Trip 19 -- Fall!

Firstly, I'll spare you all any excuses for not updating in a long time...school, work, blah blah blah. I know you don't want to hear it. Updates will be more scarce as I said, but I'm going to really try to step it up before we start seeing that four-letter-word start falling from the sky. I really wanted to get out there today because the forecast for the weekend doesn't look too forgiving:

Today was a really nice day outside, except a little too windy and chilly maybe. Fall is great, the turning leaves and lack of bugs...but then you just know winter is coming real soon. Too soon.



I hate mushrooms, they're disgusting and I really don't understand how people can eat them. I'd rather put cardboard on my pizza than any kind of fungus.



No, this isn't my helmet and no I didn't steal it...but some poor girl named Amelia is probably missing her Bratz helmet. Hopefully it finds its way back to her. It looks like it has some battle scars too.




Thanks for reading, and try to not get too depressed during the upcoming monsoon. I've been meaning to get pictures of my bike up here, so I'll do that soon. I'll also need some suggestions for a new mountain bike for next year if anyone wants to throw me some.

Temp: 55

Trip 16 -- Still Hot, Still Windy

The worst part about late summer/ early fall has to be the resurgence of insects everywhere. I don't know why the yellowjacket population quadruples this time of year, but it does...and I hate it. This probably stems from my irrational fear of spiders, which can be blamed on being exposed to the move Arachnophobia as a child. The violent video games had no effect on me, but of course the movie about spiders still gives me nightmares. (Ok, not really nightmares, but I still hate spiders).

I don't know how bugs manage to find my face every time I go on a ride, but it's getting ridiculous. I swear I'm gonna start wearing a paintball mask from now on.

Anyways...

Another cloudless sky.


Don't worry, I resisted the urge to jump into this "pond." Is that toxic waste?



This building is right off the Greenway access point on Belmont...so you know the drill people, someone tell me what it is please.


Jeez, I should have you guys do my homework too.


Start: 12:45
End: 2:05
Temp: 78
Trip: 10.06 mi



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Trip 15 -- Shadyridge Estates

Did you miss me? Finally got the computer working again and I'm ready to get back into the routine. This "lost" trip is from last Friday, and I don't remember much of the details like temperature and time, and most of it isn't even on Google Maps so I'm not going to bother with that. I do remember that it was very windy...hmm, not much had changed.

The first thing I noticed was this entire yard painted to be what I'm assuming is a football field. I thought that was pretty awesome, as I'm also a backyard sports enthusiast. Wiffle ball, football, frisbee, love 'em all.



Another lovely day in the Grand Cities.



I did my usual trek down the Greenway to the end of the trail and I never really think about this long road that seemingly goes to nowhere...but what would be the point of this blog if I didn't explore it?


WINDY!

Much to my surprise, I stumbled upon another mysterious part of Grand Forks.

Shadyridge Estates...shady indeed.

Is that an island? Where the hell am I?


I found this sketchy area where they're growing a lot of trees...probably some kind of black market tree distribution. I'm thinking mafia.



Oh don't worry, they do pine trees too. Does every tree in Grand Forks come from this place?

Looks like this guy's trying to compete with the others. By the way, all the houses back here look like that, they're all huge and very nice..




Thanks for bearing with me people.

Trip 12 -- When Falcons Attack

I didn't expect much to be going on tonight when I took a short ride to the Greenway, and not much really did happen until I got about half mile south on the path. I heard a unique bird call while riding, and it sounded close so I wanted to investigate. It took off and started flying around rather aggressively, like it was protecting its nest. I got a good look at it and it looked too small to be a hawk, but it definitely was something similar to a hawk, like a falcon. Anyways, while I was standing there trying to take pictures, someone rode past and another bird showed up and dove at him, I thought the guy was gonna lose control, but he didn't. I breathed a pretty big sigh of relief...but then i realized I was the only person there, so I didn't want to be the next target...I took a couple pictures real quick and got the hell out of there.

So I leave it up to you bird experts, is it a falcon?






This basketball hoop's seen better days. Pretty lame of someone to break it like that...I also saw what looked like graffiti on the Greenway today...let's hope that trend stops ASAP.


