December 28, 2022-Food Run and Photo session with the local newspaper for a possible article about "Recumbent Lifestyle"!

 Something a bit different, Weds. is our normal Food shopping day so we hitch up the cargo trailer and head to the store. Today is different due to a Facebook Friend, contacted our local newspaper, (The Gazette) and they decided to do an article on us and our "car free" recumbent trike lifestyle! LOL, well we were surprised as for us it's all just NORMAL! ;) The reporter came the day before and then the photographer showed up on Weds. and followed us, jumping ahead to get photos of us. She was really great and even waited 40 minutes for me to do our shopping for food and supplies so she could show us loading up the cargo trailer. It was a gray day with lot's of high clouds blocking out the sun but the temps weren't too bad! Due to the trail being sloppy from our last snow, we used back streets which worked better for the photographer there and back to the apartment. She took a couple of last "head shots" and we said goodbye. If the article makes the paper, she will let us know when it's going to be published. Here is a video of the ride and if you look you can see the photographer at different places! 

No photos just didn't have time. After unloading the cargo trailer and pulling it up the stairs to our 2nd. floor apt. we headed out to get lunch at Panera Bread. Creamy tomato soup and hunk of french bread and unsweet iced tea hit the spot. Warmed up and being a bit later than usual we jumped on the Pikes Peak Greenway and headed home. Later that evening the snow started falling, 4 inches of fresh powder on Thursday morning so it's gona be a while before we can ride again, RATS! We wish you a Totally Awesome New Year's, All the best, BJ and Jo Ondo :)

December 24, 2022- We wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Excellent New Years!!

Hello and Seasons Greetings to all, this is just to wish YOU and YOURS a very happy holiday season, no matter what you celebrate at this time of year!! As usual the year went by fast, it seems since we turned 60, they get faster every year, when they really NEED to slow down, LOL! ;) Well all the best in the year to come, pray to what you believe for no more War and that the world can finally find a way to some level of true PEACE! From US to YOU, we hope your Holiday Season was awesome!! Here's also hoping to more, Miles of Smiles in 2023!! Happy Holidays!! :)  

December 20, 2022-A ride to find cheap gifts for family Christmas Eve gathering

 It's been quite cold on and off so not a lot of rides but on Dec. 20, the temps came back up to low 40 F range so we needed to get over to the Dollar Tree Store to get some "cheap" gifts for our family Christmas Eve Gathering. Over the last few years, we've decided to keep the spending down and made a challenge out of it! The spending limit is $10 and you have to find 5 gifts, it's not as easy as it sounds because even Dollar Tree is not a true Dollar store anymore. Prices for items now range between $1.25 and up and that makes finding something different each year a bit of a chore, LOL! Well, the day started out sunny and warmish but there was still a chill to the breeze. After scoring our gifts we added to the ride by heading over to Panera Bread and got hot cups of tea and creamy tomato soup, with a small hunk of French bread, Yum. After lunch we got back on the trikes and discovered that the clouds had rolled in, the breeze was stronger and chillier. Still, we rode up the detour trail to Criterium Bike Shop and back south on the Pikes Peak Greenway. Decided to get a Powerball ticket at a local gas station/convenience store and on the way back down Becon St. we found a wild Holiday Season Display so we just had to get a photo:

Then it was really starting to get chilly so we hauled bunns home and get the trikes back into the apartment and made some Hot Coco (we use Stevia Sweetener, not sugar and coco not 1iquid chocolate), It's homemade so Jo as a Type 2 diabetic can have some too. Along with some Stevia sweetened homemade Christmas Cookies made for a FUN day! 17 miles total for the ride and lot's of smiles!  

December 11, 2022-A ride before the next Cold Snap of weather

 Gota cold snap on the way for Tuesday with possible snow and then it's gona stay cold maybe all the way to Christmas Day, ARRUGH! :( Sunday, the 11th., looked good so we decided to do halfway on one trail and then the 2nd. half on another trail. We headed up the Sinton Trail to see if they have done ANY work to finish the trail up to Garden of the Gods Rd. and 31st. street. Sadly, that last few blocks of concrete is still mostly dirt and blocked off, Bummer! Well we headed up to the Loaf N Jug store for a break and more water. We went back on the trail all the way to the Pikes Peak Greenway and then headed north. Heading for the University Village Colorado Center and Panera Bread. It was warm enough to sit on the patio in the sun so we got a "iced unsweetened tea", instead of the Hot tea we've been getting on the last couple of rides to warm up a bit! From there we headed north again on the Detour Trail up to Criterium Bicycle Shop and then back on the Pikes Peak Greenway heading south to the apartment as the sun was getting low in the sky. Winter days really go fast as you have to wait a bit long to start to let it WARM up, LOL! ;) I stopped at a feeder stream that goes into Fountain Creek to take a photo.

