Gophers and Cheese

I took a short ride north yesterday on the Sporty to Anoka, the Halloween capital of the world ( http://anokahalloween.com/ ).  The traffic was terrible because it was packed and they had roads closed off for the parade but found a spot to park and walked around. Anoka. Real. Classic. There were floats, marching bands, and all kinds of stuff in the Grand Day Parade including a few female superheroes... ... and palm trees... ...and this guy wearing a pink pig hat (pardon me, hog hat) on a bagger. The Rum River flows right through Anoka where it meets the Mississippi. One thing I discovered while walking around was this abandoned outdoor amphitheater.  I've driven past it countless times and had no idea it was there. Here are a few in color: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I took the Sporty for a brief ride last Saturday. It was cloudy, chilly, and rain was in the forecast but I thought I had a brief window to go for a ride. I headed downtown but, by the time I got there, it started to rain. I turned around and headed home. The cold rain was relatively light but did sting at highway speeds.  Thankfully, I didn't get soaked. I took this shot while sitting at a stoplight. Thankfully, this weekend looks dry.

Thanks to t3-ponyexpress and motorcyclebloglist for the links!  Both sites have huge lists of motorcycle/biker blogs. http://t3-ponyexpress.blogspot.com/ http://motorcyclebloglist.blogspot.com/

Last Friday, after my gravel adventures, I headed back towards Champlin.  Here's a shot of County Road 12.  The church in Dayton, MN is in the distance. Near Champlin, I took the little backroad I like (County Road 121) and took a side road off of that for the first time (125th Ave N). At the end of road, you run into E French Lake Rd and, not surprisingly, French Lake. I got some nice pics looking west into the sunset over French Lake. Right where those two roads meet, there was a farm selling pick-your-own pumpkins. Here is a pair of pics in color... It's a little easier to see the pumpkin patch (above) in color.

Dammit

This past Friday, the weather was really nice and I took a ride along County Road 12 heading northwest from Champlin and rode past Dayton.  I tried a few side roads along the way and one was this gravel road (65th St NE).  The dirt was a little soft but I had no problem navigating it. Here are a few in color:

Here are some color versions of the pics I took while riding to and from Welch, MN last Saturday:

After tearing through the curves between Welch and Vasa twice, I headed back towards Red Wing and crossed into Wisconsin.  Just for fun, I decided to explore two side roads off WI-35.  The first was County Road V V.  I rode that to US-63, turned around and rode it back.  I liked it - a little curvy, hilly, and scenic (if you consider farms scenic, like I do). The second was County Road OO (not to be confused with County Road O).  I didn't ride it quite to US-10 but I liked what I rode including this unexpected hill. Both roads were nice but not ones I feel that I'd want to ride again and again.  On three occasions while riding County Roads V V and OO, people along the road waved to me - a guy on a tractor, a kid on an ATV, and a guy with a skateboard hanging out with friends by a van.  Apparently the people who live on double-letter roads are very friendly. I crossed back into Minnesota at Prescott and stopped in Point Douglas Park for some pictu...