Yesterday afternoon I returned to the park as is my pattern. I was on my bike since the weather was lovely. Yet another new trail has opened up. For those of you who know the MAIN biking/walking trail follows the perimeter of the park, and runs nearly the full length of Lindell Blvd. Most who know the park know where the handball courts are, along Lindell, where the old golf clubhouse is. Now they have just opened up a riding/walking path (paved) that goes by the handball courts and the old pro shop. Very nice addition. It's just opened in the last few days.
Today, by the way would be an awesome lovely day to eat outside for lunch at the boat house.
I can't help being conflicted when I write this list. What NAMES do I use for places and buildings? Right now many things are getting new names. The golf course, of course. There used to be three courses in the park:
-- Triple A, which hasn't changed anything, not in name or nature of the course.
Then there was the 9 hole course
-- Finally the 18 hole course.
Neither of those last two exist any longer, and in their place are THREE new 9 hole courses. Same number of holes, but very different lay out for most holes. And new names. Two of the courses are called the Dogwood Course and the Hawthorne Course. I don't know the name of the third course.
What used to be the "Field House" or the "Golf Course Building" (the one over by the handball courts, is undergoing major renovation. It is nearly finished. That building was originally the main train station for the World's Fair. Now it will be the main administration for the park as a whole, and the Forest Park Forever Association is situated in that building as well. So what do we call it? [Note added June 2005 – that building is now called The Visitor’s Center.]
This name changing and new things are going on all over the park. One of these days I just have to begin using the "new" names and stick with them.
Yesterday as I rode around all over the park I began to ask myself what are the MOST COMMON live critters which I see day in and day out in the park. Not the caged things in the zoo (where I haven't been in more than 20 years), but the free things. As best I can tell these are what I see:
These are in order of numbers. The most sighted are:
I guess about every neighborhood of St. Louis has the birds and squirrels, but the quantity of geese, ducks and turtles must be unique to Forest Park for the city itself. We know from other reports there are a few fox, coyotes and chipmunks, and I'm also sure there are rabbits, but not many are seen until dusk or dawn.
Some weeks ago I added a computerized odometer to my bicycle. I simply love it. It allows me to target any amount of miles I want to ride rather than by time (in case I want to stop and look at things and such). My minimum rides are 10 miles. Obviously I often ride much longer, and 25 miles a day is quite common. More is not.
I sometimes wondered just how accurate is this odometer I purchased (it was about $30, not an overwhelming expense). I had twice carefully watched the distance from: the corner of Skinker and Forsythe and 1. Hi-Pointe (.9 mile) and from Hi-Pointe to my house (.75) miles. Yesterday I was riding along Lindell and had only ridden about 7.5 miles. I realize that is my odometer is really accurate with those distances just given, then from Skinker/Forsythe it is exactly 1.65 miles to my house. Thus I rode up by the NEW golf pro-shop and circled back around to bring my total up to 8.35 miles. Then I took off from Skinker/Forsythe to home. Just as I rode up my lawn the odometer turned from 9.999 to 10 miles, thus giving me strong evidence that my odometer is accurate to the 1/100 of a mile. A decent $30 investment! It frees me up to ride willy nilly all over, just following my whims and still be able to easily measure my exercise quotas which I wish to hit. A delight. It's what lets me have the freedom to leave the trails and just ride all over the place.
But, today there is no talk of riding until late afternoon at best -- a good soccer match is on TV at 11 AM!!!!
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