tjspiel

Ok, I cheated a bit. Knowing that the trails on my usual route aren't plowed yet I only rode to and from the train station. Did go by the dome though. Looks like a big grey soup bowl.

nashcommguy

Meant to post something in reference to you Minnieapolins. Glad you're doing ok and the blast hasn't got to you. Are there others who post to the commuter forum? How are they doing? Would love to hear from you all. Hope you've got some studded tires.

dcrowell

And some people think *I'm* crazy for commuting today, in Louisville, with a thin layer of slush on the roads. They even closed the schools.

groovestew

Time for the Vikings to HTFU. Quite the conditions for the game in Chicago yesterday.

tjspiel

To their credit, the Vikings wanted to the move the game to the new U of Minnesota outdoor football stadium. It had been closed up for winter though and they couldn't get it ready in time. Maybe for next Monday night's game.

Scheherezade 

I would love to watch the Vikings play in TCF stadium next Monday night.

I commuted to the U of M this morning. The roads were fine. Most of the residential roads had only about one plow-width of space between the heaping snow mounds, but that's more than enough for a bike. Most of the snow was hardpack, and my studs handled it beautifully. The only real addition to the cold I added was a thin pair of wool long johns under my jeans. Wind chill was about -21F when I left this morning.

snowman40

The Giants didn't take cold weather gear since they were expecting to play inside.

hubcap

Wind chill was -15F for me this morning in the west Chi burbs. Did the whole commute and it was not too bad, just real slow.

I'm sure a local sporting goods store would have been happy to ring up about $50 grand in underarmor stuff.

Scheherezade 

The real issue was that TCF Stadium couldn't have been prepped for the Monday night game time. UMN stated that it would take several days to un-winterize the stadium.

https://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releas...NT_287074.html

DiabloScott

Friend of mine in Minn (new mother) posted that the wind chill was -30 and she was pumping breast milk in her truck in the parking lot at work.

mustachiod

awww, so sad


i rode today, saw a few other cyclists once i made it into the city

tjspiel

She's excused from riding a bike. Couldn't begin to imagine how uncomfortable that would be.

tjspiel

A lot of people would love to see it. Would be a raucous crowd as opposed to a somewhat neutral or even pro-Chicago crowd if played in Detroit again next week. Would take a lot of work to pull off though and they'd need to decide soon. Might make it more it a bit more interesting for people outside of Chicago and Minnesota, but not sure that many people care one way or another.

Detroit (the people and the city) can sure use the cash though and it's kind of cool that they gave out free tickets to the game tonight.

AdamDZ

OK, maybe I shouldn't complain about NYC weather that much. Last few days were in the 50s.

Fizzaly

The video of the collapse is nuts, i couldn't find much info on the stadium. Was the roof a retro fit or was the stadium built with it? No reason other than curious.

groovestew

Holy crap.

tjspiel

No, it was built with it. Opulence certainly wasn't the goal. Didn't even have air conditioning at first. Since it's partially sunk into the ground, they thought the cool below ground temps would be enough to keep the space comfortable. Didn't really take into consideration the full effects of the sun shining through a semi-transparent plastic bag and 50,000 people sitting in close quarters. Still, at the time it was a palace compared to the old mosquito infested Met Stadium that had been basically built over a swamp. Good memories from that place though.

It's always fun walking out of the stadium as the air escapes with all the people. An unfortunate bald man that was walking out next to me once lost his toupee, - blown a good 50 yards away only be trampled by the folks that had left before us.

No one here wants to spend money on another new stadium but that one probably has a limited future.

gna

I haven't commuted for a couple of weeks. I haven't finished my winter bike yet. I hadn't finished my fall chores (raking, cleaning gutters) , either, before our first snowfall, and it just keeps getting worse. I hope to finish it soon and start riding again.

Andy_K 

It was 50 degrees here when I rode in this morning and wasn't even raining for a change. I gotta give Minneapolis commuters credit. I'm a four season commuter, but that's pretty easy to pull off here as long as you don't mind getting wet. Even so, I'm sure it's better than driving.

With a foot and a half of snow, I'm guessing it would have been quicker to shoulder the bike and run a lot of the commute.

mustachiod

after the first snowfall, my summer bike instantly became my winter bike. no trouble at all

gna

The Metrodome was essentially a copy of the Pontiac Silverdome, where the Detroit Lions used to play. It is a positive pressure dome, with air pressure keeping the bubble up. The Minnesota Vikings were the junior team when both they and the Twins played at the old Met, but had been successful all throughout the '70s while the Twins unravelled due to free agency, which rankled the Vikings, as they didn't control revenue and the park did not seat that many for football. The Vikings essentially got their way when they designed a new stadium, including controlling all the luxurybox revenue. It's not a bad place for football, but easily the worst baseball park I have ever been in.

urban rider

Wait until next week it is coming your way.

BA Commuter

Many of my co-workers are from Minneapolis. That's crazy weather you guys are having!

It's a shame the Giants weren't inside practicing at the time!

tjspiel

I've found it mostly enjoyable. All the kids' activities were cancelled on Saturday and suddenly we had actual free time. It was fun conversing with the neighbors as we shoveled, none of us quite sure where to put all the snow. My niece and nephew were stuck with us and the kids for the whole weekend so we had a couple of snow football games.

Also had an impromptu fire drill as we jumped from the second story into the piles of snow below. Our kids were sinking almost up to their necks since a lot of the snow had blown off the roof and we had a decent amount of snow on the ground even before this.

JeffSG

tjspiel: You are the man! I can't imagine commuting in that type of weather. I would think that going into one of those headwinds along with that snow you would just spin your wheels. lol

I would think that if you could get that commute on tape it would be a most viewed on YouTube!

Ride safe,

Jeff