August 2023-Summer comes to an end, Sadly!! :(

 August 28-31, Well for Jo and I we consider September as FALL, so our summer riding season is over. Lucky for us the HEAT is sticking around a bit longer as it's been back in the 90 F temps. So we've gotten out as much as possible and earlier than we usually start our rides. So I will give you a brief rundown of the rides of the last few days!

August 28, Here's a few photos:

A fun ride over to Nancy Lewis Park via the Templeton Gap Trail here in Co. Springs.

August 29-

LOL, being a bit lazy we just headed out for a ride on another nice the end of summer day!

The photo is just a shot sitting on my trike as Jo ran into Safeway Store for a couple of items.

August 30-

We rode to Manitou Springs via the Midland Trail and Creek Walk Trail, rode to the end of the Creek Walk Trail extension that will one day take you farther into Manitou Springs via trail instead of having to use back roads! We stopped to eat our brown bag lunch at Schryver Park but we headed to the other side of the park for different view!

August 31- 

Todays ride was a "Mission Ride", today is Jo's Mom's birthday, alas she sadly passed away in 1994. We do our best to get to her memorial rose garden area were her ashes are inturned.

Just some photo's of the moment.

We plan on taking a "day off" riding for September 1st. as we've been riding in a lot of HEAT and need a break. The great, hot weather will continue Wednesday next week so we got much more "end of summer" riding to do! Hope your getting in lot's of miles of SMILES out on the trails and roads! :)

The Dog Days of August and now the Monsoon Type Rains left over from Hurricane Howard, Gray Skies, Chilly Temps!

 Well as usual, I'm falling behind on this blog, most of our rides have been the normal day to day runs of a transportation/recreational cyclist! Weds. the 23rd. we did our weekly Food Run and then a short ride up Sinton Trail to get unsweetened iced tea at Starbucks. It's been HOT here 90 F+ so the rides have been a bit shorter to "beat the heat" in the late afternoons. We've gone to a ride one day then walk the next kinda pattern due to the heat. Now sadly, the weather has turned 180 degrees on us, it's Gray, Chilly and Cloudy! We are getting left over moisture from the last gaps of Hurrican Howard, for us it's just weather feeling like early October not Late August!! On the 24th. we took a ride to do another "Camera Case Test" for wind noise. 

I taped off the large side hole and the tiny microphone hole in the GoPro Clear Case to see if I could bring down the WIND noises! LOL, it worked almost too well as my voice level was muted down a lot from normal using a Camera Case with the Ghost (openings) windows taped over. Here's the video: 

So now I either have to live with "muted sound", lot's of wind noise or go back to the Waterproof clear camera case, which means you Can Not hear me talking but will have zero wind noise in the background, the taped but muted non- waterproof clear camera case or take off the tape and we all put up with the WIND noise for my video's!!! Let me know what YOU think is the best way to go, thanks! 

We are now in day one of 4 that will be Gray, windy, chilly and at times heavy rains!! Hopefully by Tuesday the 29th. we will be back to a Normal Late Summer weather pattern. and back to riding!! :) Well that's it for now, hope your weather is much better and your getting in lot's of late summer rides, Bye for now, BJ. 

2023-8-17 & 19-Downtown Burger and Bags Charity Event & a long errand ride up north!

 Our local recumbent network is the Pikes Peak Recumbent Network on Facebook, we are not a club or group, no formal government, we have a couple of volunteer ride leaders and we set up "Meet and Eats" at different Events or Eating establishments. Every year the Bank of Colorado, downtown Colorado Springs has a fundraiser for United Way. For 2023, it's called the "Burger and Bags Bash", for a donation, you get a In and Out burger, chips, drink. 4 of our PPRRN riders showed up to the scheduled "Meet and Eat". This year they had a huge Cornhole Tournament along with the Burger Bash. The 4 of us had a good time and then Jo and I headed out for a ride.

 On the 19th. our ride was mainly a Errand Run, we just switched for T-Mobile 5G internet and phone to Xfinity Broadband and phone set up. We had to take the "Gateway modem", to a T-mobile store but found out it has to be returned to a "Coorporate Store", which is a long way from were we stopped for iced tea and our brown bag lunch!! It was a HOT day, 90 F so we decided to head to the coorporation store anyway! We used the detour path up to Vincent St. bridge and picked up Campus Dr. over Woodmen Ave., then LOL, back to Vincent St. the backway to Academy Blvd. Had no problems with the turn in of the Gateway at this store. Headed to Panera Bread for a 2nd. unsweet iced tea and ate our homemade engery bars for a very late afternoon snack. Here is a couple of photos from Vincent St. on the north side of Woodmen Ave.

