Home for a few days to ride, then off again

I haven't had time to unpack from NOLA, let alone recover. One would think I would have taken it easy this weekend.. but those who know me, know this is a near impossible task for me.


 I saw my bike in my work parking lot late Friday evening, sitting all by her lonesome.. and decided it was in HER best interest to come out and play for the weekend. 
did stay home Friday night, but i wasn't overly productive.
















Saturday was nice so I went out on the bike for a few hundo miles (HEAVEN!) - headed towards Hastings, detoured on a couple of cool twisty side roads on the way.. saw and stopped to take pics of random roadside things (quirky things that make me laugh)....








was "so close' to Welch so I rode that twisty route too.







Then down 19 to 5 to 2 to 3 to 60, which is an AWESOME fun road to ride with lots of corners and sharp turns...




























Then I detoured off a dirt road that said minimum maintenance.....







 They 'never' mean that.... pssh.. I pass by the sign only to make it to a Road Closed Sign. What are the odds they are truthful? So I keep going. Dust is flying up everywhere and its windy as heck so that doesn't help. There's not a soul on this road. The gravel is half sand and half crappy, chunky, ungraded class 5.. it was a bit of a challenge to hold the bike upright and while I did have a couple of WTF am i doing moments, naturally, I had to keep going.




 That's when I came up on the truth of why the road was closed. Because its under roughly 12" of water that is CRUISING fast downstream. Well... crap. Now I am on the narrow crappy gravel road in the middle of no where on a bike that's nearly 9' long and have to turn around on an 8' wide (at best) gravel road.  Managed to get it turned around and rode back out. I was looking forward to that adventure.. the road looked super curvy on the map!!!!






Next time... Onward to 60 where there was NO traffic so I got to pound the corners pretty hard. The roads were semi gravel-ly but 60 was clear and free to fly! Came out in Wabasha and headed towards Hager City along the river, always a great ride with lots of bikes




 I had a ton of friends riding out along the MN WI border.. its such a NICE day and us MN's are READY for riding!


 I only managed to catch up with a handful of people  - the rest of my friends and I were playing tag all day.  Yes, I am wearing a hoodie, with the hood up, and my leather jacket... granted it was in the 70's.. the wind was fierce and there was still ice on many of the lakes.. and after being in NOLA for a few days, apparently I turned weak real quick when it comes to weather!


 
 




Hard to find people between stops when you can text call, then hop back on the bikes, meanwhile the other person is stopping to call... anyways.. 

 




turns out it was a great day of riding and that turned into a great night with new friends...







and I should have been home by, I don't know... nightfall? THat would have been nice. But, my fun-finder out numbered my adulating cares and I did nothing adulating for the week. "Tomorrow" I tell myself......




Riding will ALWAYS win..... It truly is my happy place!







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