About Lake Minnetonka Bridges - and more!

There are 18 bridges over channels on Lake Minnetonka. The following list gives the vertical clearance under bridges (the lowest bridge is used if there is more than one over the channel) to the normal lake elevation 929.4 ft. This information is important, especially for watercraft with flying bridges or masts.
Arcola 14.75'
Forest Lake 11.7'
Narrows 18.25'
Black Lake 9.75
Grays Bay 14.3'
Noerenberg 12.7'
Boy Scout 7'
Halsted Bay 15'
St. Albans Bay 12.5'
Carson’s Bay 5.7'
Hendrickson 15'
Seton Lake 12.7'
Coffee 13.5'
Libbs Lake 8.8' Tanager Lake 10.2'
Emerald Lake 12.3'
Lost Lake 11.1'
Zimmermans Pass 11.5'

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Even the most primitive human communities must often have created bridges from material lying easily to hand. Hunters and
gatherers follow favourite paths; streams need to be crossed. A fallen tree can be dragged into position to serve as a plank. Forest tendrils may be intertwined as an elementary suspension bridge. Or rafts can be tied together in a pontoon.




- Yes folks, it is all about ratings.
The pictures above are: Gray's Bay Bridge, Bridge on the River Kwai, Loydd Bridges, Bridget Bardot and I have gracefully omitted my shots of my dental bridge.

Chanhassen flamingos

Talk about buoys - rejected Minnetonkafelix marine concepts.

In a continuance of my "rejected concepts" theme, I am reposting my proposed buoy shapes.

My late declaration: "The ice is out"

O.K., I am a little late, but I am confidient in my declaration.
Here we find 3 sailboats in the Wayzata Yacht club ready to get under way - and one sails under Norwegian colors.

Under the bridge troll check

A lone buffalo in Woodland

As I drove home from work the sun was fading to the west. I was startled to see a buffalo silloetted in the woods, along the roadside.
I had never seen it before, and it's pristine patina made me ponder - has it only recently wandered into Woodland?

BTW; Probably the most beautiful American coin was the "Buffalo Nickel" - technically a 5 cent piece, - now extinct. It lived in coin purses from 1913 - 1938.

@ Seven to Seven

In just a few minutes.....

From the Wayzata News:
"The creation of a Quiet Zone does
not mean the tracks will always be quiet,
Kelly said. An engineer can blow his
horn if there is a question of safety, for
example, if something is on the track.
The change to a nighttime
Quiet Zone for train whistles will
surely be welcome, so any celebration
of Wayzata’s famous railroad magnet
can be accomplished after a good
night’s rest."

Locust Hills Wetlands

A minimal sunrise

Ice nearly out Thurdays evening - sailing lessons begin.

Cherry Top. My Minneapolis police car design was rejected

... and Claus Oldenburg had a few choice words for me too.

An ice breaker in St. Alban's Bay

I stopped into the St. Alban's 'Excel' Marina to take a few photos of the brightly colored Ice breaker tied up by the new piers. The marinas' primary colors seemd so.....primary. As I jockeyed for composition up and down the narrow shoreline a hearty looking man approached me. He was the marina owner, - said his name was Gabriel. He was tired and told me that he had been working the ice breakers for 30 hours. The ice had caused some trouble with other's boats.
He pointed to the new docks and said to me with pride: "You could drive a truck on them".

A morning visual report - Wayzata Marina

Deephaven Mail

A visual status report on Lake Minnetonka "ice out"

Carson's Bay - April 3.

Ode to Marshall McLuhan

"The Medium is the Message"


It occurred to me the other day that our reality a reality of a cell phone, the sound of a bluetooth, or writing in text message.

From the prophet Marshall McCluhan:
"Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.

The message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure. This happened whether the railway functioned in a tropical or northern environment, and is quite independent of the freight or content of the railway medium. (Understanding Media, N. Y., 1964, p. 8)

What McLuhan writes about the railroad applies with equal validity to the media of print, television, computers and now the Internet. "The medium is the message" because it is the "medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action."