Well it's going to be wicked cold for quite a while, a VERY COLD food run this week for sure! There are times when not having "auto transportation" is a RPITA but just gota grin and bare it to get the job done, Happy Holiday Season!

December 4-5, 2022-A ride to search for "inexpensive Christmas Cards"-Day 1 NO LUCK!-Day 2, Finally found some semi-affordable ones at a Walmart

On Sunday we decided we needed to find some affordable Christmas Cards so we could get them in the mail! We went to several different Dollar Stores, and they had NONE! So, we headed off to lunch on a sunny but quite chilly day as the breeze was cold. Well we never found any cards that fit our merger budget but it felt good to RIDE! Here is a video of the Search for Cheap Christmas Cards Ride: 

Monday, we figured we'd try some Walmart's and we finally found one that had a semi-affordable box of cards. Ok, we enjoy sending out old fashioned Christmas cards but living on our very meager SS retirement income, the price of stamps, etc. means we have to use "cheap" cards, which are still much better than the current, Facebook Christmas card, JMHO!! The day was warmer with a bit more sunshine, and we stopped at the South. Panera Bread for iced tea to go with our Brown Bag Lunch! On Tuesday we left the trikes at home and walked the cards to the local post office and they are on their way! Mission Accomplished!! The days before our rides were gray, cloudy and cold so it was great to get out and RIDE!! Happy Holidays, however, you celebrate this season!

November 26-28, 2022-Ride to Manitou and Cottonwood Creek Trail ride before the SNOW in our area by Tuesday early morning!

 The cold snap finally broke so on Saturday, Nov. 26th. we headed out for a ride to Manitou Springs for our brown bag lunch. A sunny but chilly breeze day and the winds were starting to get stronger as we got into Manitou Springs, via the Midland and Creek Walk trails. Got in a 20+ mile day and back before the winds got really strong for an oncoming Cold Front scheduled for Sunday! Here is a full-length video of our ride to Manitou Springs, where we stopped at the "Skateboard Park" to eat our brown bag lunch!

 Sunday was cold, grey and windy but Monday said it was to be sunny and a high of almost 60 F so we headed out for a ride. LOL, the weather guessers were wrong! It was cloudy and a bit nippy but with snow coming in for Tuesday early morning, we headed out to ride a portion of the Cottonwood Creek Trail. We started on the Pikes Peak Greenway, heading north. Then turned northeast on the CCT. Rode up to the Academy Blvd. North off trail ramp and then turned around and headed to a close Panera Bread for a HOT tea to go with our brown bag lunch! The wind was gaining speed, so we ate "inside" and not on the patio like we normally do. The sun did finally come out, so we rode south over to the Fontanero St. Trailhead, then via back streets to the Safeway Food Store for a few items to get us past the cold spell! Here's a "Video Short" of part of the CCT: 

Well, it's Tuesday Morning and there's 2 inches of fresh snow outside our windows so no riding today, RATS. Oh well, we did enjoy yesterday's ride and it should not take too long to melt off the snow so we can RIDE! :) 20 miles RT, 35-55 F temps, mostly cloudy till later in the day, the CCT is a "urban trail" right at 10 miles long. All uphill grade heading north but not bad overall. BJ 

November 21, 2022-Back in the "wintertime" rut!

It's that time of the year, having to use the recumbent style exercise bike and watch YouTube trike and bike videos, while waiting for those days of dry trails/roads and warmer temperatures!  We did get out on Monday the 21st., (we are poor but retired!!), it was sunny and almost 50 F. We wanted to see how the "bike lane", on the new Centennial Blvd. South Extension came out after months of construction to make the road go from Chestnut Street up to Fillmore Street. Wow, it's good but it's all "uphill" so we got a great workout, LOL! We found out they continued to bike lane all the way down to the Garden of the Gods Road so now we have two ways to get to our local recumbent dealer, Angletech, [www.cycledifferent.com]. The bad thing is the traffic from Fillmore to GoG Road is intense but it's good to have a easier way up to the shop if for some reason the Sinton Trail is closed!

