WELCOME to: BJ and Jo Ondo's recumbent trike cycling blog! This blog has information about US, our "Bicycle/Trike History", and our RIDES, here in Colorado Springs, CO., the Pikes Peak Region, State of Colorado and anywhere else our WHEELS take us!
Arrugh, lot's of wet, cloudy and chilly weather has been the norm lately! Been raining all afternoon, suppose to snow 2-6 inches tonight, I did mange to bundle up and head out this morning to ride the Sun EZ-1 SC Lite bike up to Angletech to get a new (and safe) front tire for the bike. Under heavy clouds and gray skies! Headed over to the Pikes Peak Greenway to pick up the Sinton Trail heading west. Got up to Angletech to early (9AM), they don't open till 10 AM. so I headed up the trail to 30th. Street and Garden of the Gods Rd. turned around and back down the trail up to Angletech to get a few more miles and use up the excess time!
I was just going to pick up the tire and head but Kirk, did me a big favor and added a new tube and installed it for me! :) The skies got darker so I just headed back down the Sinton Trail/Pikes Peak Greenway to the apartment as that's were we are currently keeping the bike and cargo trailer. The bike will now become my "Cargo Trailer Tugger", so it's name is Tugger! :) Got home, did a few adjustment and the RAIN came and never left, RATS! :(
Had several errands to do, stopped at the Credit Union then headed east on the Rock Island Trail up to Academy Blvd., turned north heading for a Kum&Go market that has a nice patio area for our brown bag lunch and some unsweetened iced tea. RATS, much to our surprise, they have removed all the patio tables and chairs, BUMMER. So we stood and used the wall as our table. Jo went to use the restroom, all the sudden I head a sound like air escaping, bummer one of Jo's front tires went FLAT! :( We'd been there for close to an hour so pulled out the tools and went to work on pulling out and replacing the tube with a spare we always carry!!
Got it fixed so we headed back south back to the Rock Island, then headed east again to it's current ending point at Powers Blvd. Turned around and headed west of the Rock Island over to the Templeton Gap Rd. bike lane over to the Fontanero St. bike lane and back street to get over to the Good Neighbors Meeting house to share another unsweet iced tea and eat our homemade energy bars! It was actually the warmest day of the year so far and hit 82 F, since the winds were getting stronger we decided, as it was late afternoon, to head back to the storage unit and call it a day. 18 miles RT, sun and clouds, fairly brisk winds, been quite a while since we rode 4 days in a row and we still have to do a Food Ride on Thursday before the next COLD front comes in for Friday and Saturday!!
Getting towards mid-April, we had a lot of cold and snowy days but not the weather is acting more like Spring. Since we don't own a car the rides have been on area trails and roads but the sunshine is feeling great! Still breezy or windy. On Tuesday we had 80 F and sunny in the morning with the winds increasing as the afternoon rolled on. We headed out north on the Pikes Peak Greenway to a Ice Cream place that has sugar free/lite Sorbet, it turned out good but we caught them early so we got vanilla in a cup. Still makes Jo's Blood Sugar come up but not dangerous. At least, it's not like eating real ice cream which is "TOO SWEET" and feels like you ate a pure SUGAR bomb, now that we use a low carb/low as possible sugar diet.
Then we headed back down the PPG into downtown Co. Springs for lunch at Panio's 74 for their excellent Big Bopper Wrap that we split and added a couple of small side salads with unsweet iced tea, YUM. From there we rode the Cascade St. bike lane over to Highway 24 W into America the Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland Trail over to the Skateboard Park in Manitou Springs. Came back on the Midland to the Walnut St. bike lane over to the Mesa Springs Greenway to the PPG and then back streets to the storage unit. 29 miles RT, 80 F sunny with a lot of winds!
April 1, April Fools Day, was a great day for a ride, it was sunny with light winds and the temps in the 65F range!! We've been wanting to get out and head over to the Sand Creek Trail to see if they ever "finished" the trail to get to the Hancock Expressway. It's been decades but the city finally finished that part of the trail and to our surprise is installing a "lighted crosswalk" for peds/bikes to be able to safely get across the Expressway to take Sand Creek Trail all the way to Los Vegas St and hookup with the Pikes Peak Greenway!
The current way to get to this southeast area trail involves the Rock Island, the Canal Trail, lot's of backstreets and on road bike lanes so it's long ride! We stopped at the Starbuck's at Platte and Murry for our brown bag lunch and our unsweet iced tea. Headed up the sidewalk on Murry Blvd. as it's a insanely busy street for a few blocks!! Got back on Murry using the parking lanes over to the bike lane on Airport Rd. heading east and finally getting to the Sand Creek Trail and heading south. Crossed the Hancock Expressway over to the Pikes Peak Greenway (all dirt trail here) and then headed west to downtown Colorado Springs. Getting late so we jumped on the Weber St. bike lane and back streets to the storage unit. 20+ miles, great weather, light winds, it felt like REAL Spring!! Here is a video of the ride!
April 2., Monday is going to have extremely high winds, up to 60 mph. gusts!! Tuesday, we've got a cold front coming in the temps in the low 40 F range with possible snow showers so we made sure we got in a ride on Sunday! The morning was great, sunny, warmish and light winds. We decided to eat lunch out and wanted a good and cheap hotdog. Headed west on the Sinton Trail up to Garden of the Gods Road, picked up the double wide sidewalk over to Sonic. Well couldn't get served at the stalls due to staff shortages, drive up only service! :( Headed west again up the double wide sidewalk to RedLeg Brewery. The have serveral different cafe's in small metal buildings. We chose the Pizza by the slice and it was very good with a large piece for $5!!
After lunch, we decided to take it easy today, and headed east back on the Sinton Trail to the Pikes Peak Greenway, up to Criterium Bike Shop, then south on the "detour" trail to the University Village Colorado Center Starbuck's for a unsweet iced tea to go with our THINK sugar free snack bar. The WINDS were getting really strong so we headed back to the storage unit and tucked the trikes in, 1.2 mile walk back to the apartment. 17 miles, lot's of smiles but we won't be riding for a couple of days, RATS!!
