A Minnesotan's View of the US

Surprisingly on point. Nobody but a Minnesotan could have created this. 

Richard and I took the bikes down to Cannon Falls for a little trail ride, partly because in an excess of enthusiasm we had bought season passes for that trail when we went in May. This time it was just a day trip: Cannon Falls to Welch, then back (about 20 miles total). It turned out to be a real scorcher of a day. The weather sites all insisted that it never got above the mid-80's, but the thermometer in my new bike computer read in the 90's even in the shade, and went as high as 103 when parked in the sun. Fortunately, that end of the trail is well-shaded, so we had an enjoyable ride. But by the time we reached the Welch Station rest stop we were really hot. Richard was tired and needed a rest, so I pedaled the 1/2 mile to the village of Welch to see if the Trout Scream Cafe was open. (It was, although nearly out of ice cream). Welch is a totally charming little flyspeck of a town, comprising a picturesque bridge over the Cannon River, the afore-mentioned cafe, a tiny post office, and an old feed mill converted to... well look at that! Canoe and tube rental!

Suddenly, floating down a river on an inflated truck tube sounded like a great idea. I considered abandoning the bikes and just tubing back to Cannon Falls, but the river was flowing the wrong direction. Then I noticed that in addition to the usual 5-mile, 4-hour trip they had a short one-mile offering advertised as taking "about 45 minutes." That sounded like just the thing. I pedaled back to the way station and retrieved my husband, we peeled off extra clothing, wallets, cell phones, and shoes and hopped on the shuttle bus. The shuttle was driven by a friendly older guy who turns out to be the father of the owner. We were the only ones on the bus. He dropped us off at an uninhabited clearing on the riverbank with a path that had clearly been created by feral children some time in the distant past. All remarkably quiet and informal compared to the zoo on the Apple River. We gingerly picked our barefoot way down to the surprisingly fast-flowing river, managed to get into our tubes without losing them, and had a perfectly lovely little trip back to the launch site. What a wonderful refresher on a hot day!

This seems like the germ of a great idea for the kind of triathlon that more people could get behind. Bike half of an easy off-road trail, float down the river in a tube for the water part, and for the land event ... maybe walk across the road to the ice-cream shop?

Not quite as exciting as jumping out of a plane, but I did get to show off "my" videos of the event.

This was kind of a last-minute hosting job. The Einblatt was going to print and nobody had volunteered for the Sept 1 meeting, so I said, "Why not?" As usual, Richard did all the work: shopping, cleaning up, making a big pot of beef stew. It was a small but pleasant meeting. I think a lot of people are out of town, including the Membership Secretary. In any case, she wasn't here, so we started our own sign-in sheet. 20 people signed in - not too bad for a lazy summer afternoon.

That brings me up to today, which seems to have been spent largely chronicling what I did in the past week, with a small pause to sell a bike. My plan for the day had been to ride up to the West Bank and check out the new gawking platform on the 10th Avenue Bridge. There's still nearly three more hours of daylight, so there's still time.

Tuesday I took the day off and went to the Fair. I only do this every 3-5 years because I usually don't enjoy it much. This year I had a really good time, despite the highly dubious weather. Our strategy for avoiding parking congestion was to put our bikes in the van, park free on the far side of Como Park, and bike over to the fairground. We easily found parking less than 2 miles from the Snelling/Como corner, where we left our bikes in a guarded bike corral. And it didn't actually start to rain until we had arrived at the fair, parked our bikes, and dug our rain gear out of the daypack. So that part worked perfectly. It didn't rain for very long, either; just long enough for us to get full use out of the umbrellas we'd brought. So far so good...
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It's superb. "Princess Bride" meets "Nine Princes in Amber."

For extra points see it at St. Anthony Main. Such a pretty place, St. Anthony Main. I don't know why it never quite made it economically, and how that poor little underutilized theater keeps scraping along. I'd hate to see it close down, though.

As we have every year since Convergence #2, Richard and I will be hosting a Minnstf/Minicon room party. Matt and Kelly will be co-hosting, and I hope lots of others will be helping out. Every Convergence party is supposed to have some special schtick, and ours is simple: a party where you can sit down on something soft but don't have to watch TV. Party runs both Friday and Saturday, starting about 6pm. We'll start setting up around 4pm today.

We're in a second-floor cabana room, room 206. I think this is about where we were last year, maybe even the exact same room. Or not. The only thing in my head shakier than my navigation skills is my memory for numbers. You all can find us though - you're resourceful!

See you soon!