August 14, St. Paul MN -> St. Croix Falls

[Grainbelt]

A few of us are gathering at Key's Cafe in Woodbury, MN (just south of St. Paul) at 8:30 am for breakfast, departing at 9:30.

Route is roughly US 61 to Point Douglas, MN 23 North thru Afton, MN 95 to Taylor's Falls, US 8 back to the metro. Not a lengthy ride but a good sunday morning, get to know the group sorta thing.

Details in the 'Minnesota Riders' thread.

Any folks in the region that want to join in or meet us at any point along the ride, post up or shoot me a PM!

 

[Clay350]

That would be great. I just moved to woodburry from ohio. Love to ride and nobody to go with here. Bought my FZ6 two weeks ago. See you sunday unless i have to work!

Clay

 

[Grainbelt]

Key's makes damn good breakfast. I had an Italian sausage hash with poached eggs and rye toast that had to be upwards of 1600 calories. Chupa's french toast and side of bacon wasn't anything to sneeze at either. Decent service although the server for the patio isn't booked in until 9 so we had to sit inside.

TSRBrad showed up a little before 9:30, I discovered I still had a frisbee in my sidecase from last week and we killed some time scaring the bluehairs by playing catch in the boulevard. I guess birdman partied too hard so we sent a courtesy text to MystFerr and hit the road!

The plan was simply to ride the St. Croix Valley from Point Douglas to St. Croix Falls, so we did! Stagecoach Trail (county road 21) is pretty nice from US 10 north to Afton. The speed limit is a bit, err, limiting, so I sorta ignored it. Good times. Apparently Chupacabra saw a deer. I dunno.

Things slowed down considerably by the time we hit MN 95 so we peeled off to the scenic overlook to hydrate and BS a bit.

Chupa's dark blue bike, Chupa on the left, Brad on the right, Brad's black bike mostly hidden, my blue one in the back.

From there we followed a parade of slow moving traffic up 95 to Taylor's Falls, then thru 'downtown' and up to the overlook north of town. It was sorta painful, but that is what happens when you hit the road after nine. At least we weren't the poor sods heading south behind a hay truck. I've been craving sweet corn for weeks, ever since I saw the first stand. I kept spotting the signs too late, and figured an attempt to brake hard and jump the ditch would startle the two behind me, so I carried on.

The St. Croix Valley looks like this:

We relaxed in the shade and enjoyed the sound of countless lives being saved by the pirates passing by, and then chupa got a little silly.

We wandered a bit on County Road 20, which was quite nice other than one (well marked) hazard mid corner where a pipe had been replaced and there was gravel across the road. No worries.

I got sorta hungry again (not sure how, after that breakfast) and we wandered south into Forest Lake to get some grub.

Chupa harassed a chick in a parked car into telling us where to have lunch, and we walked over to the Lakeside. That place has to be seen to be understood, but it is your typical suburban trainwreck biker bar. Wow. A group of women's softball players with voices deeper than mine arrived after us and occupied the adjacent table, playing pull tabs and drinking bud light. Awesome.

Walked back to the bikes, and a little kit car had taken up residence.

Chupa insists on keeping it real.


From there we split up to head home, and I finally got the sweet corn I wanted from a stand in White Bear Lake. :cheer:

We barely put on 150 miles, ate twice and sat around a lot, but on a perfect summer day it was just the ticket.

Probably do it again in September, but invade WI for some alphabet road strafing. Will keep you posted. :thumbup:

 

[Chupacabra]

Epic ride.

Good food.

And you enjoyed some tasty sweet corn Grainbelt!