The first seemed at first that it could be a problem. As I looked ahead in the road I spotted a very large dog in the road, walking toward me. As you likely know by now, I’ve become much more cautious about dogs, so I got off of and behind the bike and pulled out my water bottle preparing to squirt the dog if it came closer. It stopped and I yelled go and pointed. The dog turned tail and ran. Apparently it just wanted to say hi and this old grouch scared it away. Well, better safe than sorry I guess.
The second encounter was pretty benign. A dog that looked to be a Pomeranian mix was yapping and chasing along in its yard on the other side of the road, but never came any closer.
Day 8 by the numbers:
76 - miles ridden
2762.4 - feet of elevation gained
7519.93 - calories burned
0 - falls
2 - dogs (see last paragraph above “by the numbers”
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