Fighting MS one pedalstroke at a time: Scenic Cinco ((x 6) + 2)

Today nine of us rode about 32 miles from around Harriet Island, through Lilydale, across the Minnesota River to Fort Snelling, to Minnehaha Falls, across the Mississippi, back to downtown St. Paul, to Battle Creek Regional Park, through the tiny town of Newport, across the Mississippi, and through South St. Paul to the District del Sol neighborhood where most of us had lunch and margaritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. (Hey - that research I did earlier this week for the blog post about the Battle of Puebla paid off - - I got 10 cents off my coffee at Caribou this morning for knowing the answer to the trivia question (France). Dang, this blog is educational!)

It was pretty chilly - we started at 8:00 a.m., but we got warmed up. Collectively we only had one flat tire, which took three of us to change - - kind of like a bad joke. I forgot to take pictures along the way, but frankly, it was grey and there aren't leaves on the trees yet, so it wasn't a particularly pretty ride. Then why did I title this post as "scenic"? Because there was a lot to look at. In addition to the river scenery and that great blue heron, there was weird industrial stuff to check out (trains, barges, recycling plant), weird houses, etc. Oh, and we rode through a fundraising walk for the MS Society by Minnehaha Falls. And, yes, some people were wearing shorts. It was 42 degrees.

So, here are the photos I took at the end of the ride, when we were at Boca Chica.