November 2024, heading towards Thanksgiving Day

November 12, We headed up to our dealer, Angletech, on a kinda sloppy day after a 3 day snowstorm! We used the "Back Route" up the South Centennial Blvd bike lane as they have the Sinton Trail closed off at Elliston Street to demolish a old bridge! We went up to order the parts to convert Jo's TRICE T from "mirrored" disc brakes, which have been a real problem keeping them working, to DRUM BRAKES. Parts have to come from England so it will be 2 to 3 weeks before the swap can get done!  

 

November 14, We have been riding East and North a lot so decided it was time to head to the Westside of the Springs and into Manitou Springs. Using the Midland/Creek Walk Trails. It was a really nice sunny, warm day so we headed to the current ending of the Creek Walk Trail at Mayfair Road. Headed back the Mesa Springs Greenway to Monument Valley Park to eat our afternoon Think Bar, (high protein, NO SUGAR, Low Carb), it seems every afternoon the winds pick up with a coolish breeze, time to head for the storage unit and tuck in the trikes!

November 15, today was just a FOOD RUN for weekly food and household supplies. It was the chilly day of the week, after dropping off the food at the apartment we headed over to the Fillmore Street Mc Donald's for a BOGO Big Mac! Gray clouds came in and the breeze got chilly, headed directly to the storage unit!

November 16, We decided to ride out and check the progress on 2 of the 4 new, "Lighted Crosswalks", the city is installing to make it MUCH easier to get across at these "Street/Trail Intersections"! Sadly, the Murry Blvd/Rock Island lighted crossing showed no progress since last visit, Bummer! Decided to head out to the Shook's Run/Unitah Street crossing and was surprised to see a crew working on a Saturday!! Not only was the 2nd street pole up, they actually got the new "concrete" poured and drying for the connection over to pick up the Shook's Run Trail heading south!! Looks like this could be finished and working very soon, Thanks City of Colorado Springs!! :)

November 18, LOL, well sometimes you have a ride that is a total PITA!! We headed south on the Cascade Ave bike lane to America the Beautiful Park. Picked up the Midland Trail over to 8th Street. Had to use the "sidewalk" till the 8th Street bike lane started. Heading south again on the bike lane, ran into road construction, forced out into traffic for a bit then as we got to our turn at Cheyenne Blvd to pick up the bike lane, MORE road construction all the way up to Cheyenne Middle School, we had to Play with Traffic, Arrugh! Finally it cleared out as we headed up the Canyon. Heading for the Sacred Grounds Cafe, arrived to find out it's CLOSED on Mondays! :( Headed up the bike lane to the Starsmoore Center to use the restroom, LOL, it's CLOSED on Monday's!! Lucky for us, a hiker told us of another restroom in the off street parking lot and YEA, it was actually OPEN!! ;) 

Fought the traffic again heading back down the bike lane and road construction, got over to a side street and made our way to the Panera Bread at the Southgate Shopping Center! It was chilly sitting in the shade outside on their patio so we got HOT tea instead of iced tea and split a cinnamon rasin swirl bagel along with our brown bag PB and sugar free jelly sandwich!! That hit the spot, decided to see IF we could get through the Hugh construction project at the I-25 and Nevada Ave/Tejon Street intersection. They are adding new Sidewalk/Trail crossings, luck was on our side! The new concrete path is open heading north on Nevada Ave, (not done on the side heading south, FYI), we headed towards down town over to America the Beautiful Park and finally, the Mesa Springs Greenway to Monument Valley Park. Back up to Cascade Ave bike lane over to the double wide sidewalk along Nevada Ave to Fillmore Street to pick up 4 prescriptions for Jo at the Walgreens Drug Store, then back over to the Cascade Ave bike lane and headed to the storage unit!! 

It was such a mess, didn't shoot a video or even take any photos!! So, I will leave you with the lowly RELIVE video for the ride! Till next time Happy Trails and upcoming Holidays!

October into November 2024, Indian Summer, then WHAM Winter!!

Ah yes, behind as usual, so let's get at it right away!

October 29

This was just a local area ride on back streets, bike lanes to showcase some of the Halloween Displays we found in the area around our home. It was a REALLY WINDY day but still a FUN ride over all!

 

November 1

We headed up to see if the re-aligned portion of the Rock Island Trail and Murry Blvd, new lighted crosswalk was dry, it was so we headed East to the end of the Rock Island Trail just before Powers Blvd. They have made progress on the crosswalk, but it's still not finished and working as of yet. We ended the ride on the North ending point for the Mesa Springs Greenway, then headed back to Cascade Ave bike lane back to the storage unit. 

