Out and About

Andy and I have recently joined a club, the Twin Cities Bicycling Club. It's a lot of fun. So far we've only gone on 3 rides, but it's been a great time. The first ride was a bit slow, but the second ride we went on last weekend was perfect! We went on the same ride again today and I learned a good lesson about the speed at which I ride. The thing about this ride, is that the group is large and it tends to split up into a few groups going at different speeds. Last week we stayed in the back bunch at went between 14 - 16 mph. This week, Andy wanted to keep up with the first group going the fastest. I can't ride as fast as Andy, but I still tried. I was sort of able to keep up with the group as they did their warm up of 20 mph, after that I was toast.

After awhile Andy was dropped from the fast group and we maintained with the middle group. I was pretty tired though. Andy determined that I do pretty good until 17 mph, then I fall back. It'd be neat if I could keep up with the fast people at some point. Right now, I know what pace I can ride at and I will try and keep up to that. Usually when I ride I'm pretty poky, so I know I can pick up the tempo if I want.

Also today Andy and I visited the best bike shop in the Twin Cities, Freewheel Bike. I've thought Freewheel was a great shop and the place I felt most comfortable, but today really solidified that feeling. A couple years ago Pete (from Ireland) got me a gift card from Freewheel, which was really store credit. I didn't use all of it up, but kept my receipt which showed the $9.52 I had left over. Today I went to Freewheel to make some purchases and I remembered I had that receipt, but I wasn't sure if it'd still be valid. So after we shop around a bit and make our picks someone from Freewheel approaches us to check out and I show her my faded receipt from 2007. She recognized it was her handwriting that marked how much I had left and honored my $9.52! It was great, I couldn't believe either!

Freewheel is great for many reasons. They have awesome customer service, they're friendly. They know and love bikes without being pretentious about it. I'm the type of person that doesn't have a type of person, so I feel weird when I don't fit in somewhere, like many bike shops in the Twin Cities. But at Freewheel, I don't feel uncomfortable, I feel welcomed. Not to say other bike shops are bad, but that Freewheel is awesome.

Anyway, off of the bike topic. The garden is doing great. We've harvested all of our bush beans and our crazy pole beans have finally flowered. I made a delicious dinner last night with tomatoes, summer squash, carrots and thyme from our garden. It felt good to eat all that and know we grew it ourselves. Plus it was tasty.

Spring!

Spring has finally arrived in Minneapolis and it's quite an amazing sight.  It came slowly, with days above freezing followed by days below zero.  But now it's quite warm, most of the snow piles are fading into the ground, and there's hope in the air that maybe this weather is here to stay.

Spring isn't my favorite season, but here's what I do love.  I love the fact that in fall 40 degrees feels like freezing and we all bundle up in coats and scarves.  Then in spring, when it is 40 degrees we're outside in short sleeves and feeling hot.  I also love seeing people again.  I've seen more people out and about in my neighborhood in the past week than I did all winter.  When warm weather comes people start emerging from their homes and exploring outside.  That house down the street isn't actually a foreclosure, it's just a family of homebodies in the winter.

I enjoy seeing grass again. I can't wait until I can see buds on the trees and the first tiny leaves of the year.  We've been out and about on our bikes and we didn't want to die from the cold.  Warm weather is truly amazing.  It amazing me that I walked home Friday in the rain. That's the form snow takes when it's too warm to freeze.  In the winter I forget what it's like to live in the summer.  I can picture going to the beach and people wearing swimsuits and wonder why the heck people would want to wear so little outside.  Now that spring has started, I can image what heat from the sun feels like, and it's amazing!  It'll be swimsuit weather before long!

Andy and I are already planning our first camping trip of the season.  We're planning on going bike camping, possibly in May.  I look forward to planting things, my lavender has 2 sprouts already!  I'm really excited about eating fresh foods, tomatoes, corn, and trying new vegetables.  I plan on spending as much time as I can this summer outside, because this time is limited and everyone should take advantage of it while they can.

History in the Making!

No this isn't about Barak Obama's nomination. It's about the visit Andy and I made to Historic Fort Snelling! It's just down the road from us now and we rode our bikes for a morning stroll through history. I hadn't been to Fort Snelling since I was a smile child. All I remember was an abundance of rabbit pelts and rock candy.

Andy and the crops at the entrance to the Fort.

An old soldier and I looking official at the front gates.

Little did I know how fun it was! Andy and I got to be "recruits" and learn how to march in the old army. Us and about 10 small children. It felt good to march better than some silly kids having a birthday party. We saw a demonstration of the old muskets firing (after we got out of the line of fire). We saw a guy make a nail, and a doctor show us how messed up old timey health care was.

The blacksmith who made a nail for us. Also, he almost set a small child on fire while he used the bellows.

The best thing to do at Fort Snelling if you were sick, was to not go to the doctor.

Inspecting the muskets before firing them off.

Taking a break to get cleaned up.

Fort Snelling was really fun and interesting. It's amazing to learn how people lived back then and realize how impossible it seems now. Life is a lot easier now, and I can better appreciate the work it took us to get us here. I think it'll be beneficial to learn how all that worked, just in case computers ever go away, we'll be prepared.

The area around the Fort has been converted back to the natural prairie. I thought these flowers were quite pretty.

The soldiers at Fort Snelling had to sleep two to a bed!

Andy checking out an old fashioned rain barrel. Without a filter on the top, these barrels looked pretty manky.