March 27 and 28, 2022 Getting in a few more rides before the cold and rain comes in!

 We had a good 5K walk at the Walk, Run, Roll for Daniel charity event on Sat the 26th. 

On the 27th. we headed out for a ride and decided to shot a new video of riding and "talking" about the Rock Island Trail in Colorado Springs, CO. LOL, I've got some feedback that I need to do some "talking" in my video's so they won't be "so boring"!! So I turned the mic back on and talked about the trail, let me know what you think! :)

Well, lesson's learned, I was just using the "internal mic" on the CamPark 4K Ultra video cam and as it's mounted on the front of the boom it's a bit too far away! I will use the "wired" mic that comes with the camera for the next video's and be looking for a affordable "wireless" mic for the future!! 

On Monday, we headed out for a short ride, LOL, in search for a "Hot Dog", sometimes you just want something "evil" and anything but another "PB and sugar free J sandwich"!! ;) We headed up the Sinton Trail over to a 7-11 off of Centennial Blvd. and Garden of the Gods Road but they had NO Big Bites cooking at 11:30 so we headed to Garden of the Gods Rd. and 30th. street to check out a Loaf n Jug store along the Sinton Trail and YEA, they had a couple of dogs nicely roasting on the spinner! 

Enjoyed the dog and drank a bit of water YUM! We then decided not to ride the Foothills Trail over to the Garden of the Gods Park as they are doing a major road construction project and they have the cement trail blocked off and want you to ride on a rocky, dirt detour over to the 31st. bike lane! :( We headed back down Sinton Trail "Weeeeee", all down hill and then picked up the Templeton Gap trail over to the sidewalk along Union Blvd. heading to the back streets to get to the Templeton Gap Rd. bike lane over to Nancy Lewis Park to have our afternoon snack of a Apple-Cinnamon Rice Cake.

We then re-picked up the bike lane over to the local Safeway store to get some tomatoes and other small items, then back home via Shooks Run trail and back streets over to our apartment. 13 miles total and nicely warm day with lots of Sun and little wind. Sometimes you don't need a lot of "miles" to get in plenty of "smiles"!   Currently I (BJ) am doing a "600 mile challenge" (Jan-Dec 2022), for People on Bikes. The prize is a small handle bar bag with a official 600 mile challenge patch! I'm doing well, up to over 500 miles since Jan. 1st. so I guess I should have tried for the 1200 challenge but didn't want to push my luck, LOL! ;) Hopefully I will have the 600 miles by the end of April! :) 

Pls. check out our You Tube channel, with the same name, "Out and About on the Recumbents" if you get a chance, hope your getting in some good riding, Spring is slowly trying to get here to South Colorado. LOL, we have a very bi-polar Spring here. Tue. and Wed. (today) it's raining and cold, Thursday will be nice but Friday will be back to raining and cold, the weekend looks pretty good! :)  

March 2022- a busy month of bike and walking activates, 19, 20, 26!

 Well it's gotten to be a busy month for us as on March 19th. we were "Course Marshal's" for the 2nd. part of the St. Patrick's Day 30/50K Bike Ride event. We were stationed at two different places in the downtown area. We were there from 11 am. to 2:30 pm. then we headed over to Tap Traders for the post event party! We had a good little flat bread pizza then headed back home. 13 miles for the day.

On the 20th. we wanted to head out and ride the newly poured concrete of the Phase 1 repave of the Pikes Peak Greenway from the Rockrimmon Blvd. exit ramp up to Criterium Bicycles. A huge improvement over the old cracked and broken up asphalt!! It was gray and cloudy with a quite chilly breeze to wind at times but it was great to ride and we got a bonus, we got to ride along with a team of "Racing Burror's", not something you get to see everyday on the trails!! 

The weather turned back to "winter" for Monday and it's still quite cold and WINDY this morning but at least the sun is out although there's a lot of clouds. Weds. looks better, which is great as we need to load up the trikes and utility trailer and go get FOOD! Thursday thru Monday looks great 70 F, and on the 26th. we have the Walk, Run, Roll for Daniel Ride, although this year we are doing the 5K WALK instead of the 15K ride just to do something a bit different! :) Hope your March is a bit less cold and windy as ours but this is normal "bi-polar" spring here in So. Colorado, USA! ;)

March 15, 2022- Weekly Food Run and Ride to the Mesa Rd. overlook and back to Angletech, then a 3.5 mile walk back to the apartment

We attached the home-built utility trailer to my trike and rode over to the neighborhood marketplace store for our weekly FOOD run. Got back, unloaded the food and supplies, took the trailer back up to our 2nd. floor apartment. We headed out on the Pikes Peak Greenway over to the Sinton Trail heading west to the Foothills Trail, towards the Mesa Rd. Overlook but found out they only did a part of the trail in concrete and the rest was dirt on a fairly steep uphill grade so we decided to just turn around and head to Angletech, www.cycledifferent.com to drop off my trike for a rear wheel upgrade! 

They are building a new wheel with a "3 speed internal gear hub" that the 8 speed cassette attaches too and I will have 8 speeds in 3 different ranges so I will go from 8 to 24 speeds over all. This upgrade will give me a 1/2 step lower end gearing and a full step high end gearing. Wish it was the other way around but it will still help!! My appointment is for Thursday but the weather is turning bad and cold with snow possible on Thursday so I decided to just drop it off early. Today, Weds. is gray and cloudy and the rains will start this afternoon, then turn to snow early Thursday morning, RATS!! :(  

We are scheduled to be "Course Marshall's" for the St. Patrick's Day 30/50k bike ride on Saturday the 19th. I hope I can get the trike back by early Sat. morning and then be at my station on the route by 11:30 AM. If it snow's too much I can walk to the route station from my apartment so I will have to pick up the trike, when the shop reopens on Tuesday. :( 

Dropped off the trike and then had to do a 3.5 mile hike back to the apartment via the trails. so 3.5 mile walk and 12.0 mile ride, a very busy day! 

