Aimless Lady

"Aimless lady, is this your home town? Tell me baby, tell me where you're bound." Grand Funk Railroad

Today, after yoga, we were really indecisive about where to ride, so we tried out the new bike bridge along Warner Road, went up a big hill in Cottage Grove that made me embarrassingly out of breath, and over to Newport and St. Paul Park, where we came across an old entrance gate with two security buildings. It turns out we were on the site of an old (1919-1979) Armour meat processing plant. The only preserved portions of the 22-building site are these two little structures flanking a gate. 

Southern gate

Northern gate

In 1919, this was known as the most modern meat processing plant in the world, extending more than 1/2-mile along the river. It had its own branch of the St. Paul Public Library to promote continued education for its 4,000 employees, who processed 700 hogs, 180 cattle, and 1000 calves and sheep - hourly! There were 21 railroad spur lines serving the site. 

Naturally, I had to climb a bit up the ladder,
wearing my helmet in case it wasn't sturdy.
I think my legs look nice in this profile shot.

We then road to South St. Paul and checked out this view of the Mississippi, above Kaposia, and then had coffee at a nice little shop in that sort of depressed town.

The main river is beyond this narrow bit of river.

I don't get this, but hope it is a funny memorial,
rather than a sad tale of someone who got hit by a train. It reads:
Alan Wigren, 1988-2009
"Run Over By The Grand Funk Railroad"

Yesterday was pretty nice, once the rain ended. I took this at the Fort while waiting to meet Matt to ride to Travis' graduation party in Roseville. Check out my new sunglasses, which are nice to look through. We rode home in the dark, which was one of my most favorite rides of the year - - so quiet and peaceful and not cold with the proper gear.

Fort Snelling with downtown Minneapolis way back there.
Yes, I wore the same clothes two days in a row.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2016

A push from an unlikely corner of the country

My first donation for the 2016 MS rides came in this week - from Oregon to Minnesota by way of Santa Fe. This is an unusual route, skipping St. Louis entirely.

I was at a work meeting in Santa Fe for most of the week and, when on the shuttle to the Albuquerque airport with other meeting attendees, I learned that Patrick from Oregon did an MS fundraising ride this past year. He very kindly was my first donor for the rides next summer, and I'm thinking that his generosity and interest will set the stage for a good fundraising year!

Santa Fe has no bike share program, so I had contacted local shops to see if I could rent a bike for a couple of hours before heading to the airport. They weren't very responsive, and it was raining quite a bit for the desert, so I ended up just walking around and checking things out.

I saw this sculpture on top of this gallery, and was immediately drawn to it. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who looked at my photos from my January trip to England and saw that nearly every photo I took focused on gargoyles and grotesques (gargoyles without waters spouts).

I also saw this monument, honoring the first European settlers in Santa Fe, which seemed weird to me, given Santa Fe's rich history as a population center as early as the year 900. I liked the animals (there was a pig on the other side), and the fact that they were honored.

I originally had drafted a blog post to share these photos late last night, but my Blogger app on my phone can be testy and essentially lost the blog post. I'm sure it was exceptionally witty and clever, despite my exhaustion from the trip and working pretty vigorously (for a desk job) on Friday. I will share a gratuitous shot of Piper, who was not amused by my ignoring her and focusing on my phone instead. I think she gave a haughty nod when my draft post was lost.  

I'm looking forward to getting out on my bike this weekend, although it looks like all the leaves fell off my tree when I was in New Mexico, so there may be some raking in store for me, too.

I set up my links for next year, as well as our team links, and managed to get a meeting on the calendar for next week with a potential sponsor for our team. Stay tuned!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2016

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MaggieTRAM2016

Planes, Bikes, and Automobiles

After a week of pretty consistent bike commuting, my weekend bike output was weak, considering how close I am to hitting the 3,000-mile mark for the year and how I should just ride as much as possible yet this fall to reach that level.

Saturday, I went for a nature walk with Marcy, attended an info session about the proposed compassionate care/death with dignity law, donated blood, and raked  leaves. I thought about biking, but just didn't have it in me.

Today, I did a ride down, over, down, over, up, over, up, over, and down the beautiful, autumnal Mississippi River before we drove to Anoka to meet Stacy and her dad for an airplane ride.

It was great. I got to sit up front on the way to Chetek, Wisconsin. I helped go over the preflight checklist, kept an eye on a dial or two, and then looked out the window at the farms, lakes, and the St. Croix River until we landed. We had dinner, and then switched seats for the ride home, with Dan taking the controls for a good spell.

It was a great weekend, especially before heading out of town for a work trip. I spent some time perfecting my pitch for some sponsorship of our cycling team for 2016, and looked over the just-released details for TRAM 2016. It looks like a great route, and I'm already looking forward to next July!

Great weather and a little Mahoney attitude on the bike

Today, I rode to Raspberry Island where I met Matt for a ride to Stillwater. He was a little delayed due to a flat tire situation, so I ate a little snack, lamented the fact that the City of St. Paul thinks that people only need restrooms and drinking fountains between Memorial and Labor Days, stretched out my hips and back and watched a guy who was sleeping in his car move his car to a different spot, open his trunk, pee on the ground, and go back to sleep.

We had a great ride to Stillwater - bypassing some of the annoying little spots where the trail intersects with streets in neighborhoods, riding through the trees with changing leaves, stopping at Pine Point Park before heading to Chilkoot Cafe and Cyclery for some good food, and opting for the new Brown's Creek Trail instead of the Myrtle Street Hill. I was having so much fun riding my bike. I don't even know the words to describe the freedom of just moving.

Once again, we decided to bypass the annoying spots of the trail, opting to instead ride on some side streets from North St. Paul to Maplewood. We were on a road with one lane of traffic and one parking lane in each direction. Matt and I were riding single file in our lane of traffic, near the white line that separates the driving lane from the parking lane. Some young dude in a pickup truck (confirming my biases, yet again) yelled at us, "Get off the road, F*ckers!" Way to show the North St. Paul spirit, young pickup man.

What did I do? I moved into the whole lane, which we have the right to do under state law. He unfortunately had already turned. (I'm 99% sure he turned into a church parking lot! Sounds like he needs some guidance.) Upon reflection and weighing the options, I think this reaction is something that I've picked up from the Mahoney side of the family rather than the other side.

It makes me think that I should get one of the masks that my nephews have been collecting for their Halloween costumes!

I rode a bit over 75 miles today. I was lagging that last mile and later realized that this is the furthest I've ridden since the end of July, so don't feel so bad about being a bit worn out.

Inspired to ride, from the couch

We had an Oktoberfest party on Saturday that was heavy on the "fest." In addition to cooking 72 bratwurst and other items, many rousing rounds of hammerschlagen,  and finishing off a keg of root beer, we drank more than two 5-gallon kegs of beer and some wine while listening to polka music.

While I was able to get myself out of bed early the next day to go watch 10-mile and marathon runners, I was in rough shape and ended up squandering a beautiful fall day. I should have been biking.

But the day was not a total loss. We watched an advanced copy of a documentary about a huge, entirely unsupported bike race across the U.S. It really was good, and was on my mind all day today. The woman cyclist they focus on (due to the records she holds) is amazingly strong given her years of experience, and deals with sexism among fellow riders and potential sponsors. They also focus on the top male riders, who are great, as well as other racers and recreational riders.

It is a beautiful film. I recommend it.

http://inspiredtoride.vhx.tv/