First time I've rode at dusk...looks great until you ride on the streets and can't see anything.


Rydell looks really cool at night, I figured I'd snap a quick pic of it.




The Twins series was great, we saw them sweep the Mariners...unfortunately I just watched them lose on TV tonight, so that's no good.

Anyways, I guess today's lesson is to respect wildlife. They were here first, and some falcons just reminded me and a few cyclists of that today.

Thanks for reading!

Start: 8:15
End: 9:12
Temp: 70 degrees
Trip: 7.75 mi



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Trip 10 -- Cherry

Today is, for the most part, about Cherry St. I decided to take Cherry all the way south again, but I explored some of the townhome neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods were a nightmare when I worked as delivery for a local restaurant. There are so many winding roads, and the signs aren't very helpful, but the homes do look nice.


It was a very nice day out today, no clouds to be seen.




You guys have been good about answering my previous questions, so I'll throw another one out there. What exactly is this large dish for? It's outside a Seventh Day Adventist church, and I have no idea what they would need a dish this big for.



Look at this sign from a delivery driver's perspective. Yeah, not fun at all.


Not sure what they're doing here, extending the road maybe?



Another picture of a really nice house added to my collection.



Today I learned there is no shortage of places to live on Cherry. Seems like every other block there was a huge townhouse neighborhood.

Thanks for reading!


Start: 5:15
End: 6:04
Temp: 82 degrees
Trip: 6.2 mi


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Trip 7 -- More Uncharted Google Map Territory

They really need to update Grand Forks in Google Maps, so much has changed since they last updated. Sorry for the late post, I headed straight to Fargo after I got done riding and was there for the rest of the night. Perhaps a bike trip to Fargo in the future? Hmm...probably not.

I wanted to head south again today to the end of the greenway path...but this time in sunnier circumstances. Nothing too crazy happening today...I did see a fellow bicyclist get chased by a dog and the owner was yelling for her dog. I thought she yelled "Mauer" as in Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer. I thought that would be an awesome name for a dog, probably because I'm a huge Twins fan. I asked if that's why she named the dog that, and she said that the dog's name was "Bauer"...as in the hockey equipment company. Yeah, not nearly as cool, but I guess it's better than Spot or Rover.

Anyways, on to the trip:

Near the Elks access of the bike path, I saw this...uh...thing sitting alone in the grass. I'm assuming it's some kind of child's playground equipment, but it's just all alone, and I'm not even sure how it would be used. Seriously, it doesn't even look fun for a kid.


So I'm not 100% familiar with the Adopt-A-Trail program. I'm assuming it involves the "adopters" making sure their part of the trail is free from litter and other debris, but usually it's businesses or organizations adopting sections. I thought it was interesting that a family actually adopted this part. Thank you Schill family, whereever you may be. I waited until after your section to litter. (Kidding of course, I don't even have anything to litter when I'm riding bike).


Ah, this picture looks much nicer on a sunny day where I'm not pouring rain water out of my shoes. Right after this is when I was introduced to Bauer.


This is a cool addition I'm starting to see more of in the area, blinking pedestrian lights with a button you can push to activate the lights before you cross. This combines my love for both pushing buttons and blinking lights. Grand Forks, you know the way to my heart.


This picture does not do much to dispel the belief that North Dakota is nothing but flat and treeless...in its defense, this area was probably farmland a couple years ago.


I just keep pedaling down that long, lonely sidewalk waiting for a familiar road. I eventually come upon King's Walk golf course. I'm not sure which water tower that is off in the distance.


Wow, this is quite the house. Oh to be rich...



On Wednesday I was leaving my apartment and did a double take as I saw a giant hot dog driving by me at an intersection. What the hell is the Weinermobile doing here? I wasn't gonna ask questions, I just wanted a picture of the thing. I followed it and took a quick picture of it as it was turning. If anyone has any extra info on what it was/is doing in Forks, I'd love to hear it.




Hey, it's the 1 week anniversary of this blog...try to contain your excitement please. I hope you've enjoyed it so far. Also, happy 8/8/08 day. Hopefully it's more fun than 7/7/07 was.


