Gophers and Cheese

On a beautiful Halloween day, I was riding around downtown and did what any normal person would... ride through a graveyard and take lots of pictures. Lakewood Cemetery is absolutely beautiful and overlooks both Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet.  Not surprisingly, it was very quiet.  Eerily quiet??? I've cranked up the contrast and flipped the logo color to orange so get ready for some Halloween graveyard pics! More pics to come...

After getting some nice shots in front of some Lyndale Ave graffiti on Halloween, I headed over to Lake Calhoun. The water was extremely still.  Eerily still???

More pics in front of the Intermedia Arts building on Lyndale...

I took a ride downtown on Halloween.  I took a bunch of pics that I'll share over a series of posts. My first stop was Bob's for a hot beverage but then I stumbled upon some great graffiti on the Intermedia Arts building on Lyndale Ave.

As promised, here are a few color versions of the pics I took on Zanzibar Ln N...

After checking out the festivities in Anoka on Saturday, I took a short ride down some nearby backroads. I spotted a pair of deer by the side of the road but only managed to snap a photo of one of them.  Look close. I found a gravel road with a fantastic name, Zanzibar Lane North. Apparently there isn't much to do around here except shoot stop signs. Come back for color pics...

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.