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. 

August 21, 23, 25-Area rides, Food Runs, Errand Runs, The life of us who can't afford a Motor Vechical !! ;)

 Ah, as they say, Life goes on!! The summer is waning into its last days so we've been riding as much as possible or LOL, our bodies will let us! ;) It's been mostly Area rides, Errand Runs and of course, our weekly FOOD run with the cargo trailer! Nothing special but we have been enjoying the HEAT while it's here! It really bugs me that folks complain about "How HOT it is", well duh, it's SUMMER, it's that time of year it's supposed to be HOT, LOL! ;) I guess we just prefer hot to cold any day, especially as "Car-Less" full time cyclists. 

We are getting ready for something a bit more adventurous, on September 6th. we are riding up the New Santa Fe Trail to Monument, CO. to try "Glamping", luxury camping, wall tent with queen size bed, electricity and even a private Hot Tub!! Normally "we DO NOT CAMP"! At our age and with mean arthritis, needing to pee several times a night, etc. Tent camping has been off our list of activities for "Decades"!!! But we wanted to try something new, so we decided to do an overnight the see what this Glamping craze is all about! It's even a bit more adventure as the Santa Fe Trail is "all dirt/gravel" with only 1 stop at a porta-potty in 20 miles so it will be a much tougher ride than our normal 15–20-mile local rail/urban trail rides!!  

I will shoot video and take photos to show we survived the night, wanted to do it as a weekend but it's NOT cheap, so it's one night stay only! If your ever in the area and want to give it a try, here's who to contact: Monument Glamping   We will spoil ourselves and mostly eat out at the many local eateries within the Town of Monument, CO., according to how early we arrive, (check in 3 PM), we will try to take the trail all the way to Palmer Lake, then turn around and locate the Glamping Ground which is out of the Town. If we take longer to get there than I hope, we will just have miss Palmer Lake. Well here's a few photo's of the last rides, sorry didn't take any on the 25th. ride as it was mostly a errand/lunch ride. Enjoy what's left of the summer HEAT, sadly it will turn COLD very soon! :( BJ

August 19, 2022-Errand Ride to set up Jo with Silver Key Food Pantry, what a hassle!!

 Being seniors and living on a meger Social Security Retirement income, when we get the long stretches between pay days (5-6 weeks), we run out of money for food! :( Silver Key senior services has a "once a month" Senior Supplemental Food Program", I am signed up to pick up the little foods that they have since Jo is a Type 2 diabetic so sadly we can't eat a lot of the basic supplies they carry in their Food Pantry. Jo wasn't officially able to go and pick up our monthly allotment. We headed to the lower South East side of Co. Springs to get her signed up for that and possible Silver Key Transportation Services since we "DO NOT" own a car! 

The problem is there are NO trail systems that can get us all the way to Silver Key from our apartment. So, we have to use busy streets, trails, bike lanes on busy roads, etc. to work our way over there. Sadly, some of the roads are Heavy Traffic so we had to use sidewalks, which SUCK as the street designers here LOVE to install single 90 degree or multi-90-degree corners some with really tall curbs!! That makes it really tough for ME, (BJ) as my TT Tour with "indirect" steering doesn't do sharp turns well at all!!!! Sigh, so we made our way, stopped at a Mc Donalds for an old style "Double Hamburger", (LOL, yes you have to ask, they still make the original double hamburger or double cheeseburger!) and a unsweet iced tea for a cheap lunch. Worked out way down to Silver Key Offices finally and got Jo signed up! :)

All the while the black rain clouds were forming over the foothills, we headed back and the Thunder started up, so we put on our "rain jackets", good thing as it started to sprinkle! Wasn't too bad for a bit but as we turned on Emory St., it Dumped Hard on us and poured heavy for 20 minutes!! :( Finally, it started to kinda dry out as we headed up the Canal Trail to the Rock Island Trail. Of course, the trikes are a mess and will have to have chain, cables, derailleurs re-lubed and the frames wiped down. :( LOL, of course, I just washed and waxed my trike the day before!! ;) There are 3 Tough and long uphill grades coming home so we were totally worn out fighting both hills and weather as we got back to the apt. At least the rain stopped as we headed home! Quickly wiped off the tires and frame and got the trikes upstairs into the apt. 15 minutes later, it was pouring buckets of rain outside, happy to be in the apartment! 19 miles, sunny start, Heavy Rain end on this ride!  

August 17, 18, 2022-Burger Bash Event and Food-Lunch ride

 On August 17th. we rode to the Annual Burger Bash put on by the Bank of Colorado as a fund raiser for the United Way, here in Colorado Springs. It's a downtown bank and In & Out Burger brings in their "semi-truck" sized Food Trailer to serve up free burgers. Ok, they do ask for a donation to United Way, which seems fair! 10:30-3:00 with DJ and a couple of vendor booths plus the United Way tent. We meet up with Larry and Rodger from the Pikes Peak Region Recumbent Trike & Bike Network, based here in Co. Springs and is a Facebook Group for recumbent riders. Had a great chat, a good burger!

