About noon yesterday, passed a green/black Tourer riding in the company of some kind of V-twin not too far south of Duluth on I35 northbound. I was in the left lane, overtaking, when I saw they'd want to get around a semi they were catching up on and hung back to let them get around it first. Might've been close enough to see me exit the freeway not too long afterward. So, if someone on here was there at the place/time, the goofball on the red/black wearing what looked like a snowmobile suit (Aerostich; made right there in Duluth) was me.
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Been taking my annual vacation time for the year. Unlike a lot of previous ones, no big trip was planned.
Too much family stuff going on: a niece on the wife's side of the family got married, one of my nieces dropped dead
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/07/06/life-story-maren-zabel/ (unexpectedly and as far as I know, still no explanation of why) and got buried, got involved with putting on a shower for the fiancé of one of my nephews (and getting ready for that wedding), celebrating the mother-in-law's 80th birthday, etc...
So, the bike's been sitting too much this year. Finally got out yesterday and put on about 500 miles running up to Grand Marais and back. Beautiful weather, the lake was gorgeous and there were even some kind of flowers in bloom that I kept smelling along the North Shore (maybe honeysuckle, it was a sweet smell like that).
Grabbed a couple of quick pictures, walked a couple of blocks, ate a couple of slices at Sven and Ole's pizzeria and got turned around to head home. Nothing too special, but here:
The one above and this next were taken just outside the bathrooms(!) at the Cutface Creek rest stop just a few miles outside of Grand Marais.
Grand Marais' harbor area:
Okay, maybe a picture and word of explanation is necessary about why I was in such a rush.
Had to wait for my little Sweet Tooth to get out of bed and awake enough to be involved with calling to make reservations for the hotel we're going to stay in for my nephew's wedding. I NEEDED to get to Duluth ASAP because our anniversary is Friday and I saw something at Puglisi's on our way home from that wedding shower I mentioned earlier. There were heavy rains/thunderstorms up that way all day Monday and I was afraid they wouldn't hold it for me any longer than Tuesday.
So the ride to Grand Marais was an excuse (that was its own reward) so I could head up and pick up the one on the top here:
The lower one is Sweet Tooth's S&W Model 15 ".38 Combat Masterpiece" that I liberated from the bedside safe long enough to snap the picture. The new one is a Model 18, a twin to her .38, except for being in .22, and I'm hoping she'll do a lot more practicing once I hand this one over to her. Lots of holster wear and there's a scratch on the other side of the frame to balance out the bit of pitting on the S&W monogram on this side, but her Model 15 is an old police trade-in so they aren't all that much out of matching finish-wise...
