On Sunday, Anne and I went bicycling together for the first time in a long time. About a month ago, Anne and I were on our longest bike ride since the MS-150. On this ride Anne’s knee started to hurt, so I ended up riding home alone, getting the car, picking her up and then sagging her home. After another bad start, in which she had to turnaround almost immediately after leaving the house, she called her doctor. He prescribed a course of naproxen (Aleve). After completing this course plus a month of rest, she felt ready to try bicycling again.
When we set off on Sunday, the temperature was in the low fifties, the sun was shining and there was a fair breeze out of the southwest. It was perfect weather for Anne to model her brand new orange bicycling wind shell. We launched together from the house and rode down to the Park. Anne rode somewhat gingerly, but also pain-free. At one point, we became separated, and then met up again, parted yet again, met one more time and then eventually found our separate ways home. We both got 15 miles.
Skaters were out on Steinberg Rink on Sunday. These are the first skaters that I have seen there so far this season. Earlier in the week, when the highs were in the mid-seventies, I saw no skaters on the rink. I wasn’t even sure that on those days that the ice was entirely solid. The rink was not too crowded, but still there were a good number of skaters out on the ice.
The last stretch of the dual-path biking/walking trail that rings the Park looks to be progressing well. This shouldn’t be all that surprising considering the long stretch of great outdoor construction weather that we have enjoyed here in Saint Louis. It is suppose to be completed by the end of November. Starting at the ice rink and ending at the new Hampton underpass, this new section of the path will do something that the rest of the dual path system has never attempted. It will separate the two paths. The footpath will follow the original path’s course. Starting from the ice rink, this new section of the bike path will swing east of Jefferson Lake, then climb the hill to the Science Center, it then runs between the south side of Aviation Field and the highway, along the highway side of the parks department’s greenhouses and rejoins the footpath at Hampton. Preliminary measurements indicate that the new outer loop trail will be a little bit longer than the current one.
I’m impressed that St. Louis has better luck with skating rinks than the more-northern clime where I live! Yours must be refrigerated, similarly to indoor ice arenas? That may be the difference… no money in Michigan!
The rinks (I think there’s 2) that GB Park & Rec try to maintain are dependent entirely on the weather, so their usability is undependable at best. I haven’t owned a pair of skates since kid-hood, but used to have such fun skating (Bay City Fairgrounds)!
Karen, Stienberg is refrigerated. We haven’t even had a hard frost yet. So there is no way the ice would have formed naturally. The rink was just refurbished a few years ago, after the refrigeration system broke, could not be repaired and a season was cancelled.
I had/have skates, but they don’t fit anymore. I think they may fit Ashlan now.
She found them once, several years ago now, in the Sears box in the basement.
She also found another thing that had been packed in the box to keep it from breaking during one of the moves.
Our neighbor was taking her son skating this summer (indoor rink, natch) and had skates that looked just like our old ones. She said the rink personnel were laughing at her skates. I guess the new ones are different in how they tie, or otherwise adjust the fit. Reminds me of skiing b-a-ack in the day, with the peasant woman on skies and galoshes, and the tag line read, “next year — buckle boots!”
–Pooh