Trip: 8.2 miles
Temp: 80 degrees
Start: 1:45
End: 2:45




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Trip 4 -- Riding in the Rain

So I figured I'd get a little wet today, but I didn't expect the monsoon that rained down upon me. I decided to ride part of the trail by the river...I think it's called the Greenway, but maybe that refers to the golf course, I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, as you can see from the map I entered the path around 24th ave. s. and I decided to head as far south as I could, assuming that it didn't take me all the way out to the country. I almost decided to turn around as I saw the clouds keep rolling in, but I really wanted to find the end of the trail...luckily the end was conveniently marked for me.

Of course when I found the end is about when it started pouring...and it didn't let up for around 15 minutes. So if you saw some crazy drenched guy riding his bicycle this afternoon, there's a good chance it was me. Thankfully my waterproof bike pouch worked as advertised, otherwise I would've been sitting on about $500 worth of wet electronics. I gotta say, riding in the rain felt pretty good. Something about being in heavy rain just makes me feel alive. It was really cool, although I could hardly keep my eyes open. I did draw some funny looks from people, but hey..don't knock it 'til you've tried it. Next time it's pouring, go outside...just don't get struck by lightning.

On to the trip:

Entering the bike trail. A sign of things to come in the sky.



A couple views of the path a little south of the Elks Dr. entrance. This was a very scenic path, it was nice being right by the river. I'll definitely be traveling this path again, next time I'll explore how far north it goes.



Getting darker, starting to sprinkle...



The end's in sight. At this point, the sprinkling started to pick up.


So this is where it ends, I had to kinda improvise in my Google Map, since a lot of the new southern stuff doesn't even show up yet. I'm not even sure if I traced the bike path correctly.


After I left the end of the trail, the rain really started to come down, and it did not let up. I was enjoying the rain until I thought about my bike's pouch, it said it was waterproof, but how waterproof was it? I decided to pull off into an overhang at an elementary school, and saw my favorite shed again.




I hung out there for a few minutes and the rain didn't let up very much. After discovering my bag was indeed waterproof, I roughed it out the rest of the way home. Needless to say, I was pretty drenched. I literally poured water out of my shoes. It's going to be a while before everything dries out, but was it worth it? Yeah I'd say so.

Trip: 8.3 mi.
Temp: 71 degrees
Started: 4:00 pm
Finished: 5:15 pm


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My "First" Trip

Technically this would be my 5th or 6th trip, but for the sake of the blog I'll consider it my first. Nothing too exciting going on, since I thought of the idea of this blog about halfway through this trip. The pictures aren't the best quality because they're taken with my cell phone. I'll have to figure out a way to bring my digital camera.

On to the trip: I decided to explore the extreme southeast part of Grand Forks, a lot of things are new...so new that Google Maps doesn't even have most of the buildings on there yet.


The first picture shows the new Aurora Medical Park. It's kind of forgotten along with other things on the extreme south end. But I have a feeling that this area will be booming within a few years.


As I got to the corner of 55th Ave. S. and Cherry St. I was surprised to see that the street was closed. Apparently some vandals decided plant a large wheat field in the way of the road, so they had to close it off. Damn kids.






As I said, I am easily distracted...especially by shiny balloons. I did not check out the garage sale, but I'm sure it's a grand ol' time. I also love the choice of Halloween colors to promote their sale. Bold move.




Like an oasis in the middle of the desert, here is Grand Forks' southernmost Valley Dairy, right by Aurora. I guess it does make sense, there are a lot more homes down there than people think...and as I said, that part of town is due to flourish. Stay cool indeed, Grand Cities.


I just thought this was a cool design for a house...some, or maybe even most may think it's ugly, but I like the non traditional house designs. If I can ever afford a house, I think I'm going to have it shaped like a dome...or a lighthouse.



Towards the end of my trek, I decided to use the tunnel going under Washington right by the WDAZ building. It seems like a lot of graffiti has seen its way in there, which doesn't surprise me. I have no idea why someone spray painted "JP RULZ" on the ceiling, but whatever. This would make a great spot to live if I'm ever homeless.



The trip was approximately 8.5 miles and the temperature at the time was 81 degrees.



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Well, that's it for now...please bear with me as I figure all of this blogging stuff out.