Checking The Trail

 

      We've had several days of warm weather. Our bikes have been tuned up and ready to go. We were planning on spending yesterday biking but we weren't sure that the trail we wanted to take was usable. We had checked the trail website which said that portions of the trail still had snow pack and ice on it. Instead of riding we decided to walk instead. 

   One end of the trail is in Red Wing. We always enjoy a day trip to Red Wing so that's where we went. 

   On our way into town we went past the usual trail entrance. There's more than one so we found another one. It was sort of hidden away. We parked in the small parking lot and got out of the car. The trail was parallel to a railroad track. On the other side of the track was a large swamp. We saw four herons in the swamp. The trail was clear and dry. A cycler passed us and we asked him how the trail was up ahead. He said it was good. Part of me wished we'd brought our bikes.

   We turned around because we wanted to go to our favourite restaurant for lunch. We got there at 11:30 and looked for a parking spot. C was worried because all the spots in front of the restaurant were taken.  That's usually a sign that it's very busy. We found a spot a short walk away. 

   There were plenty of places to sit inside. The booths we like best are on the end of the restaurant that faces the river. We found a booth and a server came to take our order. I got the olive burger and C got a club sandwich with onion rings. They have really good onion rings. We looked at our phones and chatted a little. Then our food arrived. C shared a few onion rings with me. I shared my fries. Their French fries are almost as good as the onion rings.

   After lunch we stopped at an antique shop. I found an old hymnal that I remembered from when I was young. Since it had some good music in it, we decided to buy it. The sign said that there was a five dollar minimum on card purchases. Since neither of us had cash with us that day we had to find another item to buy. C found a book that looked interesting.

   We walked around a park by the river. There were several people who were taking advantage of the weather and putting their boats in the water. Some of those boats were very large. 

  We went downtown and parked by the depot. The river is not too far from the depot so we walked alongside it. It was pretty high. There were some city workers there. C asked them how high they thought the water would get. The worker told him it would most likely cover the path by the river. He hoped it wouldn't get too much higher than that.  As we walked to our car, we were stopped by a long train going by. It moved slowly at first with short honks of it's horn as it approached the intersection near the park.  A railroad  worker standing by the track swung onto the steps on the first engine and went inside the engine car. The horn blew steady as it crossed the intersection and picked up speed.  As it speeded along we could hear more short blasts of the horn in the distance. It was nearing another intersection. This was the third train we'd seen that day.

     Our last stop was at the bakery. We wanted some ice cream. They didn't have the flavour I wanted so I settled for vanilla raspberry. It was all right. It was god to sit in the bakery our of the heat of the day. 

   We drove home. Next time we will bring our bikes.....