Good Ride. Good Good Ride.

Started out with Charles, me and Amy on what might just be the nicest ride of the season. We were grateful for the clouds, because if the sun had heated up the already oppressively humid air we would've become one with the asphalt. No missed turns kept us on a beautiful route, with wild turkeys, lakes everywhere, pine trees, and gently rolling green hills.
Just north of Stillwater Amy mentioned that we usually hammer on these rollers, at least we had in years past, so we put our carbon steeds to the test torquing chains and our lungs to limits that no sane person would dare try.
Thinking, this is what Amy wanted, and it being her birthday tomorrow, as we rolled to our midway stop I simply said, "happy birthday". She hit me. With her hand! OK, so maybe I said happy birthday with an evil grin and chuckle, but still....
All fueled up with HoHo's and Gatorade we weaved our way through Stillwater and steered our bikes towards Afton and its double barreled coulees (these are no small climbs). We left Stillwater (45 miles) with an average speed of 19.3. Eleven miles later and at the TOP of the second coulee our average speed had increased to 19.9, not a whole lot of happy looks. I thought the news of our increase in speed might change that....uuuhh no. Even with another smirk and birthday wish, I was only able to generate a look of disgust....at least I didn't get hit.
We throttled back a titch, and enjoyed the scenery as we left the St. Croix River and rolled towards the Mississippi. A screaming descent into the Mississippi River valley was unfortunately interrupted by a red light, nevertheless, the Mississippi was our companion into St. Paul and back to Minneapolis only leaving it briefly to cut across Summit Ave and hobnob with the mansion owners.
Good hard riding, great scenery, some very fun teasing, and great conversation made this a candidate for nice ride of the year. 94/19.6