Water and Construction

The Friday before last I pedaled a 60-mile ride up around the cities - both of the Twins - and back home.  Part of the reason it was such a long ride wasn't because I was particularly motivated to do sixty miles, but because the Cedar Ave old bridge route through the river valley is both flooded AND under construction, the 55 bridge is under construction, the Greenway is under construction... so I ended up routing down to the yacht club, up and across 35E, along Ford Parkway, into Minneapolis, around the lakes, pie by Harriet.  And then unwind via the Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles back to the river and St. Paul.

I did push it a bit, partially because I wanted to verify whether I had the legs and bottom for a hundred mile ride at the moment for our trip to southern Minnesota.  The legs might have made it. The bottom definitely not.  I've got a new saddle and shorts sitting at home to try out today and see if it makes a difference so no one catches me naked and calls me old scabby butt.  OSB....kind of like ODB...maybe it would be cool and give me some bicycling cachet.

Since then, the rain, work, and running [I'm attempting a 5k reboot] have kept me off the bike outdoors, and I suspect now I'd even have a difficult time with some of the alternative routes I was using, like over to Shakopee or down by the yacht club.

Maybe it would make more sense to take the 494 bridge, but damn is that ever excruciatingly boring.  There's nothing I hate quite so much as the MoA and corporate Bloomington as ride scenery.

But today....today looks good and I've had this thought a few times....why don't I just park my car at the lakes and bike from there?  I should have thought of it before.  But driving my bicycle somewhere other than an overnight -- and I'm pretty sure that's an issue at the usual haunts in Minnesota as well, like the Cannon Falls/Red Wing trail, with all the flooding -- via a car before pedaling is antithetical to how my bicycling brain works.  Why would I waste time driving when I could be pedaling from moment zero?

Today might be the day though.  Get past the water and ... most of ... the construction before rolling around. I have a few places picked out where I think I could park without a meter, and the convertible will allow me to mount the rack, so I can double down on fresh air.  Might make the drive before riding a bit more palatable. 

Good luck to everyone else out there trying to find a place to ride. You have my sympathy.