Beer > Chafing

I'd always seen people on this path beside highway 62 as it crosses the Minnesota River...Loud!

I remember a few years ago, I won a trip to New York City to see John Legend perform a short set in front of maybe 200 people. It was sponsored by Stella Artois and was some sort of stunt involving exploratory data sent back from space that incorporated the "sounds" of stars. Great performance, by the way! It was a whirlwind trip that lasted about 42 hours total. I'd never been, so we packed as much into our time as possible. In addition to the concert, we ended up as extras on Good Morning America in Times Square, got off the subway because of delays (a very New York thing to do, I'm told), had lunch in Greenwich Village, toured the Guggenheim Museum, walked through Central Park.

Our hotel room was paid for and it was a few blocks from Times Square. I remember riding the elevator down on the way to the event. Autumn and I rode down with two ladies and what still stands out in my mind is the bright pink high heels one of them was wearing. At the time I noticed them and Autumn and I may have even mentioned them in passing. At the pre-party we ended up connecting with the other contest winner and her friend, who ended up being the owner of those pink shoes! 

We ended up spending the rest of the event with our new friends (who, for the record, had Twitter-stalked me to see who the other winner was). At the end of the event we ended up keeping the fun going and end up meeting new friends of friends and shutting down a night club in Brooklyn at 2am. I think our airport shuttle came at 3:45am, but we were able to squeeze in 20 minutes of sleep before coming back to the real world. Whew!

Why the ramble? Well, the kids went to camp this weekend and, just like that trip to NYC, we had about 40-something hours kid-free. How to make the most of our adult time? So many fun things to do! With some socializing on Friday, we decided that Saturday would be best spent just the two of us. Autumn suggested a longer bike ride, which I was all for! 

One of the things we talk about since moving to Minnesota is making sure we do things here that are unique to the area, so that we make the most of our time here. We don't know what the future holds, and while we have no plans to move, we didn't plan on leaving Oregon either. You can see how that ended up.

First of many stops, first sweaty couple picture! One of us is sweatier than the other...

We opted to ride the Mississippi River Trail from the south end of Woodbury in to Minneapolis and then back. It was an ambitious goal to be sure. Autumn is only a couple of weeks past her 150 mile MS150 ride from Duluth to the Cities, so her fitness would be fine, but I've only been riding once or twice a week. Hmm, she'd take it easy on me, right?

She wouldn't leave me collapsed on the side of the road...would she?

But the chance to spend uninterrupted time with my wife is rare, so we ride! Ultimately, the ride itself that eventful. What eventful was all the fun things to see along the way. We stopped on bridges, overlooks, the Guthrie Theatre. we wandered through the University of Minnesota campus and ended up at Surly Brewing for a beer and pizza.

World's Longest Escalator?

At that point (about 30 miles in) I'll admit that a second beer, more pizza and a wheelchair accessible Uber were fully in play. But it didn't seem quite right to NOT finish the loop because of a little discomfort. So we saddled up and struck out for the second half of the ride.

Note: Beer > Chafing

There was a moment when I got a little grumpy, and that was when we headed south just past Saint Paul. The wind was blowing into our faces and I was chaffed, sweaty and frankly a bit of a whiny baby. My wife is a saint. Then we opted to hop a concrete barrier that very clearly indicated a closed trail. How bad could it be?

The trail really was damaged!

But we survived. Barely. Walking up and down stairs the next day was less fun than I remember. But what an adventure! We ended up riding about 52 miles, give or take. That's a pretty good day's work if you ask me! It was a nice reminder that we still know how to make the most of a day! Next time I think I might train a little first though...