This and That

On my morning walk today I saw this nice blue canoe sitting on the beach just north of the Hennepin Bridge.  It had all that one might need to make an overnight paddle down the river.  Don't know where the owner was.  Hopefully they won't be gone too long.  This is downtown after all.  A couple of weeks back I talked to a woman (and her grandson I think) who were paddling from Saint Cloud to somewhere beyond St. Paul.  They were getting ready to portage their red canoe down past Mill Ruins Park to the Lower St. Anthony Lock and Dam.  She told me that the river looked generally clean and I was happy to hear that.  She complained a little about the lack of port-a-potties in the downtown area so I gave a few suggestions.  There were some interesting boats in Bassett Creek this past week.  A guy with two kayaks strapped together with a lawn chair and powered with a small motor was amusing.  I think he had a beer cooler next to him.  His friends were in a similar styled rig only made with canoes.  They asked if I would care to buy a boat but I declined.  Soon I will be able to rent my own kayak on the Mississippi just north of downtown and paddle back into downtown courtesy of the National Park Service. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/08/01/kayak-rental-minneapolis-mississippi-river.html

 Down by the Lower Lock and Dam the shore looked like this a few weeks ago.  I cleaned up what I could but some of it was just out of reach.  I did find out that this property is technically US government land.  I had been wondering if this was part of Park and Rec property or the city or what.  Partly running through Minneapolis is 72 miles of shoreline that is a partnership park called the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. It is a partnership of land owned by the US government, the city, the county, the state, and privately owned.  Most of it is nice, especially the gorge area, but the downtown stretch does get mucked up.

There was a guy doing his laundry in the river about a week ago.  It did make me wonder about where a person who is living outside could take care of cleaning their stuff.  I know House of Charity provides a free shower for people, but maybe they could also provide laundry services??? It does make one feel grateful for having access to a washer and dryer.

There was a bike in the weeds on the shore that someone had stripped down. I took the rest up to the trash. By the way, that nice pink quilt that I wrote about was gone the next day.  Hopefully it is back to its owner or maybe a new owner and not in the trash.

Further north of downtown I found this mess that needed cleaning.  I still need to finish this area up.  There is a lot of small styrofoam bits mixed in with the bigger stuff. 

And finally, I treated myself to a Kona Ice this month.  There was more than one day in August that was so hot!! This was so good and it got me back home!