WELCOME to: BJ and Jo Ondo's recumbent trike cycling blog! This blog has information about US! We don't own a car and use our trikes for our main Transportation and, also our Recreation! Thanks for checking out the Blog, LETS RIDE!
August 28- We headed south to pick up the Midland Trail, west and head into Manitou Springs and our favorite picnic spot on the Creek Walk Trail
Beautiful day for an easy ride as the Midland and Creekwalk trails are old rail trails. There is a pull-off with two small metal picnic tables and a bench right along Fountain Creek just before the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce building. No iced tea, just water and our brown bag lunches but the place is quite nice. Headed the opposite way back, stopped and finally got that iced tea and ate our late afternoon snack bars. From there it was time to head home, great day, enjoyable ride!
September 2-Heading to our favorite Haunt, the Creekside Cafe and Cottonwood Creek Trail
Heading north, on the Pikes Peak Greenway to the junction with the Cottonwood Creek Trail and making our way, east to the Creekside Coffee House! Brown bag lunch and of course iced tea on the patio! The CC House has good food and drinks and lots of shade on a really hot day.
From there, back on the CCT, east all the way to the current ending point, (with a detour for construction), just northeast of Powers Blvd. where the concrete trail ends, turning into a gravel single-track trail, not a good trail for recumbent trikes!! It's all downhill heading west on the CCT so it was a fast run back to the Pikes Peak Greenway, south and back home. 90F sunny and hot but still an excellent ride.
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September 5-FOOD RUN and Lunch Ride to Panino's 74 Restaurant-Music Video
Time again for the Bi-Monthly Food Run to the Walmart Market off of Union Blvd. via the Rock Island Trail. Did the shopping, loaded the cargo trailer and headed home to put the cold/frozen items away. Jumped on the Cascade Ave. bike lane, south heading downtown.
Panino's 74 has been our favorite Italian Restaurant for decades and it's a short ride with a shaded patio, which lets us keep track of the trikes! We got our favorite, Panino Wrap, "The Big Bopper"!
We headed down and picked up Shooks Run Trail, north in the afternoon, stopped at the Tasty Freeze Drive Inn for our 2nd. iced tea and a snack bar. We were going to head out a bit further BUT, the dark rain clouds were coming in so we bailed and headed home via Shooks Run and Rock Island, west. Got the trikes in the apartment and the RAIN came down, perfect timing!!
Heading to Panino's 74-Video-Short
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September 6- The NEVER-ENDING search for MORE YARN Ride
LOL, Jo has been using old yarn that was given to her by a friend, hoping to make it last till after we got back from "Recumbent Cycle-Con" in Mid-September. She caved and we set out to get her enough YARN to make her baby blankets & beanies for local area hospitals here in Colorado Springs and Pueblo CO.
Again, headed east on the Rock Island Trail to get to the Chelton Drive bike lane over to the Platte Ave. Walmart Supercenter. Lucky, I found the only shady spot around the store, and she headed in to get her yarn. Yarn loaded up in the Saddle Bags we headed back to the Rock Island Trail, east but the Chelton Drive bike lane has a "13.5% Grade HILL"!!! Thank
goodness for "E-assist" which helped us get up the hill and back on the trail. Heading over to turn on the Academy Blvd. walking/cycle Path, north and head to the Mavrick Station Cafe for our lunch. Headed back down the Rock Island Trail, west and then home. Food shopping wears us out so it was a much shorter ride than normal, but it makes even a "chore" fun!
13.5% hill, Chelton Ave Bike Lane
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The only other ride so far was done by Jo alone as I had a dental appointment, September 9,
she headed up to Angletech to get 2-new front tires installed and check fender alignment before we head out on September 15th. to "Recumbent Cycle-Con" and some "different" trail riding in Xena, OH. Might be a ride or two before we head out but that's for another BLOG entry!! Happy Trails!
Here is one more ride for August, we are slowing down the rides for bit to conserve MONEY for our road trip to Xenia, OH. and the "Recumbent Cycle-Con" Trade Show in September, (19-20). Having to rent a mini-van and several days "motel" stay going to, there and coming back is expensive but it's a Bucket List trip for us! So, on with the last ride.
August 22- August PPRRN Meet & Eat Ride to Stellina's Pizza Company.
We headed out a bit early to do a pre-ride before getting to the "meet up point" at the Legacy Loop Trailhead along the westside, of the Pikes Peak Greenway thru Monument Valley Park. We headed south on the PPGW to the main part of the park, stopped for a nature break and then over the I-25 Ped Bridge to the Mesa Springs Greenway, north.