We rode to pick up the Sinton Trail, heading south to the Pikes Peak Greenway, turned north to head over to the University Village Colorado Center, headed to Panera Bread for our brown bag lunch and unsweetened HOT tea as the temps drop much faster in these winter afternoons! With the wind getting a bit stronger and the waning sunlight we decided to just head back to the apartment and call it a day! Felt SO GOOD to ride after a few days being stuck inside using the recumbent style exercise bike!! 21 miles RT. 

November 15 and 16, Cold Front and Food Run, BURRRRR! :(

 I had a major service appointment at Angletech for my TT Tour 1 Trike on Nov. 15th. and of course, we got a major COLD front! :( I had to "layer up" as the high was only in the 20 F range and that would be at 3 pm, my appt. was at 1030 am. The way to Angletech is all uphill grade so the workout kept me fairly warm. My trike, "Abbey-Normal", came with a set of adapters so you could use a 26 in. rear wheel. I rode several hundred miles with the 26 in. rear wheel but didn't like the set up much, so I had them switch it back to a stock 20 in. rear wheel and replace the rear derailleur cable. 

 Kirk, the head tech and I were discussing how "vague feeling" the Avid BB5 disk brakes that came on this trike felt, he suggested we upgrade to Avid BB7 disk brakes. The BB7's are MUCH better in "feel" and stopping power!! The 20 in. rear wheel switch has given me MORE "low end", i.e.: hill climbing is easier! I did lose some "top end", i.e.: overall speed on flat land, but that's fine with me as Jo and I NEED the climbing gears much more than flat land speed!! We are 67 years old, and I have to use a "cargo trailer" to get food and supplies or larger objects. 

The ride back to home, seemed colder as it's mostly downhill grade so the speed was up and so was the "wind chill". Happy to get back to the apartment and some sugar free hot coco! Short ride at about 8 miles total but in the COLD, that just fine with me! :)

Nov. 16, It's Wednesday so it's time for the weekly FOOD RUN, at least it was a bit warmer temperature wise, and the sun was out!! Hooked up the cargo trailer, LOL, the new 20 in. rear wheel does make the "trailer hitch receiver" even lower to the ground but still works well. 

We had to leave later than we usually did as it takes a while to "Warm Up" now that's it's winter!! Headed off to the Walmart Neighborhood Market Place on Union and Rock Island Trail. With the late start, the time spend shopping, etc. it was quite a bit later than we have been leaving the store, so we decided to just head home instead of riding up to the University Center Colorado to Panera Bread to get iced tea and have our normal brown bag lunch ride.

 Infact, we ate lunch before we left to go to the store due to the chilly day! Back home, dragged up the cargo trailer and both trikes to our 2nd. floor apt., put away the food and supplies and we made some HOT tea to go with our afternoon snack. It's gotten ever COLDER since so we haven't been able to ride. Spending the next few days on the "exercise bike" at home, maybe we will be able to ride again by Tuesday, the 22nd. looks like a warm front might finally return! :) BJ Sorry to COLD to take photos or videos!! 

November 5th. 2022, Colorado Springs Veteran's Day Parade, we ride with the Veteran Powered Vehicle Group

 We got a invite to ride with the "Veteran Powered Vehicle Group" at the Annual, Co. Springs, CO. Veteran's Day Parade on November 5th. As I am a veteran of both the USAF and the USN, I said yes, and asked if Jo could ride with us for her Dad, Retired US Army, SFC James E. Perse, who served "3 Tours in the Vietnam War in his career!! We got to our group stagging site a bit early and awaited for other riders to arrive. We ended up with 8 riders on a lot of different and even, custom made bikes! 

We were in stagging spot #61 so it was going to be awhile before we got to join up to the parade which closed 7 city blocks along Tejon St. Floats, Groups, Bands, Many JRROTC units from the high schools, the Honor Bell and Solders from Ft. Carson were there. We had a excellent reenactment group who had "period" costumes from every era behind us! We finally got started and Rodger and I held up a "banner" while riding, it was a bit tricky but recumbent trikes made it work! We got to the end, took a group photo. It started out quite gray and chilly, but it got partly sunny and a bit warmer toward the end of the parade. Most of the group headed to go eat but we had a important errand to run, so we said our goodbyes and headed off. After our errand was done, we ate our brown bag lunch at Prospect Lake, then decided to head up to Panera Bread in the University Village Colorado Center for either hot or cold tea according to what we wanted by the time we got there. It was VERY windy for a while but it slightly mellowed on the way back home. 26 miles total, a chilly but fun day ride to support Veteran's! Here are some of the bikes:

I will add a video, when it's produced, very soon, thanks! :)

Riding has been sparce due to a "family tragedy" in Oct.!!!

