monday

Yesterday I set off to Menomonie to kind of scope out the lay of the land for the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  Within a few minutes of getting into town and filling up water bottles I got a text from Trevor who had apparently seen me ride in. We ended up meeting up and going for a little ride on some of the Nature Valley course and turning into Downsville for some deep fried lunch and a few beers before hopping onto the Red Ceder Trail back into Menomonie.  It was really the first time I ever spent much time riding in that area and it was a ton of fun, lots of big hills and winding turns, and the Red Ceder is hands down one of the prettiest, most fun trails I've ever ridden. You can't beat hard packed gravel winding along a river fully shielded from sun and wind by trees with big rock cutouts and plenty of rest stops along the way.

Once back in Menomonie I refilled again and headed out another 25 miles back into town. After the first 17 or so of nasty headwinds the road started to straighten out and the wind started to die a little bit allowing a nice, albeit worn out, ride in to town. It's days like this that I kick myself for not having my camera with me.  It was just a gorgeous day of bike riding seeing some new stuff and hanging out with friends.

 Which is just the sort of thing I like taking photos of.  I am by no means a photographer and a lot of modern ideas about photography bother me. I can see the merit in a perfectly composed photograph or hours of setting up a shot followed by hours in a dark room, but more than that I like the idea of photography as a reflex that's main purpose is to document something the photographer finds relevant, not an exercise in ego massage and geek speak.

But I digress, back to what I was saying before, it was an awesome day of riding and when it was all said and done after getting home hitting the shower, a giant salad, homemade bread, and ice cream I slept like a rock last night.  I did take one picture from the ride home with my phone.  I really like all of these fields out on Hwy. E that are farmers market farms with dozens of people growing vegetables working the fields by hand and you kind of forget where you are for a couple minutes. Then you see some Natural Ice cans laying on the roadside where some redneck threw them and instantly remember.