Cinderblock Stonehenge
After being up at Lutsen snowboarding for the past few days, I was hardly prepared for the heat wave experienced in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday. Temps hit at least 52 degrees on Saturday, so needless to say a long ride was the order of the day. After putting in a quick call to Brian, a plan formed, and sometime around 1pm, we were off and riding. Plan was to head west out through Wayzata, and keep heading west in search of a "cinderblock stonehenge" said to exist somewhere out past Watertown.
Lotsa roadies out today - great to see! And each and every one of them seemed just tickled to be out in the warm weather. Even ran into Darkling Child near the western terminus of Cedar Lake Road. There was a slight breeze out of the west, just enough to be noticeable. As seems to be my habit (especially early in the season) I came out of the blocks a little too fast today. By the time we were through Wayzata, I was realizing my error, wondering how the ride home would be, and looking forward to that slight breeze turning into a tailwind on the return leg.
Made it out to Watertown, and Brian knew that our target lie a handful of miles beyond Watertown, but didn't know exactly how many. In the end, it was a little farther than we thought, but we found it no problem:
Now the question is: Does anyone know what this is and why in God's name was it built? Regardless the answer, it makes for good photos. Are they keeping Santa up there as punishment???
BTW, I don't recommend walking through fields of mud in Look road cleats - they cake up with gunk pretty quickly, and it makes for a real mess. Keep the Looks on the road, if you can!
As luck would have it, the breeze shifted, so we got to ride against it on the return trip as well. Sucked bigtime. I hadn't been on the Powercranks since sometime in December, and my hip flexors were screaming. This wasn't helped by the fact that I did spin class Friday night, so my legs were already a bit shot. Listen to me - whine, whine, whine. I'll stop now. Made it home around 6pm or so. Round trip, 76 miles. Not too shabby for a winter ride!
Oh yes, I also offer this other example of cinderblock artistry as a companion piece to the photos above. It's tough to tell the scale from this photo, but if memory serves, this "cinderblock nude" is about 2 stories tall. She lives in the Gold Well Open Air Museum in Rhyolite, Nevada (which, by the way, is pretty much a ghost town.) Myself and several friends passed through the museum on the way to Las Vegas, at the end of the "Adventure '04" guys backpacking trip in the California Sierra Nevada range last July.
For the curious among you, additional photos from the Gold Well Open Air Museum can be found here.
Lotsa roadies out today - great to see! And each and every one of them seemed just tickled to be out in the warm weather. Even ran into Darkling Child near the western terminus of Cedar Lake Road. There was a slight breeze out of the west, just enough to be noticeable. As seems to be my habit (especially early in the season) I came out of the blocks a little too fast today. By the time we were through Wayzata, I was realizing my error, wondering how the ride home would be, and looking forward to that slight breeze turning into a tailwind on the return leg.
Made it out to Watertown, and Brian knew that our target lie a handful of miles beyond Watertown, but didn't know exactly how many. In the end, it was a little farther than we thought, but we found it no problem:
Now the question is: Does anyone know what this is and why in God's name was it built? Regardless the answer, it makes for good photos. Are they keeping Santa up there as punishment???
BTW, I don't recommend walking through fields of mud in Look road cleats - they cake up with gunk pretty quickly, and it makes for a real mess. Keep the Looks on the road, if you can!
As luck would have it, the breeze shifted, so we got to ride against it on the return trip as well. Sucked bigtime. I hadn't been on the Powercranks since sometime in December, and my hip flexors were screaming. This wasn't helped by the fact that I did spin class Friday night, so my legs were already a bit shot. Listen to me - whine, whine, whine. I'll stop now. Made it home around 6pm or so. Round trip, 76 miles. Not too shabby for a winter ride!
Oh yes, I also offer this other example of cinderblock artistry as a companion piece to the photos above. It's tough to tell the scale from this photo, but if memory serves, this "cinderblock nude" is about 2 stories tall. She lives in the Gold Well Open Air Museum in Rhyolite, Nevada (which, by the way, is pretty much a ghost town.) Myself and several friends passed through the museum on the way to Las Vegas, at the end of the "Adventure '04" guys backpacking trip in the California Sierra Nevada range last July.
For the curious among you, additional photos from the Gold Well Open Air Museum can be found here.
posted by equipoise at 8:32 PM
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