BOLVERK – Tim's Lousy Blog

Made plans to ride the Night Owl Classic in Minneapolis with a friend.  The wife and a friend of hers decided to ride as well.  They were doing a shorter route than we were.  Made a last minute decision to ride along with them on their route then come back for the start of ours.  We killed about 48 minutes out on the road then lined up for the longer ride.

First Ride:

Second Ride:

First, never take any home improvement tips from me.

Now that this is out of the way let’s talk a little bit about laying tile.  Read, read lots and pay close attention.  It’s really not that hard of a task if you can be patient and devote the time.  Let me a add a few “don’t do what I did” type bits of advice.

1. Never do a wall as your first project
2. If  you must do a wall, pony up a few extra pennies and buy supplies to practice with!
3. Don’t use tile from different manufacturers for a job unless you know that the width and thickness are identical OR if you plan for these differences.
4. Don’t try to do the math, whiteboard the install and go by a technical diagram.  This is not technology, it just doesn’t seem to work that way.
5. Never use a combination of textured tile and sanded grout unless you really know what you’re doing.
6. Protect the floor, tub, liner, whatever there is when you’re working.  Quadruple the importance of this with sanded grout.
7. Don’t get mad and hit the tile, it breaks.
8. Make sure you have plenty of tile!
9. Don’t take a friends left over tile and start using it not knowing it’s $100 a box Italian tile.
10. Always find a friend to assist the first time.

That’s all I got, a long list of what not to do!

Another ride, same route as the last but a bit further this time.  Started out in NE Minneapolis cycling down the Mississippi into downtown St. Paul and back along West River Parkway.  The ride got a bit wonky as we really had very little clue as to exactly where we were most of the time.  There were quite a few stops to find ourselves on the GPS.  As usual, ended up at The Corner Bar for beer and food!

Ride from Friday night as recorded by my iPhone, I forgot to map a small section from the start point. As you’ll see, got the tracking started at the U of M. This is a great route traveling along East and West river road with some small. rolling speed bumps the Minnesotans call hills. Plus, there’s a great selection of bars to celebrate at and regain a few spent calories at the end! Total, per my cyclometer, about 22 miles. Finished with a beer, or two, at Mac’s Industrial!

Check out the map!