I've started using the old GoPro Hero 2 as my Still Photo Camera, it was set for 11 mega pixles and WIDE lens but it had a bit of a old "Fisheye lens" bending at the ends of the photo!! I changed to 8 mega pixels and MED lens and it works much better! :) It was 5:30 pm by the time we headed from the storage unit back to the apartment. A long HOT ride but we got it done! Even with the heat is was a beautiful day and a good RIDE! 19 mile total. 

August 14 and 16, 2023-Unexpected detour to the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort and the Weekly Food Run and Lunch ride

 As they say, "Life goes on"! LOL, sometimes it throws you a curveball too, we headed out to Manitou Springs on the 14th. We were heading under the Adams Crossing Bridge to the bike/ped underpass but it was full of Water and MUD!! Turned around and decided to go the back way via side streets into Schryver Park. I wanted to take a photo at the new mural painting at the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort/Hotel and thought I'd do a video and a tour of the grounds but I goofed up and only took a PHOTO instead, DUH!! :( So we headed down El Paso St. into Manitou to pick up the Creekwalk Trail and finally got to the park. Took a break and then headed back the same way to pick up the Weber St. bike lane over to the Drive Inn for our afternoon snack and unsweet iced tea! 

August 16- Wed. is our normal weekly Food and Supplies shopping ride but today we spoiled ourselves getting a Italian Panion's wrap for lunch in downtown Colorado Springs, CO. Then we headed home via the Mesa Springs Greenway with a "break" at Monument Valley Park as it was 90 F+ with very little breeze took a break in the shade and the back to the MS Greenway and to the storage unit to tuck in the trikes and get back to our air conditioned apartment!! As we say, even a errand run can be FUN! 

2023-8-11-Errand Run and a unplanned meet up!

 LOL, well it's looking like my blog posts are following the same pattern of "catch up" for the month of August. As usual the same area rides, we just try to add something a little different each time if we can. Here is a video from the rides before the 11th. 

Although this next video isn't a RIDE, as we walked, it's about a slowly coming new section of trail, called the Rock Island Trail Connector, hooking up the Pikes Peak Greenway to both Rock Island and Shook's Run trails: 

The ride on the 11th. was just an Errand Ride, we needed to pay the internet/cell phone bill at our local T-Mobile store so we headed up the Greenway over to Cottonwood Creek Trail, then took the Vincent St. Frontage Rd trail over to the Nevada Ave Frontage Rd trail and head to T-Mobile store in the University Village Colorado Center. Paid the bill and then headed to Panera Bread for unsweet iced tea to drink with our brown bag lunch. As we got our table on the patio, Will and Vickey pulled up on their ICE trikes, it was nice to see them, we stayed outside and they headed inside to cool down in the AC! :) Always enjoy meeting fellow riders when we are "Out and About on the Recumbents"!! ;) 

From there we headed south on the PP Greenway over to Fontanero St. bike lane up to ride the north section of the Mesa Springs Greenway but the entry was blocked off as worker's had torn out the concrete and taped off the area, RATS! We headed South on the Greenway picked up the Bike/Ped overhead bridge over I-25 down into Monument Valley Park. Had a snack at Stanely Lake and then headed back to the storage unit to do a couple of adjustments to my trike. The clouds were rolling in but it never rained on us on our walk home. 18+ miles, lot's of smiles, even errands can be FUN on a trike! :)

August 6, 2023-Just catching up!

 Wow, I'm really behind on updating this blog sorry, it's been hectic here lately and I've been shooting more YouTube videos than taking photos for the blog! Picked up a new older, GoPro Hero 2 with the hard to find "deeper" waterproof clear case rear door so I can use the "rear view screen attachment. Bummer is the rear door won't quite fit in the "aftermarket case" I got for my GoPro Hero 3 White so I will be testing out the GP Hero 2 to see if the video quality is as good as the GP Hero 3, if so I will use the GPH 2 for video and the GPH3 for still photos. 

Ok, rides, well since we can't afford a truck or van and rentals are insanely priced since the Covid 19 Pandemic, it's mostly just the same rides as usual but we do try to "mix and match" trails, back streets and bike lanes to make each on a little different! ;) As stated haven't taken hardly any photos so I will just add the YouTube videos since July 5th. Enjoy!