March 13, 2022-Daylight Saving Times change, and a great late afternoon ride!

Like everyone, at the seasonal time change we were behind our normal starting time but didn't worry as we knew the late afternoon would be warmer and it was a very nice sunny day with just a few clouds and a bit of wind in the afternoon. We took off for the Templeton Gap Trail and was going to ride to it's current ending point but just past Union Blvd. it was blocked off by road construction so we headed over to Nancy Lewis Park to eat our lunch. It was quite crowded so we had to use a picnic table up on a grassy hill. I just took off and got up the hill but poor Jo just doesn't have the "SPIN" capabilities that I have. She got 3/4 up so I pushed her to to top! ;)

After lunch we headed back to the T-Gap Trail and over to the Pikes Peak Greenway, headed north up thru the detour trail to the University Shopping Center and Panera Bread to get some unsweet iced tea. We headed back south on the PP Greenway over to the Palmer-Mesa Greenway, then via, bike lanes over to Midland Trail and up over the bridge to the Olympic/Paralympic Muesum then thru downtown over to the Weber St. bike lane back to home base. We got back about 4 PM. the sun was still quite high in the sky but it was getting windy again as a fast moving cold front will be thru on early Monday. 26 miles RT, 60F+ a great day for a RIDE! 

  

March rides and riding in the Co. Springs St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 12th.

 The weather for March came in like a Lamb but turned to a Lion quickly, we did get in a ride on the 8th. and then on the 12th. we were invited by BikeCOS to ride with them in the Colorado Springs, CO. St. Patrick's Day Parade!! We staged on Tejon St. the main route and watched the parade pass by till it was our turn to enter as a group! LOL, of course we got put behind all the horses so at time we had to circumvent some horse poo! :(  Oh well it was a blast as we threw out candies and did lot's of close up "high 5's" with all the little kidos and even some of the adults along the parade route.

Perfect weather not hot, not cold a bit breezy but lot's of sunshine. The route was about 3 miles long with lot's of floats, bag pipers, and many different car, motorcycle and other groups all having a great time! When we got to the end we headed back up Cascade St. to finish watching the rest of the parade, then over to Carl Jr's for our favorite "lettuce wrap" hamburger and unsweet iced tea for lunch. It was after 2 PM. when we finished and getting a bit windy so we rode over to Schooks Run Trail going north and headed back to the apt. FUN day, only 8 miles but lot's of SMILES! :)

March 1st., 2022- A bit of a "summertime" tease in the air as March comes in like a Lamb!! :)

Wow, 65 F, with a bit of breeze and lots of sunshine and no clouds, that's impressive for March in So. Colorado, as March is actually our "2nd. snowiest month of the year"!! Loaded up and headed out to ride the PP Greenway over to Cottonwood Creek Trail via the "detour" route, till the finish laying the concrete from Rockrimmon trail entry up to Woodman Ave. hopefully by late spring/early summer! 

Just a great day to ride although in the shady spots on the Cottonwood Creek Trail there's still a bit of ice/snow left over. The CCT is a very pretty trail and unlike most trails heading east it's got a lot of uphill grade to it, that just makes it a blast coming back into the PPGW! :) Stopped at the only picnic tables in Cottonwood Regional Park to eat our brown bag lunch, then headed west back to the Fontanero St. Trailhead, where we do a "race lap", then ride over the Popcycle Bridge back to the apartment. Pull the trikes up to our 2nd. floor apartment and start working on dinner, stuffed peppers and salad, YUM. 

 Weds. will be even warmer but no ride as friends invited us along on a picnic, when your friends call, it's time to let the trikes take a break! Thursday won't be as warm but still a good day for a RIDE! :)

February 27, 2022- The first ride after the weeklong "Deep Freeze" here in So. Colorado!!

It's quite rare that we are not able to ride sometime during a week, even in the winter months here in Colorado Springs! Last week was sub-zero temp, wind, snow and it finally started thawing on Friday and become ridable by Sunday! It was still sloppy with snow melt on the trails and paths, but the streets were mostly clear. We rode thru town on the Weber St. bike lane, which has less traffic than the Cascade Ave. bike lane. Rode by the Olympic/Paralympic Museum and into America the Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland, over to the Creekside trail in Manitou Springs.

Yes, it's one of our favorite trails and an actual rail-trail and even with the large and sometimes really messy homeless population using it we still enjoy the emptier parts. We stopped at the Swimming Pool Park for our brown bag lunch, LOL, had to fight of a squirrel, you're not supposed to feed them, but some do, and they can be quite aggressive!! It was becoming a really nice day, just a hint of a chilly breeze but full sunshine and no clouds! :) We headed home the same way, didn't want to take the Palmer-Mesa Greenway home as we felt it might have a lot of standing melt water on it. Headed back into town and back up the Weber St. bike lane then over to the apt. 17 miles and wow it felt so good to get back "outside" after a week of riding the "Klingon Torture Device", that's what we call our recumbent exercise bike! ;) 

Here's a video of a part of the ride heading home!