 Hello all, well we haven't ridden much as of Oct. 26, our Son, Steven passed away unexpectedly!! :( So, except for a video and a couple of photos of a quick "clear the head ride" I managed to get in while my wife Jo and her family were doing "legal" stuff, that I as Steven's "step-dad" wasn't needed to be a part of! Here is the last ride video we shot, it's letting you know what it takes to be without a "truck", ride recumbent trikes and live in a 2nd. story apartment and a bit of a "errand ride" with the cargo trailer hooked up to go get FOOD and supplies! Yes, you lose the "convenience" factor in your lifestyle when you can't AFFORD a truck to haul the trikes around in or go to the FOOD store, etc. You have to PLAN every ride, even the "Errand Rides" but hey, at least you do the bonus of "getting to RIDE"!! ;) 

On Friday, while the wife and Steven's "blood legal" family were doing the "legal" paperwork, etc. for Steven's Cremation Plans, etc. I got a small window of time and took a Clear the Head ride, just to try to get a couple of hours to "think" about the "GOOD TIMES" my Son, Steven and I had as he grew up, His first bike, when we started Mountain Bike Racing together and sharing a motorcycle ride adventure out on the road before it became, "Not Cool" to hang with the Old Man and his friends became more important, which is very natural as your kids grow up! :) Steven was a Chef at many different levels and even a Kitchen Manager for some fancy restaurants at times in his turbulent and up and down career in the Food Industry!! Loved to have him cook for us, as Jo and I eat normal food we prepare but Steven's dishes had flair and imagination and were just sooo good!! :)

I, we will miss him dearly and I do regret that he and I didn't get to "RIDE" much together in his later years, he was just to busy, working the long hours his craft demanded! :( Still I have great memories, what else could I want! :) 

  

Here as the photos from my "clear the head ride", which I believe was on Friday, Oct. 28, on the Pikes Peak Greenway heading back to the Apt. You can tell it's FALL as the leaves cover a lot of the trail! 

October 18 and 20, 2022-PPRRN ride thru the GoG and later, Search for Shot Ride!

On Oct. 18th. I meet up with a few riders on the Pikes Peak Region Recumbent Network at Angletech. We headed out to ride the Garden of the Gods Park here in Co. Springs. Will, Ron, Rodger and I headed up Sinton Trail over to Foothills Trail to the Gateway Rd. entryway into the GoG park. It was a stunning fall day and the ride was really enjoyable. We came back via the Midland Trail and the Pikes Peak Greenway, the rest headed back to Angletech but I left a bit early and headed over to the Good Neighbors Meeting House for my brown bag lunch and unsweet iced tea. LOL, there was supposed to be a video but alas, I forgot to load the battery into the camera so here's a couple of photos!

 On Oct. 20, we headed out to see if the Mobile Covid Shot Center at the Citadel Mall had the "Moderna BA-5 Booster Shots". The Moderna isn't easy to find, and Jo had a really BAD reaction to the Pizer shot booster we got back in May. They did have the right booster shot so I got it but since Jo had the bad reaction the head nurse (El Paso County Health Dept.) refused to give Jo a booster shot, RATS!! :(  We have a request into our doctor for her and Jo to review the problem. The nurse said Jo needed to be at a clinic, where she could get help if she had a bad reaction and wanted to make sure the doctor agreed that Jo should get the shot, as the nurse is afraid that Jo has built up an immunity to the Covid 19 boosters and could now be "allergic" to them, that SUCKS with BA-4 and -5 on the rise in the USA!!

We left the center, stopped off at a McDonalds got a cheap "double hamburger", yes you can still get them, but it's not listed on the menu!! Headed back to the Rock Island Trail then over to the Templeton Gap trail, Pikes Peak Greenway and home. A busy fustrating day but again the weather was awesome, love when we get an Indian Summer here in So. CO. in Oct! Sunday is looking ugly and Monday I have a doc apt. for lab work so hope to get in a last ride on Sat. although it's supposed to be very WINDY! BJ

2nd. Week of Oct. 2022-Misc. and Lunch rides with something special coming on Sat. Oct. 15th.!

