Birthday pedaling
It's been a long time since I've pedaled around town, recreationally, with no specific aim in mind. My rides usually fall into one of three varieties: Training, commuting, or errand running.
So today was a treat. My friend Joe suggested that we go for a recreational ride out St Paul way, before autumn lapses into winter, so I took him up on the offer. Joe and I have never really hung out together (outside of the occasional guys monthly happy hour outing) so I was looking forward to it.
I had no idea how many miles we'd ride, so I opted to ride the bus out to downtown St Paul Sunday morning, then ride the remainder of the way up to Joe's place at Lake Phalen. Joe had given me directions on how to get to his place by car, so I followed the same route on my bike. I didn't think anything of the traffic, but Joe was more than a little surprised that I'd ride "those streets" on my bike. I'm sure the fact that it was 10am on Sunday made traffic a little more reasonable.
Joe's girlfriend joined us, and we rode a big loop - Lake Phalen to downtown, past the cathedral, Summit to the river, south along the river and back up to downtown. There wasn't anything super eventful about the ride, it was just ... fun. And relaxing. I'm embarassed by how I really don't know my way around St Paul very well at all. Stopped at some of the scenic overlooks along the river, and passed by a lot of the same spots as the Dead Brewery Tour passed by earlier this summer - it was nice to be able to get my bearings and recognize some landmarks along the way.
Chowed down on steak and eggs when we got back to his place - when's the last time I had steak? I usually stick to just chicken and fish. An incredibly simple, but satisfying post-ride meal.
The sun came out later in the afternoon, and I rode back to uptown instead of taking the bus - probably took about the same amount of time ... the 21 bus route takes a good hour, and I think it takes me about that long by bike.
Two messages on my answering machine when I got home, wishing me happy birthday - I had totally forgotten it was birthday until then.
So today was a treat. My friend Joe suggested that we go for a recreational ride out St Paul way, before autumn lapses into winter, so I took him up on the offer. Joe and I have never really hung out together (outside of the occasional guys monthly happy hour outing) so I was looking forward to it.
I had no idea how many miles we'd ride, so I opted to ride the bus out to downtown St Paul Sunday morning, then ride the remainder of the way up to Joe's place at Lake Phalen. Joe had given me directions on how to get to his place by car, so I followed the same route on my bike. I didn't think anything of the traffic, but Joe was more than a little surprised that I'd ride "those streets" on my bike. I'm sure the fact that it was 10am on Sunday made traffic a little more reasonable.
Joe's girlfriend joined us, and we rode a big loop - Lake Phalen to downtown, past the cathedral, Summit to the river, south along the river and back up to downtown. There wasn't anything super eventful about the ride, it was just ... fun. And relaxing. I'm embarassed by how I really don't know my way around St Paul very well at all. Stopped at some of the scenic overlooks along the river, and passed by a lot of the same spots as the Dead Brewery Tour passed by earlier this summer - it was nice to be able to get my bearings and recognize some landmarks along the way.
Chowed down on steak and eggs when we got back to his place - when's the last time I had steak? I usually stick to just chicken and fish. An incredibly simple, but satisfying post-ride meal.
The sun came out later in the afternoon, and I rode back to uptown instead of taking the bus - probably took about the same amount of time ... the 21 bus route takes a good hour, and I think it takes me about that long by bike.
Two messages on my answering machine when I got home, wishing me happy birthday - I had totally forgotten it was birthday until then.
posted by equipoise at 8:21 PM
1 Comments:
Crap - sorry I missed your b-day. Happy belated!
Post a Comment
<< Home