November 2

Decided to ride the Templeton Gap Trail, this trail has two different ending points just before the Austin Bluffs Parkway, we decided to take the straight-ahead portion to its end at Ranch Road, a few blocks short of Academy Blvd. Started the video heading back south, then west.

It was getting a bit late, so we headed over to Bonn Park to eat our snack then headed back to the storage unit, tucked in the trikes and walked home

November 5

Had several things to do on the 3rd and 4th so no ride. Sadly Jo came down with a sinus induced migraine headache, so she stayed home. I headed out for short ride as the weather was going into full time WINTER mode by the evening hours. Just did a loop of several trails, stopped at Panera Bread for iced tea as it warmed up enough and ate my brown bag lunch. Headed out of Panera Bread and wow clouds came in WIND came up and the temps seemed to drop 5 or more degrees!! Headed south on the Pikes Peak Greenway and took the Rock Island Connector up to Cascade Ave to end the video and headed for the storage unit then braved the wind back to the apartment!

Sadly, it's been SNOWING on and off from the late afternoon on the 5th. to today, the 8th!

We are supposed to ride in the Veteran's Day Parade with the Pedal Powered Veteran's Group but I'm not sure the back streets from the apartment to the storage unit (1.2 miles each way), to be able to pull our wagon with E-assist batteries and gear!! It's going to be a real last-minute decision on weither we make the parade, RATS! Hope your getting in some good winter season rides! BJ :) 

October 2024, continued, still trying to catch up!!

 Hello, yep, still trying to catch up, my world has become a "Merry-Go-Round" and I can't get off, LOL! ;)

October 23, just a color ride along the Cottonwood Creek Trail!

October 24, we headed north on the Rock Island Trail up to check out the "progress" on the new crossing signal on Murry Blvd & RIT. They have to poles up and installing the signal box! Bummer, we couldn't go any farther ease, on the RIT, they decided to "re-route" the trail at the intersection to bring it to the signal box so they were pouring concrete and the trail was blocked off! We headed west on the RIT to pick up the Canal (Homestead South) trail over to Galley Rd., Arrugh, I guess due to the laying of "NEW Pipe" on Galley Rd., they tore out several sections of the Canal Trail so we couldn't get the Mc Donalds at Murry Blvd and Hwy. 24!!! We turned around for the 2nd. time in one ride! Back to the RIT, over to the Academy Blvd. access Path and to a Mavrick station/store for iced tea and LUNCH!

Headed to Shooks Run Trail and the Good Neighbors Meeting House for afternoon snack and tea! Rode back to the storage unit, then walked home!

October 25, Jo had a heart doctors checkup so I headed off by myself and rode several different trails and bike lanes. Took a couple of photos on the Foothills Trail! Wandered around here and there, then back to the storage unit. Nice day for a solo ride but missed my riding buddy!

October 26, The Out and About on the Recumbents TEAM is back together, we headed for the Sinton Trail to go to our dealer/shop at Angletech. If you ride a older TRICE trike like Jo does, it has "mirrored" hydraulic disc brakes, we had the original brake system replaced with new TEKTRO mirrored hydraulic disc brakes, they are the ONLY company left that makes them these days!! To be honest, they have been a "problem" since installed!!! We are looking at replacing them with a set of "90mm" drum brakes but the tech's needed to check to see if the "KINGPINS" would match up to drum brakes, otherwise new Kingpins are VERY expensive!!!!! 

Kirk, is pretty sure her current Kingpins will work with the swap and they have a set somewhere in backstock of new wheels with drum brakes but he didn't know where to find them. Joshia, will be back on the 29th. so, IF they do actually have them, he knows where and then we will get a service appointment to have them installed. From Angletech, we continued on Sinton to Foothills to the 31st. Street bike lane to Colorado Ave, stopped at Starbucks for iced tea and brown bag lunch. Then over to the Mesa Springs Greenway, over the I-25 Ped/Bike bridge to Monument Valley Park and our favorite spot for afternoon snack at Stanley Lake. Headed to the storage unit and home!

October 27, We just took a Food and Household Supplies Ride to the Walmart Market Place on Union Blvd, headed home dropped off the food and headed to the Mc Donalds on Garden of the Gods Road and I-25, via the Pikes Peak Greenway, then north on the "doublewide" sidewalk to Micky D's! Since we got a later than normal start today we just headed back to the storage area, PPGW, west Templeton Gap Trail and the Cascade Street bike lane!

Well, that's it for now, caught up again as we didn't ride on the 28th., we are doing a walk to downtown and from 5:30 to 7:00 PM taking a Ghost Tour of the old Carnegie Library Downtown, Colorado Springs! Should be FUN, till next time "Happy Trails".