 Kinda got lost again, the weeks are starting to fly by in the Fall of 2022! Probably missed a ride but I'll start at the 12th. We headed out for a ride downtown to our bank and then to the Walmart Neighborhood Market Place for the weekly Food Ride, of course pulling the trailer. Got back to the apt., put the cold items in the fridge and freezer and the trailer, then headed out to a "special lunch". We've had a nagging debt that's been hanging over our head for YEARS and we finally paid it off! We celebrated by going to Bird Dog BBQ for some BBQ Ribs!! The day was perfect, warm, sunny and only a slight breeze! The Ribs were great along with coleslaw and potato salad and of course, our unsweetened iced tea! We then headed south on the "Search for", Sugar FREE ice cream but alas, we never found ANY place in town that had it, ended up with 32 miles for the day, awesome! :)

On Friday the 14th. we rode a "Errand Ride", CU for money orders, to the Post Office to mail off the monthly BILLS and then stopped and paid the cell and internet BILL, so sad to see all that go out so fast! :( Decided to spoil ourselves and head to Panera Bread for a 1/2 BBQ chicken sandwich and tomato bisque soup, YUM, LOL, tired of PB&J so NO brown bag today! :) From there we headed north up to Criterium Bike Shop, then up the PPGW to Cottonwood Creek Trail up to the Vincent St. bridge, along the Nevada Ave. bike trail and lane back over to the University Village Colorado Center to pick up the PPGW south and back home. 22 miles RT. 

 Now to the Special Event, on Saturday Oct. 15. the local recumbent shop, Angletech (www.cycledifferent.com) here is hosting "Honza and Crew" from AZUB Trikes made in the Checz Republic in Eastern Europe! It's a Meet, Eat and RIDE type of event and as we are good customers, we got an invite to the event/ride!! AZUB Trikes are my favorite recumbent trike but like ICE, HPVelotechnic, Catrike, etc. they are "premium level" trikes sadly out of our meager Social Security Retirement Budget! :( We ride "used" Terra Trikes, they work well but are more entry to mid-level machines and even then, we could only afford USED trikes! Oh well, we plan on heading out for Noon to 5 PM event and ride and getting to meet Honza and crew and DROOL over the display of AZUB trikes anyway! Oh and of course, partake in the consumption of any FOOD, LOL ;) Plan on taking video of the ride and gathering so stay tuned, have a great weekend! :)

1st. week of October 2022, rides

I rode for 3 days in a row on the first week of Oct. the last ride on the 6th. Jo got to join me, the two rides before she had appointments both days. Just local area trail loop rides in our area so I will just list a video and some photos. The weather has really started to feel like FALL here, temps in the high 60 or low 70 F but until yesterday (7th.) it was sunny and excellent days to ride! On Sunday Oct. 9th. is the "Motorless Morning event at the Garden of the Gods Park. From 5am to 12 noon, they will allow "NO CARS" in the park and riders and walkers, skater's, etc. get to use the roads so that's the plan for tomorrow. No, I won't be there at 5 AM, probably get there about 9 am do the loop of the park. It's a fun event that only happens two time a year! So, here's the vid and the photos, enjoy! 

This photo is a tale of two parts, usually we only ride the Cottonwood Creek Trail up to Cottonwood Regional Park, but we decided it was such a nice day we'd ride the 2nd. half of the trail to its current end at Powers Blvd. The 2nd. half starts as you go through the "The Tunnel" and has a lot of uphill grades sections and is in the open area with little or no shade in sight. So, in the heat of the summer, we don't normally ride this part of the trail when it's HOT!! On this day, it was only 65 F so we enjoyed getting to the end and it made a 27 mile days ride!! :) FUN. Of course, we stopped at Panera Bread on the way home for unsweet iced tea and ate our homemade snack and then headed south on the PPGW to home. Just a excellent day to be "Out and About on the Recumbents"! ;) 

October 1st. 2022, Just a ride, checked out the "Skybridge" and the "Flame Cafe" at the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum, Co. Springs, CO.

