Blown Away on Bloody Sunday: A Ride Report

[Gary Charpentier]

Wind NW steady @ 27mph, gusts to 38. So 70th Street was a rather strenuous climb. Good thing my steed was a 1983 Dawes Ranger. English mountain biking at its finest. 

Since I decided on Bloody Marys at all the (de-) hydration stops, maybe this should be dubbed "Bloody Sunday Ride", rather than that "POUNCE" thing I dreamed up at 0330 in the morning. Research, you see; I needed to cover all the variables. And it turns out that the best Bloody Mary on this route is the one you build yourself at BLVD Tavern. The others were typical pickle & olive, tomato juice, horse radish, and Tabasco. Margin of victory was 1 vote. 

I skipped the stop at Wabasha Brewing, because I had no reason to descend the hill again after I arrived home in West St. Paul. Breakfast was Huevos Rancheros at the Mississippi Pub, rather than at Joseph's Grill, because nobody else showed there. 

Gotta give our STO credit - there's more to this ride planning gig than I thought. It appears that some of you people need to PLAN... noted. I guess nice weather is just incidental to a nice ride. It appears that misery in good company may actually be preferable with this crowd. How veddy British!  

What say you, Sir Jon?

[jon gentlemancyclist.com]

Any bakeries or ice cream shops on this "rather strenuous" folly?

STO

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From: 'Gary Charpentier' via Gentleman Cyclist <gentlema...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2022 4:44 PM
To: Gentleman Cyclist <gentlema...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Gentleman Cyclist] Blown Away on Bloody Sunday: A Ride Report

 

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[Gary Charpentier]

Folly? Ouch. Only because of the wind this morning, and the fact that I had nobody to share the ride with. I believe this is a ride worthy of a GC event, and I would welcome any help in refining the route. My agenda today was determined solely by the desires of the participant. 

Bakeries or ice cream stops... Milly's Bakery, but they are closed on Sunday. If we planned in advance, with an idea of how many would attend, I'm sure we could work something out. But they are not really equipped for a large group partaking on-premises. As you know, the whole Covid thing really did a lot of these independent businesses in. We have a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts on Robert Street, and of course a couple of DQs along the way, but I don't really think supporting large corporate chains fits the spirit of Gentleman Cyclist events.

I guess I'm not sensing the level of support I expected out of this group, for some additional events with the same high-quality cast of characters. It is entirely possible that I'm missing something here that is painfully obvious to the rest of you, and if that is the case, please do enlighten me! My personal email is g_char...@yahoo.com - we don't need to waste the GC forum's bandwidth with this discussion. 

I suddenly feel as if I am trespassing on hallowed ground here, and that was never my intention. I simply enjoy the company of this group, and was hoping to arrange more of that. The monthly gatherings at Barley John's involve far too much driving for me, and little to no riding, so I can seldom find the motivation to make that journey. If anyone is interested in planning a ride in this area, please let me know with a personal email. I'm sure we can figure something out.