April showers bring May flowers?

I did go out for a short ride later this afternoon.

I hope tomorrow is as nice as some are saying it will be.

Of the two days, I thought the rain yesterday was better than the cold wind of today.

I am done trying to schedule a ride of the Grand Rounds for now. This one is cursed and we need to move on to something else. Maybe St. Paul, maybe Coon Rapids dam. I want to wait until the weather is better though - enough of this shoulder season already...

Week night ride!

Wednesday, May 18. Meet at the IDS Center Nice Ride Station located at Nicolet Mall and 8th Street. Meeting time is 6:00 PM; we will roll out by 6:15 or so. If you don't have your own 3-speed, pick up a Nice Ride at the station or ride what you came on, we really don't care, actually.

We'll meander around downtown, maybe check out the Twin's stadium, the Convention Center and Loring Park, and then head across the river for liibations and sustenance at Aster Cafe, and the head on home. Or not.

Noobs welcome, of course!

Edit - a little more info here.

Jane and I and possibly some friends will be joining you.

Excellent. I was prepared to ride solo, but this will be so much more fun!

Republic on the west bank/7 corners (owned by Aster Cafe) will be in its 2nd day open ever.

Good idea, thanks. We can probably roll by there and check it out.

are you saying they are open today?

And so this is not a sidetrack, I'd like to join one of these rides one day. Can't tomorrow, but sometime this summer

yep...my goal is to also join you on one of these rides this summer. But, I have other commitments on Wednesday so I won't be able to do it this time.

Nice thread-jack save there, Reptile!

zzMike et al, there will be other rides, rest assured. The Wednesday night affair is an experiment to see if that works for people and I want to tie into Nice Ride at some point this season. This will be a shorter, easier ride since it's starting late and it's downtown (e.g. flat). Plus, this is super easy for me - I'll just commute on my old bike tomorrow and leave from the office for the ride.

I am thinking the next weekend adventure might be on a Sunday since I've had such awful luck with the Saturdays of 2011 so far. GNA threatened to plan a St. Paul ride, which I would love. Otherwise I think I am hearing Coon Rapids dam calling some coming weekend.

Ditto. Next downtown ride I will try to be there with a Nice Ride bike. Hope tomorrow goes well.

The water was thundering over the spillway on Sunday.
You probably would not have heard it calling your name.

Yeah - the dam would be a good destination. Let's ponder on that some more.

We had a delightful ride this evening. We rolled through Loring Park and the Sculpture Garden, the picked up the Kenilworth Trail to the Twin's Stadium and threaded our way through the North Loop before turning north to Boom Island and then rolling south to Nicolet Island and food/drinks at Aster Cafe. After dinner, we were treated to a lovely sunset as we crossed the Stone Arch to cap the evening.

Thanks fafnir, Bikesmith et al for coming out. I had a great time. As I said more than once, this day just keeps getting better and better.


Another of my Sunsets by Snak Shak, on Flickr

I think I can join if it is Sunday and that may be the better weather day the way it sounds now.
With all of the crabs and other flowering trees in full force right now it would be nice to pick a route to include some areas of high color.

It sounds like you had a great ride last night. I'm too far out of the metro to bike in so the downtown start is a little problematic with car parking etc. Maybe I can catch a week night if there is a good place to dump a car at the start.

Thanks for keeping these going - probably my only shot on getting some time on the 3S.

We talked about that very thing last night. The downtown start was easy for me because I work downtown, but parking is an issue. We'll do some more weeknight rides since there's interest, but probably leave from Minnehaha or a restaurant or seomthing with free parking.