Building Bridges

I finally gave up today trying to find a parking space close to the door of the gym, and instead decided to go for a bike ride.

There are two reasons I have never faded away whilst on a manic fitness regime:

1. I get hungry afterwards, and although I will cheerfully nod a brief hello to the fruit-bowl, that's only because it's on the way to the crisps. The training mantra for the Olympic Team, alas, has never been "Train hard! Eat lard!"; and
2. I get knackered afterwards, so instead of expending every-day chore energy in addition to the exercise, I normally nip upstairs for a Nanna-Nap instead.

Powered up by a bacon-buttie, I went off on the bike trail down to the Midtown Corridor.

Minnesota has a bit of history when it comes to bridges and their rebuilding. There's very little about this particular set on the internet, and bridgjo got very James-James on me because of its proximity to Town. It was "beautified" recently in response to the fact that it was a disused train-track bordered by disused oil refineries and mills, which encouraged broken windows, gun-crime and general naughtiness.

There's a pretty good chance I won't go there again, and instead turn right to Lake Minnetonka instead, which after all has a cafe.

However, it's quite intriguing. In the early 1900s they decided there were far too many rail-road-crossing-related deaths (too many hyphens?), so they put up 37 bridges, each about 200 yrds apart, one for each tiny street which crosses it. With amazing foresight they removed the track whilst building work was in progress, and, for wont of supporting HTML to say otherwise, it seems they then failed to put it back. Problem solved.

All the bridges were poured in place, and there was a bit of a problem with quick-sand. And unfortunately that seems to be all there is to know.....one of those things you should see when you're here, a bit like the lawn-mower museum in the UK.

In spite of the two bike pants, and the Gel-tech seat, I am suffering from Biker's Bum though tonight, alas.

I have spoken to the Lawn Nazi across the way (OK - Jerry) (oh, just realized). I asked his advice about lawn-upkeep - he seems very nice, and does not seem too upset that the council did actually dig up his lawn last week (I hid).

And Brian came round to sort out the garden for summer - I now have about 50 bin-bags to dispose of. Luckily for $70 a year, Randy's will come and pick them up for me.