Well the weather guessers said we'd get rain by early afternoon today, so we headed out early and headed up north on the PP Greenway to Criterium Bike Shop and over to Panera Bread for a early brown bag lunch and unsweetened iced tea. Decided to head south back into the Springs and head to the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum to get some photo's on the "Skybridge" from the Museum to America the Beautiful Park. After the photo's, we decided to "spoil ourselves" and get some "sweet potato fries"! Ate out on the patio at the "Flame Cafe" on the museum complex, YUM! Well it started to get quite breezy and the chill of fall was in the air, the clouds were building heavy and dark so we took off through the down town area to the Cascade Street bike lane, heading north. Got back home, the trikes snug in the apartment before the rains!! 18 miles and fun and easy enjoyable ride for the 1st. of October. Glad we packed the windbreakers in the panniers as the breeze let us know that the season's are changing. Fall is quite pretty here in So. CO. but it's a very short season and the winter is Loooong, bummer. Sure hope it goes by fast this year. Oh well we enjoy even the short and sweet rides, being out and about on the recumbents. :)

 

September 23-24, 2022- Failed video mic test ride and the "Search for Pantyhose Ride"! ;)

 LOL, as usual I'm playing catch up with our Vblog so here's a couple of late Sept. ride video's! I switched from the video cam mounted to the front boom of my trike to a helmet mount set up, hopefully to get, "LESS road noise" on my vid's!! Well I must have turned off the mic setting in the camera so there's no sound except for the intro I added while making producing the video, so you all get music, enjoy!

We got invited by Jo's Sister, Barb to join them at her WHS Class of 1972, 50th. year high school reunion. It was held at the new Great Wolf's Lodge in northern Co. Springs, CO. They did a excellent job setting up the reunion, great food, excellent dance floor and DJ and wonderful displays! Jo and I are a year younger and we are WHS Class of 1973 grads, but I seriously doubt we will have anywhere close to the 50th. Year HS reunion gathering that the Class of 72 had!! :( Oh well, that's life, LOL! We had to take a ride and got iced tea for our brown bag lunch, then headed out to a ROSS store to get Jo some pantyhose for her new dress for the reunion. Headed back home to get ready for the reunion starting a 5 PM. on the 24th.

Here are the videos: 

Hope you enjoyed the videos, the weather was excellent both days for these rides! On the 25th. we got picked up by Barb and Rick to go to the "All Classes WHS Alumni Picnic in Woodland Park, CO. Jo entered a "pumpkin decorating contest", LOL, she didn't win but had fun and the Food and company was excellent! A very busy long weekend for us! :)

September 19 & 20, 2022- As the song says, SUMMER is "Slip, Sliding Away"!! :(

 The last few weeks have been hot here in So. CO. but Weds. and Thursday, (today) it's gray, chilly, breezy with either drizzle or rain! :( Our last rides were as usual, a combo of recreation and transportation in nature. On Monday the 19th., we headed out and just did a multi-trail ride around the area. On Tuesday the 20th., We did our Food ride and then after putting the cold goods in the fridge, we headed out to our usual brown bag lunch spot at the North Nevada Ave. Panera Bread for unsweetened iced tea to go with the PBJ's, LOL! ;) Ok, I failed, I wimped out, yes, I bought a brownie, gulity as charged! ;) Jo even ate a 1/4 of it and we scraped off all the powdered sugar on 1/2 of the top. It, of course, was a bit on the "over sweet" side but it was good!! :) Sometimes you just have to give into the crave as with Jo being a Type II diabetic, we don't normally eat any premade sweets. MODERATION is the best we can do, after all, we are HUMAN!! It sucks sometimes to see others gouging on multi-sweets and we can't get Panera Bread to make ANYTHING that's sugar FREE! :( Yes, we've begged nicely to their corporate offices, and they have turned a deaf ear to us! RATS.

Ok, LOL, we are back on the wagon, I guess we need a diabetics version of AA, yes, I'm JoLynn Ondo and I am a diabetic! Ok, at least at my (BJ) last test Iam, (Thank GOD), not a diabetic but I "follow" Jo's diabetic food plan (diet is a NO NO word in our house!!) so I have the same cravings, etc. SUGAR is addictive, we use Stevia Natural sugar free sweetener, but I will admit it's NOT the same level of intenseness that SUGAR has on your body!!! Still, it's way better than ANY of the other artificial sweeteners we've tried, as Stevia at least doesn't have the "nasty after taste" the rest of the sweeteners do, JMHO.!!  

