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!
May 30- Gett'in Dirty on the Pike Peak Greenway south and heading home via the Sandcreek Trail
LOL, well you all know that we don't do a lot of gravel (dirt) but since the trikes needed a good cleaning we headed out on the dirty part of the PPGW to check out the new path under the newly updated Circle Drive Bridges. The detour they have had for almost 2 years was really rough, but the newly graded path is much better! Headed down the Weber St. bike lane to the Tejon St. under pass onto the PPGW. Heading south, past the low bridge it turns to gravel all the way to it's current end, at the Fountain Nature Center.
Well, we ran into a PROBLEM, while installing a new water culvert, we had to use a detour and the open space in the fence isn't WIDE ENOUGH for a trike!! :( With a lot of extra movement, we got the trikes thru it, "barely" and back on the trail. It's a short jaunt to the turn off for the Sand Creek Trail heading north. Taking the Las Vegas St underpass, we made our way to trail, over Hancock Expressway. At Airport Road, we picked up the bike lane to get to Murry Blvd. and head to Starbuck's. RATS, the whole road and sidewalks were blocked off for paving!!!!!
Ok, Jo knew a side street that would get us over to Bijou St. bike lane and over to the Hwy. 24 and Murry Blvd. Starbucks. Man, that green iced tea tasted great, along with the infamous Brown Bag Lunch! ;) Have to use the sidewalk on Murry Blvd., to get over to the Homestead Trail South, heading north to the Rock Island Trail, turning West, heading for home a almost 30 mile ride on a beautiful and sunny day, hard to beat that!
Long Ride Video
2-Video Shorts
May 31- A "Kickback" Day to ride "To and Thru" Manitou Springs
We headed down the PPGW-westside trail to get to America the Beautiful Park and the Midland Trail. Heading to Manitou Springs and the Creek Walk Trail, we followed the trail to it's end point and then picked up Lover's Lane and a back street to do a "tour" of downtown Manitou Springs, before getting back to the Creek Walk and Midland Trail. Fun ride and then headed home.
Long Version Video
Video-Short Version
June 4- To Angletech for "New Shifter System Install" on my trike, then headed to the Creekside Coffee House
A couple of months ago, we had the "Trigger Shifter" (Rapid), upgraded to a 9 speed from an older 7 speed, friction shifter system. She has been very happy with the change, so we decided to get it done to my trike to! Headed up the Sinton Trail and over to Angletech. The only bummer is the shifter unit they had wouldn't work with my old rear derailleur, so we had to also add a new rear derailleur, oh well, the other was over 10 years old! We walked over to the Mavrick Station Store for iced tea and the brown bag lunch then back to the shop and it was done!!
The job was done by the newest recumbent tech, Craig and it works really well, much quicker and easier shifting over the whole gear range!! To test it out we head back down Sinton to the PPGW and picked up the Cottonwood Creek trail to have afternoon tea and snack bar at the Creekside Coffee House. After that, it was late afternoon, so we just headed back the same way and headed for home.
Long Video Version
Video-Short Version
June 6- Food Run and Lunch Ride
It's one of those things you NEVER get away from, so we headed up the Rock Island Trail to the Walmart Market on Union Blvd to get "FOOD"! Hooked up the cargo trailer, got to the Market, filled the trailer and pannier's and headed back to the apartment. Unloaded and headed out north on the PPGW, then north on Mark Dabling Blvd over to Garden of the Gods Road up to the McDonald's.
This one has shading over the outdoor patio tables so even though it was a HOT (90F) day but the double hamburger, BBQ chips and a large iced tea made the PITA of shopping into a fun ride. We then headed down to Monument Valley Park, then back over the I-25 Ped Bridge over to the Mesa Springs Greenway and PPGW back home before the early evening rain!
Well, this gets us into June, so stay tuned for more excellent riding adventures from BJ and Jo Ondo, Out and About on the Recumbents! HAPPY TRAILS!
Got a decent day to ride to the local Walmart, to get yarn and misc. items. Added a ride to lunch and then headed home.
May 23- Food Run and Lunch Ride
We've had several days of gray, cloudy and chilly weather! Finally got a decent enough morning to get to the Walmart Market for FOOD! The weather held after we unloaded the food, etc. so we headed out to "do Lunch"!
May 24-Errand Run and Lunch Ride on a Sunny day
Jo likes to make up plastic flower bundles for laying at the small monuments during the Memorial Day Service at the Veteran's Memorial in Memorial Park. We headed out to the local Dollar Tree Store for flowers and ribbon. It was a really nice day so we did another lunch run.
May 25-Memorial Day-Ride to Memorial Park and the Veteran's Memorial for the "Memorial Day Service, hosted by the local Special Ops Group
We always try to find a "Memorial Day Service", wherever we may be on Memorial Day! Our favorite local service is hosted by the Special Ops Group and Motorcycle Club here in Colorado Springs. The Military is important to us; we have 5 Military Installations here!
The day started sunny and warm, so we headed down the Shooks Run Trail over to High Street to the Hancock Ave bike lane and over to Memorial Park. The service starts at 11:15 AM, every Memorial Day. We arrived early enough to take some video and photos of the event, it has many local speakers including the mayor, etc. Wreathes are placed by several different organizations at the specific small monuments around the Veterans Plaza. After it was over, we headed down Union Blvd to the Fountain Rd. bike lane over to the Evergreen Cemetery, to put a flower bundle at my Step-Grandpa's stone in the American Legion Plot.
