Announcing a New Concept for the Blog

[Denny is thinking: "Boy I wish they didn't have to do those body cavity searches."]

I have an announcement to make. I wanted all of you to be the first to know.

I was happening by the courthouse the other day to laugh at Denny Hecker when I bumped into his half-brother, Lenny Hecker, who has taken over the family business of "leasing" cars and "selling" home mortgages to folks and making sure that "nobody walks" in the Twin Cities, and I don't know what came over me, whether it was Lenny's million dollar smile or a feeling of spring in the air or what, but I fell for it.

I signed on the dotted line and bought myself a package deal -- a brand new 2011 Nissan Armada Platinum & sweet 300,000 square foot house out in Apple Valley!

[This thing is sweet. You don't even notice when there's a headwind! Plus you can park it on top of your urban condo.]

I just couldn't resist. I want to be "livin' large." It didn't take much. All I had to do was walk into the 50 foot "lawyer foyer" and step out onto on that wall-to-wall carpeting, and presto! I was a new man.

[My new pad!]

The Armada is pretty nice too. I can fit all five of my bicycles in it at the same time, so that now I don't even have to choose which one I'm going to "ride" any given day around the Target parking lot out by Happy Trails Highway.

Also, there's a TGIF right nearby, only about a 2 mile drive in Burnsville. I joined their "Give me more stripes" membership benefit program, and not only can you "jump" to the front of the line to get into the restaurant, but a FREE appetizer... (one time only :( ... ).

Anyway, so, I'm lovin' my new lifestyle, but it turns out there aren't any sidewalks out here. So I'm gonna have to change the title of the blog.

Announcing: the new name for the blog is...

Twin City Interstate On-Ramps.

And to kick off, our first On-Ramp of the week is the really lovely 2 lane Northbound onramp at 35E and Country Road 11.

Each time I drive the Armada up this ramp, I get a nice 2 second view of a patch of trees off in the drainage ditch, and sometimes I think of home, growing up in the Oak Savannah forests of South-East Minnesota, the rolling hills, and springtime when the trillium bloom for just a week in the brown woods coming to life after a long winter.

Then I drive onto the freeway.

[The onramp of the week.]