Books, Breads and Bikes: Nice Ride 145

This past week-end, I joined a friend for a tour of the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, performed entirely on Nice Ride bicycles, traveling from one rental station to the next. The total mileage of the planned route, starting in Northern Minneapolis and ending in West St. Paul, was a little over eighty miles. Including the mileage for me to bicycle to the start, I may have been close to a century on the day. I have already posted a lot about it on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, so I'll avoid any more sensationalism and just add this, a short note I made to myself after completing the day -

- low point

I got turned around on Washington avenue and tried crossing, but got stuck between the median island and a quarter ton red Chevy pick-up truck...

I was going into traffic.
The truck passed on my left.

I pulled the bike against the median, put one foot on the curb and watched the group, now a block ahead of me, change their bicycles and disappear around a corner. Getting stranded or lost in downtown Minneapolis was not the plan. Neither was slaloming traffic.

- high point

At the Wilder Foundation, my bike got locked into the kiosk before realizing the station was not allowing rentals. Close enough to home to call it quits and walk away, far enough in to a hundred miles on a three speed 50 pound commuter bike to feel thwarted. With some deliberation, I ran a brisk mile and a half to the next station, got another bike and kept going.