Bike Riding in Norway (not DSM) in June 2018
Spring – and Des Moines’ bike trails beckon! But this spring, like many others, is tricky for riders (and walkers), thanks to flooding and construction. On our first ride of the season, yesterday — a gorgeous spring Easter Sunday — D and I set out on the Inter-urban Trail north of our house in Beaverdale and rode east toward the Neal Smith/Dorrian trail along the Des Moines River. Within minutes, we encountered flooding and closures. Nevertheless, we persisted.
Crossing the trestle bridge over the river, we ended up going straight on a new dirt trail spur that led us toward McHenry Park (we think) and then back onto the Smith/Dorrian trail briefly. As we figured, the portion of the trail hugging the river north of Birdland Marina was flooded but we didn’t expect the road paralleling the trail to be torn up (apparently under construction). Instead of navigating dirt and gravel, we ended up walking our bikes up a grassy embankment and taking what turned out to be another detour, in an industrial area near North High. We ended up just south of Union Park and Birdland Marina, where we again encountered torn up trail so we walked our bikes up the hill past Captain Roy’s, a popular riverside bar and restaurant. (Braver souls rode on the street.) From there we had smooth sailing past the Botanical Center into the East Village, past Principal Park and west along the Raccoon River to Gray’s Lake where we encountered more construction but it was easily navigated, in part because the road around the lake is closed to cars so it’s wide open for bikers and walkers.
More smooth sailing in Waterworks Park, even along the river where there is often flooding. And no issues — except my out-of-shape body (this was my first ride in nine months, since breaking my arm in July 2018 in Norway) — as we chugged up the road past Ashworth Pool, Greenwood Park, The Des Moines Art Center and along Polk Boulevard and Roosevelt High school home to Forestdale. Oh happy day!
It only took about 30 years but last night, friends dragged me over to Carl’s, the famed dive bar in Des Moines’ Sherman Hill neighborhood. From the outside, the worn wood building looks like it’s about to collapse. Inside, the place was bigger and brighter than I expected, with a lively and diverse crowd enjoying Tuesday night live music by local musicians. I’m not big on bars – I don’t drink much – but I get the draw of this place and see why people (including many a visiting Democratic operative) love it. It feels “authentic.”
Thanks to the Krause Corporation (owner of the Kum & Go convenience store chain) for opening its fantastic new headquarters downtown for a day of public tours. So many people wanted to walk around the five-story Krause Gateway Center, designed by Italian architect 
The building is unlike any other in Des Moines — or elsewhere that I’ve visited–with its massive scale and sculptural look including high glass walls separated by four overhanging white horizontal planes. The glass walls on the main floor are 29 feet high — higher than any other such walls in North America except for an Apple store in New York City. The space is very light (naturally) and the building almost translucent. From the building’s south side, you have a fantastic view of the sculpture park below and if you look north, down a long hall, you can gaze through another window at a street leading up to the Sherman Hill neighborhood.
The interior design is sparse and clean with immaculate desks – in various configurations and groupings. There are high top tables, lower top desks, sitting spaces in an upholstered nook that felt a bit like a padded cell (except one side is open.) Most people don’t have assigned desks. Employees do get their own locker, to store their stuff, which they remove and place wherever they plant themselves during a given day. I gather this is au currant office design (and supposedly spurs more collaboration) but also takes some getting used to for employees accustomed to the creature comforts of their very own cubicle, slathered with family photos, gag bobble-heads and stacks of yellowing paper, yes, paper.
None of that to be found at the Krause Gateway Center, where the furniture is clean and contemporary, popping with color including orange and red Swan chairs, the famous chairs designed in 1958 by Arne Jacobsen for a Copenhagen hotel (I grew up with white Swan chairs in our ancestral home) as well as deep blue, orange and green high-backed chairs and couches. Big dramatic pieces of contemporary art also pop off the white walls and blond wood paneling –and there’s even a second floor art gallery, open to employees only.
The roof has vegetation that apparently will grow — and features stupendous views of the city, although I worry that the fencing at the edges isn’t high enough.
One of my bigger regrets is not going to see the real Prince when he performed years ago in Ames, Iowa (not far from where we live in Des Moines). So last Friday, we took the best we could get, especially now that Real Prince is, sadly, no longer with us. We went to a tribute band that rumor has it was the only fake that the Real Deal approved of.
TakeBetsywithyou 