We have long loved bicycling on the rails-to-trails projects in Montana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This one is a great ride out on the causeway into Lake Champlain just north of Burlington, Vermont. It is a great feeling to ride with the water on both sides of the path -- a classic trail.
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Heading east for a visit to Vermont and the fall foliage. Along the way we stopped in the Cleveland area to visit both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Really enjoyed both of them. I think you appreciate these buildings more with age. The contents bring back so many memories.
Pelican migration is in full force on the Mississippi River right now. There are hundreds of them all along the shore near Lake City.
I was working on an article about the public tours they give at U.S. Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings, so we got the chance to go along on a tour. What an impressive facility. The tour includes a visit to the suites, the locker room, and the field. Very glad we got the chance to see this.
The warm and calm days have been difficult for lawns, flowers, crops, and humans, but they have created excellent conditions for boating. We've been out many times on Lake Pepin and we are really enjoying it whether it is in the morning, afternoon, or evening. Here is a photo from a boat ride last Sunday evening.
We had heard that outdoor equipment was in high demand since the pandemic, and we learned a lesson about that. The rear rim on one of our bicycles went bad -- spokes breaking -- so we went in to get it replaced. Should have been a few minutes, but parts are so scarce now that it was over two months just to get a new rim sent to the bike shop. Nice to know more people are getting outside and enjoying activities, but I hope the supply chains get caught up soon.
Each June, Lake City sponsors a Water Ski Days event celebrating Lake Pepin and Lake City's role as The Birthplace of Water Skiing. I shot a series of photos of several events for RiverTown Multimedia. See some of the photos here.
I finally got the chance to canoe the Cannon River from Welch to Red Wing. It was a gorgeous day. Water was moderately high and moving well. We had a relaxing two hours on the river on a sunny, happy day. One view of the trip is below.
Having long been a fan of Sigurd Olson's writing, I was pleased this spring when excerpts from his journals were published as "A Private Wilderness: The Journals of Sigurd F. Olson." Olson's outdoor experiences are recorded in his books, and now readers can see how he developed his thinking about the books he wrote. Reading a writer's journals is different than reading the books. The author in the journals is developing, trying out words, phrases, and ideas, and it is a treat to look inside that creative mind while all this preparation and dreaming is going on. I wrote a review of "A Private Wilderness" for RiverTown Multimedia. Click here to read it.
One of my final projects with RiverTown Multimedia was with area bridges. One of the really unique bridges was the Spiral Bridge in Hastings. In order to span the Mississippi River, the bridge had to be high enough to let big boats pass underneath, but that meant the end of the bridge would extend well past the downtown area, effectively carrying customers beyond most businesses. The solution: use a spiral to drop drivers down sooner and onto busy Second Street. Here is a photo of a replica of the bridge. This replica is about ten miles south of Hastings, Minnesota.
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Photo by John Jancik
AuthorDr. Steve Gardiner is the author of nine books and over 1,000 articles. |