Photos Containing Two Bridges

It rained very hard this evening. It was a million dollar rain for local farmers and a life saver for a lot of city owned trees that line the streets of the Capitol City. I can never figure out why the city spends beaucoup euros to plant thriving trees on the boulevards, but won't spend a farthing to water them so they will survive through a drought. The mayor should be contacted. The urban forest needs a champion.

No bike ride for me today, either. I had tennis scheduled for 5 pm, and had started on my way to the site, when the skies opened and drowned the courts. We moved the game inside to Wooddale, thereby avoiding the cancellation. It rained very hard while we were playing. I could hear it on the roof, but it had no effect on the outcome. Our time was curtailed by other tennis court renters, but we managed two sets in a little over an hour.

The photo of the day is the latest of my series of photos that contain at least two bridges. I may use "two bridges" as my new theme for slow blog days - usually rainy days. This one is of one of the least used entrances to Fort Snelling State Park, and is in the city of Mendota. The bridges are both railroad bridges, and old one and a newer one. One can discern the Minnesota River through the bridge entrances with the use of a little imagination.



Herb had a fried tofu sandwich for dinner and one of TT's noted kiwi, tomato, and veggie salads with feta cheese. It's time to get creative with salads again, because it's nearly time for the trip to blueberry country.

A Ride on the Mendota Side

I had to wait for a guy to come and replace the windshield on my auto this morning, so my ride was in the heat of the day. The windshield was cracked by a stone kicked up on the freeway about a week ago on a day when my karma was on the wane. Today it was humid and I was not feeling too energetic, so I decided on a fairly short jaunt over the 35E bridge to Lilydale and down along the old railroad tracks to Mendota. I also wanted to see if the people who bought my old tennis club in Lilydale for condo development were still in business. I have been wishing them ill since they broke up the tennis community that had been there for many years. And there have been rumors. I rode around their parking lot and near their sales office and no one was there. It was about noon, so the rumor that they had fallen victim to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent crash in speculative condo buying, is perhaps true. They should have had sale creatures on duty. I breathed a silent cheer and rode on. The resistance from the club's former members may have hastened their demise.

Mendota is one of the oldest towns in the state and the Faribault House one of the few surviving structures from the early days. Mendota sits on the west side of the Mendota Bridge. Jean Baptiste Faribault built this stone house there, across the Minnesota River from Pike Island, in 1839. He was a fur trader and early settler of Minnesota.


The ride was about 14 miles and it was enough for a high dew point day. It included the gut busting Benhill hill, too.

The Tour d' France was exciting and a good day for a Columbian guy. I'm getting ready to make a prediction, possibly sometime before Paris.

The two recent earthquakes in northern Japan did not affect the English teacher employed near there, and she had enough audacity to accuse me of worry wart-hood for inquiring about her welfare via electronic mail. True enough.