July 27, 2021 "SHE'S BACK"!! :)

 Good news, Jo's been told by the heart doctors that she's able to start riding her recumbent trike as of the 27th. We needed to get FOOD so we rode the recumbents, pulling the utility trailer to a Neighborhood Market Store (a small Wal-Mart food store) and got our food and supplies for the up coming week! We shop from Weds. to Weds. as we get our SS Retirement checks on the 2nd. Weds. of the month.  It's mostly flat although there is a steep up hill grade on the way back but she did GREAT. We rode EASY and the round trip was only 5 miles so it was a good 1st. ride back from the "heart attack" she had last month. She belongs to a Facebook group called "Recumbent Ladies" and they just had a members T-shirt so we ordered her one and it came yesterday so she got to model it on the trike! :) 

She's got a appointment with Angletech our local recumbent dealer here in Colorado Springs to have a 13x42 8 speed rear cassette installed to make it easier to "climb hills" and up hill grades!! Sadly we can't afford a Efneo Internal Gear Drive, ($5-600 dollars) so she could go from a 8 speed to a 24 speed, maybe some time in the future but the new cassette will be a large help from the trikes STOCK 11x30 8 speed cassette!!  It's kind hilly to get up to the shop via the Sinton Trail so we will be taking it SLOWLY to get her there and I'm spending bucks we don't have but I'm taking her to lunch while they work on the trike!! 

After the up hill incline we stopped in the shade for a drink and breather so I took the photos of my bike and trailer set up, "The RIG", LOL. It's sooooo good to see her back on the trike and smiling!! She's starting to slowly gain distance so she can ride the 2021 VITURAL ADA Tour de Cure-Rocky Mountains on August 28th. She's more than 1/2 way to her goal of $500 in donations for this event, which being a Type II diabetic that RIDES she fully supports. Hope your getting in some great rides this summer! :) 

2021-25-21 A bit of a wander here and there type of ride!!

Well Saturday was a ugly gray and chilly day but Sunday dawned with sunshine and since Jo still can't get out for a ride till the 27th. I again headed out by myself and since she's NOT a early riser I was off and riding by 7:30 AM! It's so nice, cooler and wow you could tell it's Sunday as I had the trails mostly to myself! Headed out riding the T-Gap trail which has a real steep incline heading up to Nevada Ave. 

 From there taking the trail up to the Austin Bluffs underpass and over the bridge to pick up a back road and sidewalk back to Templeton Gap Rd and the bike lane over to Nancy Lewis Park, stopped for break and a Fiber One chewy bar!

From the park I just kinda wandered where ever I pointed the front wheel! ;) A run down Shooks Run trail thru the back streets of down town Co. Springs over to the Midland Trail, then over to the Walnut St. bike lane for a stop a nice little coffee shop for some unsweet iced tea. Ate my PB and sugar free Jelly sandwich and Fuji apple, then headed for the Palmer-Mesa Greenway to pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway heading up to Criterium Bicycles. Stopped in to fill up my water bottle, bought a inexpensive tail light for my utility trailer, then was heading home but it was just "too nice" to head back yet so I headed up the the Nevada St. path up to the Vincent St. bridge, a quick connector on Cottonwood Creek Trail back to the PP Greenway heading south to actually head for home this time. 3 hrs. 29 miles fantastic weather, the perfect day to RIDE!! :)

"CAR FREE" alas, we are now back to that status in our Retirement Lives! :(

 July 20, 2021: Well our 30 year old Ford Ranger Truck, bit the dust hard, both transmission, engine problems and a broken steering column, have sealed the final fate of "Old Blue". It's been towed off the scrap yard, the repairs would be THOUSANDS of dollars for a truck worth $500-1000 dollars at the most so fair well old friend, hate to see it go out this way but it gave it's all for me, no complaints! :)

So in our life, we were "Car Free" for about 10 years before Jo's heart attack in Jan. 2019, I bought Old Blue from my brother, it was his junk hauling and errand running truck We used it big time for the 1st. year after her heart attack it was on the go constantly!!! About 2 weeks ago it gave up the ghost so now we are again, "Car Free" as now both being retired on our meager Social Security Retirement Income we "CAN NOT" afford even a older used car or truck!  So I pulled the "utility trailer" I built up years ago out of storage, did some maintance and it's now back to full time usage as the "FOOD hauler and larger items pick up"!! :)  I call my bike, (R.E.D. Retired, Extremely Dangerous, like it's owner, LOL), but it's the RIG with the trailer attached! ;)

Back in a earlier blog post,  I sold my Giant Escape 3 Hybrid to get a bike that was more comfortable and "compatible" with Jo's Terra Trike Rover Recumbent Trike and it's 20 inch wheel's. So I now ride a 2007 SUN EZ-1 SX recumbent bicycle!! It's a good trailer tugger and quite comfortable to ride! :) It pulls well with 25 to 30 lbs. of food or even more weight with heavier items. R.E.D. has a tiny 16 in. wheel in front and a 20 inch wheel in back, the trailer is both 20 inch wheels, it's a old Burley Kiddie Trailer I converted to do utility work and both the bike, the trike and the trailer are "garaged" in the front room of our 1 bedroom apartment! ;) 

So the "bikes" are now our main mode of transportation so it's gona be FUN this winter have to get food on the warmer days during the week, that's a one good thing about being  retried, I can get out and about on the recumbent when the weather is GOOD! :) That's all for now, hope you all are getting in some great rides, ENJOY, the summer is going WAYYYYY to fast! ;) 

7-11-21 Missing Jo, can't wait till she's over her heart rehab limitations, still headed out for a solo ride to Cottonwood Park in Co. Spgs. CO.