Rode the MSG all the way to its current ending at the American Furniture Warehouse Building and turned around to go pick up the Fontanero St. bike lane, east back to the PPGW and the Trailhead meeting point. Mark and Dianne showed up and then a big surprise, Larry S., the other PPRRN Admin. showed up too! We all headed north then east on the PPGW to the Rock Island and headed south on the Shooks Run Trail. It's a nice ride down the North and Middle portions of Shooks Run to the Willamette Ave Bike Lane, east and just a couple of blocks to the Pizza Company.
Well, we got there a lot sooner than I thought we would, so we decided to head back down to Shooks run and ride it till the end point at the Old Stone railroad bridge. RATS, the lower section was covered in thick MUD from the afternoon thunder storms as of late. We did a turn around and headed back to Stellian's. It was open so we got inside in the AC and had Italian sandwiches and Buscetta bites, YUM! We thought about adding to the miles BUT the clouds rolled in and the thunder was making noise! So we all decided to call it a day and head to our homes heading back on Shooks Run and going both west and east on Rock Island.
Excellent food, great company makes for a very good RIDE! Looking forward to September's PPRRN Meet & Eat Ride!
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There will probably be a few more rides before Sept. 16th., that's when we head out to Recumbent Cycle-Con 2026! We plan on taking vids, photos, etc. and reporting on getting the RIDE some out of state trails we have NEVER been on before, YA! Till we Come Together AGAIN, My FRIENDS, HAPPY TRAILS!
Ok, time to add a couple of more rides here in August, between on and off rainstorms and more HEAT!
August 13- Last Ride with the Le Clerc's and another Breakfast Ride.
Again, we met at the Legacy Loop Trailhead, but we headed north on the "westside" of the Pikes Peak Greenway as we decided to go get breakfast at the, Creekside Coffee House. The Le Clerc's will be heading back to Indiana on Tuesday the 18th. so, this would be our last ride till we meet up again in Ohio for Recumbent Cycle-Con! North, on the PPGW up to hook into the Cottonwood Creek Trail, LOL, yes, it's a favorite ride and we enjoy supporting the Coffee House inside an actual church!
After a good breakfast, we turned east on the CCT, under the tunnel and headed to one of two turnaround points. Rats, by the first one, the clouds started a sprinkle, so we decided to head back west on the CCT to the Pikes Peak Greenway. A rest stop at Criterium Bike Shop and back down the PPGW. Decided to call it a day for Jo and I and the Le Clerc's chose to ride south to America the Beautiful Park. Even if it cut the ride short a bit, it was great to get in one more ride with our Triker Friends again!!
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August 16- The "In search of low sugar pastries", a ride to find Sweet Elizabeth's Organic Bakery for a sweet treat, Jo can eat!
Sunday morning, the sun is up, it's a bit early but we are on a mission! We have been trying to find a bakery in town that made sugar free pastries! Well, there are NONE, we did find one that made low sugar pastries, using fruit as the sugar or using coconut sugar. We decided to make the ride a bit longer by heading down the Pikes Peak Greenway to America the Beautiful Park, Midland Trail, west to 14th. Street. Turned at Pikes Peak Ave. for a bit of street riding, then turned on 19th. Street, north up to Uintah St. Thought it was located in a shopping center, rats, it wasn't there. Finally, I called just to find out it was across the street just a bit in a tiny strip mall area.
We finally arrived at Sweet Elizabeth's Organic Bakery, decided to park in the space between the buildings. We headed in and got small banana muffin's (the banana is the sweetness) and a non-iced cinnamon roll using coconut sugar and a high fiber dough to bring down the sugar levels a bit. Very tasty, we will be back again for sure. They also have sandwiches, flat bread pizza and more for lunch! We headed back down the fairly beat up Uintah St. Bike Lane to the Mesa Springs Greenway, north. Rode the MSG to its current ending point before Fillmore St. Decided to add to the ride, back to the PPGW then the Rock Island Trail up to the Academy Blvd Path over to Mavrick Station cafe to eat our brown bag lunch and iced tea. Just did a reverse and headed home to beat the HEAT in the AC in the apartment!
Really happy to find a fairly close destination for a pastry and either a nice hot or iced tea again! I think the non-iced cinnamon roll using coconut sugar will be the favorite!
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A few days off riding due to medical appointments, Tai-Chi Class, etc. Our next ride with be on August 21st., Just a Food Run and Lunch Ride deal. Then on Saturday, August 22, I will be leading the August PPRRN Meet & Eat ride to a never been to Italian Restaurant off of the Williamite St. bike lane. It used to be a old style General Store but new owners made it a Pizza Place and Italian Cafe! Will report back on the verdict of the cafe/restaurant soon, BYE for now and HAPPY TRAILS!
