My Portlandia concession

Not a confession, those of you hoping for dirt, but a concession. It pains me to say it, but I think it was right that Portland was picked over Mpls this year as the #1 biking city.

Public transportation is good (light rail and streetcars resulting in the need for the warning sign shown below), cars stop for pedestrians, and there are good bike lane markings and routes. And tons of people are on their bikes. It was hard to compare what I saw this week to recent Mpls ridership due to the fact that Mpls is now cold and Portland's weather was unusually fantastic.

And maybe my perception was slightly skewed by the fact that I saw mountains and ate delicious food.

(On the other hand, Mpls streets are cleaner, Mpls has more garbage cans, and we ride in crappier weather and are heartier.)

I returned home to find my new MS jersey as a prize for my fundraising efforts (see below), and grabbed Piper for a walk along the area where I often ride my bike. I took her photo at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. It was a good way to decompress after she and I rescued a lost dog that was in rough shape and which the owner seems unable to adequately care for. (I know that sentence structure is incorrect; I can't figure out the way to fix it.)

Remember the weird remarks I got about my route captain shirt's "follow me!" decal? The letters peeled off, so I stuck our team logo on it. I love it more.

"Happenstance has changed my plans"

"I have no idea how this happens
All of my maps have been overthrown
Happenstance has changed my plans"

Well, actually, I know how it happens. It starts raining.

Matt and I rode the Gateway Trail to Stillwater this afternoon and planned to tack on a bit of a side detour to explore the more northern end of the Bruce Vento Trail. It was raining pretty steadily and was in the 50s, so we scrapped that plan and just rode back. It still was 41 miles and my feet got quite numb. My legs are kind of tired. I think they don't like moving in the cold wetness.

I can't complain about soreness, though, considering that today was the Twin Cities Marathon, the Twin Cities 10-mile run, and the Head of the Mississippi rowing regatta. All those people worked hard, some of them in the rain.

After watching Jen and Jennifer run in the 10-mile race, I went to cheer for Kyle and Mehmet at the 14-mile mark of the marathon. I took the photo below when walking on the Lake St. bridge over the river. Pretty spectacular!

I received TRAM registration info for next July. We have not yet decided whether Dan will ride it, whether I will, or both of us. I think it is assumed that at least one of us will do the 250- to 300-mile bike ride. In the meantime I'm scheming about a good activity to help me with my fundraising for next year.