After that we just went out for a ride to enjoy the rest of a more mellow day as the temps only made it up to 76 F that day, instead of the usual 90 F it's been! :) We did a run up the PPGW, stopped at Panera Bread for unsweetened iced tea and ate our homemade trail mix snack. Then over to Cottonwood Creek Trail to the Vincent Street Bridge up to take Dublin/Nevada Ave. south in a loop back to the PPGW. Getting late so we headed home from there. Nice day, good meet up with friends, great Ride!! 19 miles. Here's a Video:

On August 18th, we started out with a weekly Food Run over to the Neighborhood Market Place Store for food and supplies, pulling the cargo trailer. Rode back to home, put away the cold foods and the trailer then headed out for a Lunch Ride! Headed East on the Fontanero St. bike lane over to the Shooks Run Trail, heading southeast, stopped at the Good Neighbor Meeting House for unsweet iced tea and ate our brown bag lunch. Headed more south on the Shooks Run Trail to Fountain Blvd. Headed into the southern part of Co. Springs via back streets over to America the Beautiful Park, downtown. Stopped and took a couple of photos:

From here we headed south a short jaunt on the Midland Trail up to the Walnut St. bike lane over to the Mesa Springs Greenway to the PPGW, then over the Popcycle Bridge back to the apartment. 86 F sunny with a few puffy white clouds. 17 miles. Thanks for coming along! :)

August 14, 2022-Several area rides, hot weather continues but the RAIN is coming!!

 We have getting in short area rides since the last post, the days here in August have been HOT and sunny. On Sunday we headed out to the Southern Panera Bread to get some unsweetened iced tea to go with our brown bag lunch. We chose the direct route, heading over to the Weber St. bike lane. Heading south through downtown Colorado Springs, then over to the Tejon St. bike lane heading west to the Ivywild area, thru a new traffic circle to pick up the new and not complete Creekside Trail thru the Creekside Center over to Nevada Ave to arrive at Panera Bread, South. After lunch, we headed back by back streets to Cheyenne Blvd. bike lane over to the 8th. street bike lane to the Walmart turn in and pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway to the Midland Trail, Cucharas Trail, a very short little trail to get up to Colorado Ave then north on the Walnut St. bike lane heading north to pick up the Mesa Springs Greenway that currently ends at American Furniture Warehouse. We stopped on the MS Greenway under the Ped/Bike overpass for shade and to eat our homemade trail mix snack. LOL, yes, we carry a ultra-lite picnic blanket with us, hey it works great when there's no tables!! Then it's time to head home, back to the Pikes Peak Greenway, over the Popcycle Bridge, where the "Kids On Bikes" folks are stopped and bringing out the popsicles for the kids on their weekly summer season rides on Sunday! :) Back to the apartment, as the dark clouds gather and the thunder starts up. We are snug and dry as the soft rain starts to fall! 13 miles, HOT, sunny, little breeze. Monday and Tuesday are suppose to be heavy RAIN days so we are glad we got in a RIDE before the storms! :)

 

August 6 and 8, 2022-Getting in the "Miles of Smiles" while the getting is GOOD!!

On August 6th. we headed up to Angletech to pay off my layaway for my used, Terra Trike Tour and have them do some mods, hopefully get to pick it up SOON! They have been restructuring both 30th. Street and the entryway into the Garden of the Gods Park for several months now. For the cars a new "Traffic Circle" (Roundabout) and for the Peds and Bikes a new "trail underpass" going under Gateway Road. The Foothills Trail runs just outside of the GoG and it was a "nightmare" to have to cross Gateway Road in the Tourist Season for walkers and cyclists!! The new "underpass" makes it so Peds/Bike go under the road on the Trail heading over to the 31st. St. bike lane to get to the "Westside" of Colorado Springs!! 

It was posted that the underpass/trail was now complete and would be open to the public as of August 5th. We got on the Foothills Trail via the Sinton Trail got to the underpass and found the still had the little plastic fencing up to block the trail. We we could see that it had been walked over so we rode the trikes over and rode the revamped trail and new underpass anyway! ;) Here's a couple videos of our YouTube channel "Out and About on the Recumbents" of the ride: 

 

On August 8th. the weather has been a bit rainy in the late afternoon but the days have been sunny and hot. We made a Loop Trail of the Rock Island, T-Gap Rd. bike lane, T-Gap Trail, Pikes Peak Greenway and the Mesa Springs Greenway. Sunny, 85 F+ with a nice breeze!! Stopped at Panera Bread to eat our brown bag special lunch and get some unsweetened iced tea. Headed back down the PPGW over to Fontenareo St. then picked up the Mesa Springs Greenway heading south. We rode it till it's current southern end point, then turned around and rode back to it's current northern end point at American Furniture Warehouse. turned back and headed back home via the PPGW. 17 miles, it made a fun loop and a great days ride! 

Sorry for the odd sized photos but LOL, I had to "crop" my thumb out of the photo's! ;) The camera lens in the new cell phone is in a bad place, too close to where you need to hold it to keep it steady! :( BJ

August 3, 2022-Just an Out and About on the Recumbents kinda ride!

Another nice-looking morning and with a Lab date at the Medical Center on Thursday, we headed up to ride the Cottonwood Creek Trail, via the Pikes Peak Greenway. We prefer to ride this sweet urban trail on a weekday as it's a bit crazy on weekends. High in the mid 80 F's and sunny till the early afternoon, then a decent possibility of scattered thunderstorms. Sadly our city parks dept. has been really stingy with keeping established restrooms open or supplying at least a porta-potty!! :( With the Criterium Bike Shop being closed on Weds. we had to make the Cottonwood Regional Park quite a few miles away our only restroom and used the "only two" picnic tables in the whole park, right next to the restroom for our brown bag lunch. No shade so we sat facing away from the sun as best as possible. Watched a soccer coach teaching preschooler's how to learn the basics.  The clouds were building over Pikes Peak so we headed back down the CCT over to Criterium to pick up the "detour trail" over to the University Commons Center and Panera Bread for a unsweet iced tea on the patio in the shade!! ;) Then via the PPGW and some back streets over to Safeway food store to get some fresh fruits we were running low on! Thank Goodness for "panniers" to carry items in! Pick up a short portion of the Shooks Run Trail to more backstreets and finally the apartment, made it before it finally started raining! :)