Back to the rides, sorry about the rave! The ride on the 20th. the sun was intense, but you could still feel the "very slight chill" of the breeze letting you know that "FALL" is coming in fast! The last gasp of summer, letting you know how much we are going to miss the HEAT! :( Still an awesome day for a ride of any kind, even if it starts out as an errand! 17 miles of smiles, finally getting back to the apartment by late afternoon, trikes and trailer put away and awaiting the "cold front" for Wednesday and Thursday. At least Friday and the Weekend look good but we have "evening time" events so no long rides, RATS! 

  

September 2022-Back to normal with a lot of "transportation rides"

 Well since our ride to try out Glamping, it's been back to normal, just area rec. rides with a lot of "transportation" type rides. We did a Food Ride on Weds. then Thursday, we had lots of errands to ride too, CU, Post Office, Drug Store, T-Mobile store (phone and internet bill), then we wanted to head up the Rock Island Trail up to Constitution Ave. and go to Panera Bread for lunch. I need to get to a Goodwill Retail Store and buy some semi-dress clothes as we we invited to the Widefield High School Class of 1972 50th. Reunion on the 25th. I am retired so I never needed "dress clothes", LOL!  Well, our plans were foiled by the big, thick, black CLOUDS coming over Pikes Peak and the foothills at a very quick pace!! We decided to call it a day and managed to get back to the apartment before the storms! ;) Today is Friday Sept. 16 and we plan on heading out and giving it another try today!! :) The ride will be straight north on the Rock Island Trail then heading over to Constitution Ave. and into the 1st. and Main Center complex to hopefully "find" a new Panera Bread for lunch, then back across Constitution Ave. down the road to the Goodwill Retail Center! The weather is supposed to be better today but with So. Colorado it's always "bi-polar" weather, LOL! They say it will start a bit of a warming trend, which will be nice, we prefer the HEAT to the COLD anyday! Still you can feel Fall is in the air, the mountains have started their yearly seasonal color change of the Aspens, so sad, summer takes so long to get here then goes by so fast! :( Hope you getting great weather and lot's of riding in! BJ and Jo :)

September 6 & 7 2022-We took a overnight ride to do our first "Glamping Campout" in Monument, CO.

 As usual our out of State vacation plans died off due to lack of FUNDS! :( We decided we'd do a overnight "staycation" and ride the New Santa Fe Trail up to Monument, CO. They don't have any motels in Monument, but we found a "Glamping Campground", which was set up for Luxury Camping, fully equipped wall tents, electric fireplace, personal portable hot tub and Queen size bed, LOL, our level of "roughing it"! ;) We've rode the New Santa Fe Trail up to Ice Lake on the USAF Academy a few times over the years but never rode it all the way to Monument. It's all dirt/gravel with some rocks and a few short but steep, slick uphill inclines. 

The ride up to Ice Lake went like normal, I had to help Jo get over a couple of the hills but no big deal. From Ice Lake up to the North "trail gate" was a LOT tougher, the inclines were steeper and slicker and sometimes the erosion logs (to slow down rainwater on the downhill) stuck up higher and made it hard to get over! This is supposed to be a graded dirt trail, but some bozo laid down piles of small, sharp black rocks which made a very bumpy ride with our non-suspension trikes!! :( Between the USAF Academy North Trail Gate and all the way to Monument we had to deal with more of the sharp black rocks, laided across the trail and lots of 2 to 3 in. deep SAND, which would just stop us dead in our tracks even on the flat parts of the trail, it was miserable, then add the 90+ F heat and very little shade made it a real PITA!! We made it to the Baptist Rd. Trailhead it had a restroom and shade on one side of the building, so we ate our brown bag lunch and took a break! :) Then fought our way into the town of Monument. Finally on pavement, we made our way over several more hills to the "Glamping Campground". It was quite and not quite a fancy as the promo photos but very comfortable, we unpacked, everything was there, sweet! We were too tried to ride back to town for dinner so we had a pizza delivered, LOL, ;) We ate dinner using the rocking chairs on the tents deck, this tent has full electric so we had lights and just vege'd out watching the stars come out and the moon rise, then headed for bed! Glamping is cool, here's a link to the Glamping Campground: Monument Glamping 

Here are two links to video's covering part 1 and 2 of our ride up to Monument Glamping Campground on the New Santa Fe Trail: 

