John Clark

We’re on the road again… (Minnesota, June, ‘22)

It’s been three years since our last cycling adventure (and man, what a three years it’s been, eh?), so it’s time to dust off the old iPhone travel blog again!!

This year we decided to ride domestically, since traveling abroad still seems kind of dicey. Mallory has wanted to visit Minnesota forever, so we’ve planned out 9 days of riding on a variety of “rails-to-trails” options, mostly in the southern half of the state.

Because we were staying in the states, we decided to drive there with our bikes. We left Colorado on May 31st, and drove to Burwell, Nebraska, so that I could zoom in to a Planning Commission meeting. I’d been fighting some lower back pain for a couple weeks, and the long hours in the car must’ve really taken their toll, as I could barely walk when I got out of the car in Burwell. I even ended up having to stand for the entire 5 hour meeting, as sitting was agonizing.

In reponse, Mallory really stepped up, not letting me lift anything, and insisting on packing the car, loading the bikes, and driving the whole next day to Minneapolis. She even had to tie my shoes for me! What a saint! I rode the entire way lying down in the back seat. Unfortunately, that meant I missed all the scenic back roads of Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. This is an example of what I got to see from the back seat:

We stayed the first night in Minneapolis in a sweet little basement AirBnB, and the host was able to recommend a drop-in chiropractic place, so we went straight there the next day. Fortunately, the chiropractor on that day was really good, and in about 30 minutes she was able to give me huge relief, as well as recommend some exercises and supplements to get me further on the mend, and hopefully keep me that way.

The amazing thing was that we had arranged to do some riding around the city on their wonderful “greenway” system, with some of the folks from the Artspace organization that I’ve gotten to be friends with over the last 10 years, as they’ve helped us create a 30-unit workforce housing project in Ridgway. (If you’d like to know more about that, reach out to me separately, and I’ll fill you in.)

Anyway, since the chiropractor was able to get me such relief, I was able to do a couple of rides with them, with a lovely lunch gathering in the middle, for a total of 22 miles! Here’s a few photos from the day:

The Minneapolis Greenway (an extensive network of walking/cycling trails that used to be railroad tracks)

A classic Minneapolis view along the greenway

Minnehaha Falls, near the Mississippi river in Minneapolis

All of that was yesterday, so I’m going to start a new post for today…

Amsterdam!

[As I write this, we’re sitting in Amsterdam airport, awaiting our flight to Frankfurt, where we’ll catch the flight to Denver. I hope to have time to share stories and photos from our 3½ days here, over the next day or so, but be patient, it may take longer than that.]

The first thing we noticed when we arrived on Saturday night, the 22nd, was that we were bringing the heat with us from Italy. Ugh! The forecast was for highs in the high 80s to mid 90s. Oh well…

Mallory’s cousin’s daughter (a “first cousin once removed”), Marley, is living in Amsterdam while studying for a masters degree. She’s very close with Rosy & Louisa, and Mal’s extended family is all very tight, so it was great to be able to see her here and have her give us somewhat of the ‘locals’ tour.

Sunday morning, we went out for breakfast and I had the most amazing fried chicken, scrambled eggs and waffle plate:

Fried chicken, scrambled eggs and waffles for breakfast!

I’m going to post this now, since our flight boards in a few minutes. We’ll probably see some of you before I have a chance to do another post!

Our three-day art immersion in Florence

I’ve just been going through my photos of the time we spent in Florence before flying to Amsterdam on Saturday evening. It’s almost overwhelming, even for me. So much art! [And spoiler alert; I’m writing this on Monday evening, and we’ve seen even more world-class art in the last two days here in Amsterdam. 😳]

I think it might a little over the top to bombard you with a lot of this art, world-class as it is, so I’ll try to just give you the highlights. Contact me directly if you want to see more, I’m sure it can be arranged. 😁

Just so you know, here’s the list of museums, galleries & gardens we visited in Florence:

The Galileo Museum
The Uffizi Galleries
Galleria del’Accademia (aka “The Academy”)
Boboli Gardens and a tiny bit of the Pitti Palace
The Leonardo da Vince Museum
Giardino dei Semplici (aka the Florence Botanical Garden)

Phew, what a shocking amount of phenomenal art, architecture & landscapes in one relatively small city! I highly recommend a visit, if you’ve never been. Yes, the tourists have almost overrun the place, but we were able to skirt the hordes pretty well over the course of our three days.

Okay, on to the highlight reel of photos…