 Well Jo is still not able to ride her trike so I headed out solo and decided to head to Cottonwood Park via the Pikes Peak Greenway and the Cottonwood Creek Trail. Sunny, hot at 85 F+ sunny but quite a bit of "smoke" in the air from forest fires here in CO. and other close States! Headed out the Greenway, not much trail traffic headed up to Criterium Bicycles to get a different helmet mirror as the one I bought just isn't working well! Alas, I arrived a 9AM and they didn't open till 10 so I continued and picked up the Cottonwood Creek Trail heading east to the park to eat my brown bag lunch! Thought about doing the rest of the CCT heading north east from the park but it's so barren, no parks, no stores, etc. decided to just turn around and head west back to the PPGW over to the Palmer-Mesa Greenway to it's end heading north, then headed back to the apt. 20 miles, the ride their is uphill grade but it's FUN coming back to the West!! Still can't wait till Jo can start riding her trike again, it get's lonely eating by yourself!!

July 4, 2021 A Independence Day Ride

 Well sadly Jo isn't medically cleared yet to ride her trike so she headed out for a walk as I headed out on a ride!  Decided it was time to see how the "new to me" SUN EZ-1 SX recumbent bicycle did on some of the steeper uphill graded area's of the Sinton and Foothills trails here in Co. Springs. Was pleased I didn't have to drop into my "low gear" to make the inclines and headed west on Sinton trail but ran into a detour at Chestnut St. were the have closed the trail, arrugh. Got stuck riding a degraded sidewalk all the way to Garden of the Gods Road, (north), then west on GoG Rd. over to 30th. st. to a loaf & jug store. Wanted some Gatoraid ZERO but rats, I forgot my wallet, bummer! I headed south on the Foothills trail and headed over to see if the "visitor center" at the Garden of the Gods was open and it was. Got my water bottle filled and a nature break, then headed again south on the Foothills till I picked up the 31st. St. bike lane over to the Midland Trail. Headed west over to the skateboard park in Manitou Springs and found a shady spot with a open table to eat my brown bag lunch!!

Man, I must be getting OLD, I also forgot my PB and sugar free jelly sandwich!!!! :O Oh well I had a chewy bar, apple and some baked pea crisps so that staved off the hunger pangs! ;) Headed back via the Midland trail and the Palmer-Mesa Greenway to the apt. 17 miles, HOT and SUNNY with just a bit of breeze. A couple of hours after I got back, we fired up the grill, (LOL, just a little George Forman indoor grill) to grill the Nathan's hot dogs, along with potato salad, coleslaw, fruit cocktail for our "Independence Day" feast! Then "carb smart" ice cream and sugar free strawberry syrup and tuned into the Fireworks from NY. on the TV, a excellent "Independence Day" for sure, hope yours was enjoyable too!  Here is a video of my ride: 

July 2021 We both went back to riding RECUMBENTS! :)

Hello All, we've had some real situations come up in our lives lately!! Jo had 3 different "fade out" spells while riding her "bicycle" we thought it was just "heat and all her meds she takes for heart and diabetes"! Well the last fade out resulted in "1 broken and 2 cracked RIBS", the bicycle is fine, it was protected by her body, OUCH! :( She decided she needed to go back to a "recumbent trike" so we spent the last of our emergency money and found her a used, 2016 Terra Trike Rover X8 trike. The surprises weren't done yet, at the hospital for the rib injury they did a test found a heart enzyme in her blood stream (not supposed to be there), which meant she actually had 3 "very minor Heart Attacks"!!!! :O Due to a very small artery that is at the top of your heart that was totally clogged up! :( So she's out of the hospital and doing her heart recovery sadly starting again at Level ZERO. She can't do anything for a week, then short flat land walks for the next week with more and longer walks as the month goes on.

It will be 4 to 6 weeks till she can "ride" her recumbent trike again! :(  Well, we'd been on one ride after she got her trike before the hospital visit and I decided that the "bicycle" I had wasn't compatible for riding together (the bike has much larger tires and it's much faster when it cruises), so I have SOLD both her bicycle and my bicycle and I found a great deal on a 2007 SUN (Sunseeker) EZ-1 SX recumbent bicycle, which is MUCH more compatible speed wise with Jo's TRIKE! :) So we are now back to riding recumbents and I changed the name of the blog to "Out and About on the Recumbents"! Here's a couple of photos of our "new to us" recumbents.