The last few rides of November!

Well November has come to an end, all in all, it's been a good month to ride in 2023! So, let's wrap this month up. 

11-22 Headed towards downtown to pick up the Midland Trail over to 31st Street, had our brown bag lunch and iced tea. Decided to head up the 31st Street bike lane over to the Foothills Trail. on the way, Jo got a shot of me creeping up the hills, LOL! Warm, sunny a very enjoyable ride!

 Then the COLD and snowy weather hit so for a few days, we had to use the indoor recumbent exercise bike, bummer! 

11-28

Had a few things going on so we stayed a bit closer to home, we rode what we call the Vincent Frontage Road Loop. It was a breezy and chilly day but sunny and still very rideable. After we stopped at Panera Bread for our brown bag lunch and iced tea, Jo wanted to get a photo of a local rock formation in Ute Valley Park so we headed up the back way using the detour trail over to the Nevada Ave Bike Lane, then the Vincent Frontage Road Trail over to the Cottonwood Creek Trail to get to the Pikes Peak Greenway. 

11-29

Since we'd been north and east a lot so we headed South on the Weber St. bike lane over to America the Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland Trail into Manitou Springs. Another sunny but slightly chilly day for the last ride in November! We jumped off at 31st. St. to go to Starbuck's for our brown bag lunch and iced tea. Then back on the Midland/Creekwalk trail to Schyvier Park in Manitou. Headed back down the trail heading east, picked up the Mesa Springs Greenway, over to Monument Valley Park. Stopped at the Pickel Ball Court Bleachers, ate our afternoon snack, then headed up the BIG HILL to pick up the Cascade St. bike lane back to the storage unit. Tucked away the trikes and walked the 1.2 miles home as the sun was setting!

November, 2023 continued

 It's been a crazy last few weeks as first my younger brother Chuck passed away, he was a medically retired Army Vet and served in the OIF military campaigns. RIP Brother!! Then both my Mom and my brother Bob have been in and out of the hospital! My Mom lives with Bob so he is her main "caretaker", Jo and I had to take over and check on him at the hospital!

Things have very slowly returned to a "kinda normal state" so we have got a few rides in.

Nov. 15

We rode the Vincent Frontage Road Loop as we call it, stopped at Panera Bread for our unsweetened iced tea and brown bag lunch. We've been a bit lucky as the November weather has been nice! 70 F and sunny, the route is PP Greenway, a little bit of the Cottonwood Creek trail, the Vincent Frontage Road over to the Nevada Ave. Frontage trail. Felt so good to be back out on the trikes! 

Nov. 16

Cascade St. bike lane to downtown, then back streets over to America the Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland Trail and head west into Manitou Springs and the Creek Walk Trail. Headed back down the trail to 30th. St. and stopped at the Starbucks for our unsweet iced tea and brown bag lunch. Midland trail back to the Weber St. bike lane and headed for the Barn!

Nov. 18

We haven't rode all the way to the Cottonwood Regional Park in a while so that was the days ride! Cascade St. bike lane, Templeton Gap trail west, PP Greenway over to the Cottonwood Creek Trail junction. Over the bridge and through the short tunnel, over lot's more little bridges. Cooler day with some clouds but still partly sunny, the ride is all uphill grade heading northeast to the park. LOL, besides the ride, we wanted to check out what the CITY calls restroom improvement. The park used to have a old full restroom, they tore it down and put in a 4 porta-potty stall with cover set up. The city said the old one was too expensive to upkeep, I say BS, but it's still a place to GO when needed and unlike a lot of our parks it at least has a restroom facility! 

As the cloud cover was getting thicker, we decided not to do the upper portion of the trail and headed back. Again stopped at Panera Bread for the brown bag lunch and iced tea but we decided it was chilly enough to share a bowl of their excellent Tomato Bisque soup, YUM! From there, back down the PP Greenway over to Shooks Run Trail. On Shooks, heading north, we rode to check out if the concrete finally re-connection the Shooks Run and Rock Island Trails had been completed. YEA, it was so we rode the up the Rock Island Trail for a bit to the Templeton Gap Road bike lane. Headed back west on back streets over to Cascade St. bike lane and back to the storage unit to tuck away the trikes.

We've got a really mean looking COLD front coming and they are talking snow, YUCK, a bit warmer days on Tue. and Wed. so we hope to get in a FOOD run on Tue. and a ride on Wed. then the weather turns bad for several days so we will be riding the exercise bike, BUMMER! 

November 2023 1-7- Misc. rides

 It's that time of the year, the days and the rides both in numbers and mileage are less! It's been a pretty good November, only a few creepy days but with daylight savings, it's a real PIA, 1st. have to wait for it to warm up, then you only have so much daylight to ride! So here's our November 1st. ride, 

This was heading home from a "iced tea" for lunch run after getting a new drive chain installed on Jo's trike.

November 2, We hadn't been up to the Starsmoor Center at North Cheyenne Canyon for quite a while. We road up Cheyenne Blvd. to Starsmoor, which is like a "ranger station/visitor center. Headed back down and stopped at the Sacred Grounds Cafe, again for "iced tea" and the brown bag lunch. 

 

Check out the YouTube Video of the ride!! 

November 4, We rode in the Colorado Springs Veteran's Day Parade in downtown. We rode with a group called the "Human Powered Veterans Group", this year was a bit different as we had NO upright bikes show up, just recumbents and customs! Stagged a 9:30 and started at 10:15, we try to do this every year, it's FUN. Turn out seemed a bit smaller but I was a beautiful sunny day so folks found other things to do, bummer! 

Here's video of the Parade:

November 7, Due to a on going family crisis, we needed a "chill out" ride so we headed over to Manitou Springs, via the Midland and Creek Walk Trails. Stopped at a Starbucks on Co. Ave. and 31st. Street for, you guessed it "iced tea" with our brown bag lunch. It was sunny and warm but a bit windy at times, there would be times on the trail that we were riding thru a "shower of leaves", LOL! Headed back to the storage unit via the Mesa Springs Greenway. Cold Front coming in tomorrow with a "trace to 2 in. of snow" so no riding on Wed.