Ant-

I'm behind 4 posts. I still have 2 dives and one of them was a very cool shipwreck. I dive again tomorrow and I've been on 2 long rides, 40 miles and 60 miles, in the last week. Fortunately my work is slowing down and the holiday will give me the time to write the stories.

Christmas Day
I run out of the house for a long slow ride a little after noon. I peddle up the river to Saint Paul, cross over and up the river some more. Head down and grinding. Brain in the o-f-f position. I just need the training time so I fill the empty space in my mind with about 6 words of a song I heard that morning. You know, like when you get a song stuck in your head. It sucks most of the time but if you're going to do nothing but twirl your feet for hours it's best to give your brain some mental bubblegum.

That iron tower is the counterweight for the railroad lift bridge next to the Robert Street Bridge. It's old and very cool looking. I've seen trains crossing it this summer but what I didn't realize is this.

So if you see something about a train going into the river it's probably this broken footing.

I didn't bring a bike light and with sundown before 5 that day I only had about 4 hours maybe less. I'm basically following a known trail that I've been on many times because I don't have the time or the desire to break my bike on some silly adventure. That means, follow the river up one side and back the other with some zig-zaging around at Pike Island. That's where the Miss and the Minn rivers meet so you need to jump a few bridges or you get turned around.

River crossings are many but not all of them have pedestrian lanes so I have to choose the Ford Bridge or go all the way up to the UofM and the sun is getting low so I cross over and head south.

Did you know we have Civil War Monument? We do and we have a Spanish-American War Memorial Tree! I found this a few weeks ago when I missed my turn. Not bad for getting lost but I needed a remedial history lesson when I got home.

Back on the bike and I turn the brain on so I can power up the legs to get me home before nightfall. I cut through Fort Snelling, Across hwy 55, and jump on the Lillydale trail back to Saint Paul. 30 minutes later and I'm trying to hold my bike lane on Concord Street in the dim lite of sundown. Once I get on the the trail I throttle it back and enjoy the last of a 40 mile ride in the cool x-mas air.


Back into Christmas at home I warm up with a little holiday cheer with my wife and brother-in-law and on that less then sober note, go read about how we got into a war with Spain and then the Philippines.