The weather turned gray and cloudy with a lite sprinkle of rain at times, but it wasn't a problem. We were going to ride to the Westside of town to Rudy's BBQ but the heavy clouds and THUNDER we decided to go to the Good Neighbors Meeting House and get a pulled pork and grilled cheese sandwich instead, it was good and the Herbal Berry iced tea really hit the spot! LOL, the Thunder got Louder, so we headed home by Shooks Run and Rock Island Trails. Always, "REMEMBER" to "HONOR" those that Gave All before you join in the other Memorial Day Gatherings!
Well, that catches us up my friends. Soon we will be heading into SUMMERTIME, Yea! Hopefully the rains will dry up, and we can get in some longer rides soon. Until we meet again. HAPPY TRAILS!
We headed up to Angletech to check out the Spokes Fighting Storkes traveling trike caravan. Dan has a huge trailer full of differently set up trikes for Storke victim's and other types of physical handicap folks that want to see if they can gain some mobility riding a recumbent trike. With all his trikes and the demo trikes at Angletech there were plenty of brands and styles of trikes to work with. LOL, I even rode a new AZUB 20" Full Fat off-road trike, it was a lot of fun. We also came because Pitmaster Toby, from Toby's Trikes and BBQ Channel on YouTube was supplying the BBQ lunch and we have always wanted to try his food and check out his new additions to his AZUB Ti-Fly X trike.
After lunch we took a ride with the whole group down to America the Beautiful Park in downtown Colorado Springs, CO. It was getting late, so we said our good bye's and headed home via the westside Pikes Peak Greenway Trail! Fun Day and great event!
5-3-A cloudy but warm ride, downtown lunch and more!
We headed out to get on the T-Gap trail and then took the Union Blvd path to T-Gap Road and the bike lane over to Nancy Lewis Park for a quick pit stop. Then we headed to downtown at Panino's 74 Restaurant and had salads and a mini-meatball lunch, YUM. after that we headed over to Midland Trail and caught the Foothills Trail over to Sinton trail and back home. It started out a cloudy day but got nice as it got later. Just a several trails ride for some miles!
Video Short-East Side Ride in the Garden of the Gods Park
The whole RIDE Video:
5-7-Food run and Lunch Ride-
Due to wet weather and lots of appointments, we really NEEDED to go to the food store, so we headed up the Rock Island to the Union Blvd Walmart Market and got food and supplies. Loaded up the trailer and pannier's and headed back to the apartment to unload, then up to the Mavrick Station Cafe for a good Hot Dog and BBQ Chips with, what else, Iced Tea!
It was a chilly morning, so we got a bit of a late start so after lunch we headed over to the Sinton Trail, to the PP Greenway and back to the apartment! Even an errand can be a good ride!
Video-Short: Food Run and Lunch Ride
5-9- BIKE LANE FEVER, heading up the Cheyenne Blvd Bike Lane to North Cheyenne Canyon Park
We hadn't been up to the Sacred Grounds Cafe for iced tea and lunch in a bit so we jumped on the Cascade Street bike lane over to the Tejon St. bike lane and the Cheyenne Blvd bike lane headed up to the Cafe and the Starsmoor Center at the foot of the North Cheyenne Canyon Park. It's a bit hectic with the car traffic but with the bike lanes it's not bad. Much better once you get to the Cheyenne Blvd bike lane and head west. We headed up to the Starsmoor Visitor and Nature Center, but the whole area is being redone, restrooms, parking lots, etc. so we turned around and head back down to the Sacred Grounds Cafe CO. For Iced Tea and our brown bag lunch. LOL, we need to save back a few dollars and buy lunch there again soon! We just seem to ride there at the poorest part of the month!
From there, it's back down the Blvd. bike lane and a bit of the same way back, except we headed over to America the Beautiful Park and the PP Greenway over to Monument Valley Park and the west side of the Greenway over the Popcycle Bridge back to the apartment, a long ride but still a lot of fun and excellent weather!
Video Short- North Cheyenne Canyon and Sacred Grounds Cafe
Long Video- Bike Lane Fever
5-14-Angletech then the Creekside Coffee House Ride
Headed up to Angletech to let Joshia check out the rear derailer as I want to upgrade to the rapid shifter (trigger) from the old bar end shifter set up on my trike. Got an appointment for June 4 and they ordered the shifter. Went across the street at Mavrick Station Cafe for iced tea and the brown bag lunch. Decided to not do the normal, Foothills and Midland route and instead head up to the Creekside Coffee House after riding the Cottonwood Creek Trail up to Cottonwood Creek Regional Park as a turnaround point back to the coffee house for afternoon snack and more iced tea! Gave Angletech information to a nice lady who wanted to know more about the trikes and then met an older couple of trike riders having a coffee and also gave them a card so they can check out our YouTube channel! Really nice day started out pretty cloudy but got better and warmer as we rode. 85F by the time we arrived back at the apartment!
Video Short-Mid Cottonwood Creek
Long Video-Angletech and the Creekside Coffee House Ride
Finally caught up, sadly a lot of our yearly medical appointments are in April and May and the weather has been really good our really BAD lately so no idea when the next ride will happen! Until we come together next time My FRIENDS, HAPPY TRAILS