On Sept. 7th. we headed back to Co. Springs but decided to use Hwy. 105 and Hwy 83 to Powers Blvd, then south on Woodman Ave. to pick up the Cottonwood Creek Trail back to home. Well Hwy. 105 was terrible, lot's of morning traffic and NO shoulders on 90% of it so we had lot's of "HATE" from car drivers, they need to learn to share the road as it's the only way to get to Co. Springs if you don't want to use the trail!!! :( Hwy. 83 was better at least it had a "just wide enough shoulder in most places! At first Powers Blvd. was great with wide shoulders although the traffic was insane even on a weekday! Then we hit several construction zones which took away the shoulder so more "HATE" came our way. Same on Woodman Ave but they finally had a wide sidewalk that got us to the trail, YEA!! 90+ F again. LOL, here's a sign you want to see after hours of riding up steep hills! 

Cottonwood Creek Trail over to the Pikes Peak Greenway and back to apartment!

 

August 28, 2022- A ride to end up at our Niece, Allision's Celebration of LIFE Ceremony.

 We normally like to ride in the AM. but sadly, we had a niece pass away unexpectedly and the family was having a "Celebration of Life" at Thorndale Park here in Co. Springs at 6 PM. We left the apartment on the trikes at 1PM and headed out for a ride to Manitou Springs and then headed back to end up at Cy's Drive Inn on the Westside for a great burger and sweet potato fries!! We pulled into the covered patio at Cy's and the darkish clouds, opened up and poured buckets of water upon us!! :O We waited out the storm for an hour and ate our lunch slowly! The clouds stayed but the rain quit so we headed out on the wet streets over to King Soopers for a restroom and a snack for later. Then we headed to the park and arrived about 4:30 PM, we found a building with a overhang and waited for the others to show up. At 5:30 they showed up and put up a awning and speaker system with a portable movie screen and had a nice presentation about Allision and filled up balloons to launch a bit later. We told our condolences as we didn't know Allison a lot, that side of the family, (younger brother Chuck's Daughter). We were there to represent his side of the family as best as we could. We got to hug our other niece Vanessa and Allison's Grandmother, Wendy. We watched the presentation and launched a balloon in her honor. Jo made up multi-colored flower bouquets with the purpose of each color to Allison's Qualities and gave them to Vanessa, Wendy and Brenda and Kylie, Allison's daughter. We stayed till 30 mins. before sundown and then said our goodbyes and headed home quickly to be home just as the sun went down behind Pikes Peak. 17 miles warm but gray and then lot's of rain but we stayed mostly dry! :) 

August 27, 2022-The search for "THINK" Lemon Bars!! ;)

We've been looking for a "Protein Bar" that has ZERO Sugar since Jo is a Type 2 diabetic and we finally found one. The Brand is, THINK BAR and we got the Choc. Brownie Crunch for Jo and I really like the "Lemon" flavor. Problem is the lemon seems to be the most popular flavor and it's not easy to find, even at the one source, local Safeway Stores!! We decided to make our ride a trip to different Safeway Stores around the city of Colorado Springs. We did find 2 at one store but they don't seem to sell the "lemon" in a box of 5 like the rest, RATS. I thought I found 3 more bars as they were in the Lemon Box BUT, when we got home they were creamy peanut butter, arrugh!!! :( My body doesn't like a lot of peanut butter! We decided to make these our "emergency food" and just keep them on the trikes incase Jo has a "bonk" and her blood sugar drops to low or we just ride a bit to far and need "fuel" to get back home!! 

think!® | High Protein Bar, Lemon Delight | FREE 1-3 Day Delivery | (thinkproducts.com) We rode to the South Nevada, Safeway via the PPGW, 8th. St. and Cheyenne Blvd bike lanes to the "Creekside" pathway, then a bit of sidewalk to get to and across Nevada Ave. at Southgate. Next over to the Safeway in the Red Rocks Center on Colorado Ave. on the Westside. Headed back via 31st. street bike lanes to the Foothills trail, then the Sinton Trail, we stopped a Angletech www.cycledifferent.com to borrow their picnic table and eat our homemade trail mix snack and have a shade break!! Then again down Sinton trail to PPGW and finally back to the apartment! 21 miles, sunny, 85 F. There's some steep grades on the Foothills Trail, as high as 9% grade so we were worn out and ready to just kick back for the evening.