I had Juneteenth off and I have for quite a few years. I have some opinions about who I work for, so that's not surprising. I took a ride in the afternoon up into Minneapolis and back, just over 42 miles. Not a very fast 42 miles given downtown it was a bit stop and go, lots of turns, and I was parking myself here and there to enjoy the day.
On the way "up" I pedaled past the Juneteenth celebration near Lake and the burned out third precinct they're turning into a voting and community action center. That's a good use for it. It wasn't very hopping, but I was there in the first five minutes of the celebration, so not surprising. When I came back four hours later it was packed with people and I sat at Arbeiter for a while having a beer and enjoying the crowds of people all dressed up for Juneteenth. Most of the photos below are from my way up, although I managed to capture a photo of the communal mural going both ways.
Downtown I was going to go to Modist [https://racketmn.com/bri-smith-modist-first-black-woman-head-brewer], but realized when I got there it was around 2 p.m. and a Thursday, so Modist wasn't opening for another two hours. Fortunately, right across the street is Bricksworth although I could have saved myself 32 miles and just pedaled to the one over in Burnsville. I refueled and turned back toward Lake Street, although I got lost on the way and ended up at the field entrance to Target Field. Just as I was turning around to avoid the No Trespassing sign onto the field a guy came out of the Target office. He must have been vaguely important because he had a corporate SUV and looked like an ex ballplayer. He saw my RAGBRAI jersey and was super excited. He went on it for the first time last year and is going this year again. He mentioned that this year it's sneaking up into Minnesota on one of the days. That's a smart trick on their part to make it feel less like an Iowa ride and more like a midwest ride. Iowa irritates me ... lately [a long lately, my "all lives matter" experience with them was a long time ago now] ... and that's kept me riding in Minnesota instead of spending my money there even if the Register tends to be more liberal than Iowa on average.
I didn't realize downtown was making their LEDs pride flags for the month. That's a nice look.
Juneteenth Soul sign with Arbeiter Brewing and Moon Palace books in the background. A smarter person would have picked up the book waiting for him at Moon Palace but I didn't put it on a list, so I was distracted by all the other things going on. Maybe I'll have time to pick it up tomorrow.
Drums and dancing.
Community mural in the morning.
Community mural later in the afternoon.
Million Artist quilts. The burned out precinct is right behind me here.
Bonus bit...after I sat at Arbeiter people watching, I headed for home. I was only half a dozen blocks south of Arbeiter or so when a car tried to left turn into me on a green light while I was in the bike lane. I couldn't tell for sure, but she seemed to look up from her phone, and then jittered a bit and went past me to continue her turn which would have almost put her on the sidewalk. She accelerated hard....right into the side of another SUV with five people in it. Green light, she was turning. The SUV on the receiving end was totaled. Both wheels were crooked and a big pinch in the side. Big. I went back to make sure people were ok and three other cyclists, two pedestrians, and a few cars stopped to ask everyone if they were ok. The woman taking the left hand turn? Came out of her car furiously tapping on her phone and asking loudly, "You're an Uber aren't you? You're an Uber driver?" I don't know if that was some attempt to go on the attack, but she's going to have a hell of a time explaining that one to insurance. Everyone was ok, surprisingly. Cars are fixable. People generally not as much.
However, that wasn't my only brush with death yesterday. I also took a tumble at the of the hill/trail going from Minnehaha Falls/Park to Fort Snelling. Entirely my fault. I lazily commute most of the time, so I know the rule about not pedaling into a turn, but I forgot. So I cam down the hill and turned right and started to pedal to take advantage of momentum for the hill.
I heard a "snick". And I thought, ut oh, pedal, down.
I heard the start of a "screeeeek" and there seemed to be a lot of time to literally say, out loud, "Oh." Followed by the full on scrape. Followed by me saying, "S^%t." At which point the whole bike stopped on a dime and popped almost straight up 4 plus feet in the air, arresting all forward momentum. I did not lose my momentum. I flew forward landing head first, skidding along the pavement on the back of my head/helmet for what I think was about six feet on my helmet before finally bouncing a bit. I'm glad I have a helmet. I think this one would have killed me or been close.
Here's a nice photo [immediately above] of my bike actually bouncing around. Not me - I was separated from the bike at this point without the digital odometer on me sort of skidding uphill.
And here's me being really wobbly and having a hard time pedaling a straight line to get moving up the hill after the crash. A nice guy who was coming down the hill stopped to talk to me for a while, which was really helpful to get a read on whether I had an obvious concussion. I had my family watch for an unobvious concussion later. I didn't actually do too bad finishing out the 7 miles home, but when I got to where I could check myself out, I had relatively minor scrapes. But....a big bruise on my left ankle and a lot of ache in my right which seemed to be more related to the pedals stopping suddenly and throwing me than to any visible wounds.
I slept fine later, only waking up now and then when I rolled an ankle. And today I feel pretty good. Little bit of a neck ache, and I took a thirty minute walk on the ankles, although I'm being super careful on stairs because balancing on the left is tricky.
I seem to get in one round of ouch each year, so hopefully this is the end of it and it's not like Final Destination where the deity of cycling injuries will be hunting me down the rest of the summer/fall.
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