December 16, 2024-Internet has been down a few days, here is a "Catch Up" of our rides!

 December 5,  We headed over to the 8th. street Walmart to pick up some toys to give to "Toys for Tots"! We had to go through the "URBAN Jungle Trails" to get directly over there and that store is the closest to the Colorado Springs Police Department, downtown were they had a "drop off" box for Toys for Tots. Kinda cool we ran into a Retried Marine who was picking up toys, they had two full tubs of toys so we added ours and headed out for bit more of a ride! 

December 7, We rode different trails and lot's of back streets with bike lanes to get over to where we could access the Sand Creek Trail off of Airport Blvd bike lane. The trail heads south to a bridge, then it goes east and south. We wanted to see if they continued the East trail over to and under Powers Blvd to hook up with the new Sand Creek Trail section under the new Hwy 24 and Powers Blvd bridge! Well we found out they did add some more concrete trail BUT, it's blocked off before Powers Blvd due to "flood damage" that took more than half of the dirt under the concrete trail!! Sadly, it also dead ends at Powers Blvd, turning from concrete to dirt "single track" trail! They haven't even started any "connection" trail up to the Hwy. 24 and Powers Blvd, RATS! We headed back and stopped at thee Life Perks Coffee House for our sugar free snack and a hot tea! Then headed back to the storage unit!

December 8, We wanted to see if they had finally finished the "construction" along the Cheyenne Blvd/Rd bike lane and wanted to head up to the Sacred Grounds Cafe heading up to North Cheyenne Canyon City Park. LOL, the answer is, "NO", the lower section is cleared out but from 8th street up to 21st street is still a MESS! We rode on the sidewalks as much as we could, then had to "go play with the cars" till we got through the construction and back on the bike path. We got up to the Sacred Grounds Cafe, ate the brown bag lunch and had hot tea's! The day was suppose to sunny and warmer but it started turning quite gray and chilly so wee headed back to downtown, over to Monument Valley Park, then headed to the storage unit, called it a day! 

December 12, Finally got a decent enough day to do our Weekly Food Run. Headed up the Rock Island Trail over to the Walmart Market Place on Union Blvd. With the cargo trailer we packed the bags of food in and then headed home to the apartment, put away the food and household supplies and headed out to McDonald's for a BOGO FREE, double cheeseburger and iced tea! Again, the temps started dropping so we headed straight to the storage unit! 

December 14, been a bit since we headed over to Manitou Springs. It was a nice sunny morning but as we got close to our lunch stop, the Starbucks on Colorado Ave and 31st. street a lot of high clouds started coming in! Bought a large HOT tea to go with our Brown Bag Lunch. The sun came back out so we headed west on the Midland and Creek Walk Trails over to the current "end of the concrete" trail at the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce Building. LOL, again the clouds came back and the chill with them, so again it was time to make our way back to the storage unit, via Midland, and other trails and bike lanes! (Note: No videos due to our internet has been DOWN for several days!) 

December 15, we needed to end our ride over at our local Walgreens Drugs to get meds for Jo before we went home so we decided to ride the "T-Gap" Trail up to its current ending at Ranch Road. It was a VERY SUNNY day, but the WIND was CHILLY!! We headed off the trail on the Flintridge Road bike lane up to the Starbucks on Flintridge and Academy Blvd. The winds were strong so we went and found "INSIDE" seats were, we could still SEE the trikes! Got our HOT green tea and ate the Brown Bag Special! ;) Headed back downhill to the T-Gap and headed north to Ranch Road. Turned around and headed south, headed over to pick up the Rock Island going east up to Academy Blvd, then turned around, wanted to stop at Life Perk's Coffee Shop for a Apple-Cinnamon hot tea to go with our THINK bars but found out they are CLOSED on Sunday's! It wasn't getting any warmer and the wind was stronger so back to the storage unit, tucked in the trikes and headed home!

Well that's the end for now folks, had to take December 16th off to have a Xfinity Tech come to the apartment to fix our internet! He had to replace the Modem, it got fried when the Network was vandalized and was down for 2 days for repairs! Till next time:

It's enough to be "ON YOUR WAY", it's Enough, just to "Cover Ground", It's ENOUGH to be "MOV'IN ON"!! Happy Holidays BJ and Jo :)

December 6, 2024, Playing catch up again, "On with the Show, this is IT"

 

November 23 Riding on the Cottonwood Creek Trail, just getting in a ride, here's a video!

November 26 Just a short ride to see the progress of the Rock Island Trail and Murry Blvd. lighted crosswalk. 

Crosswalk heading West at Murry Blvd and Rock Island Trail

Crosswalk heading West, now with re-aligned crosswalk striping

November 29 Took a ride to get a new and TALLER Christmas Tree, tired of having to put the old 4ft tree on a table, found a affordable 6ft unlighted artificial tree at Walmart. Hooked up the cargo trailer and we headed across town!

December 2 We headed up to Angletech the Backwards way, Midland, Foothills Trails but then were forced to detour up the Mesa Trail over to the Fillmore St. bike lane and then picked up Centennial Blvd Walk/Bike Path. Back to the PP Greenway and headed back to the storage unit, Strange Ride!

December 4  Headed up to Angletech to get the "Brake Swap" done on Jo's trike. Changing from Problem causing MIRRORED disc brakes to 90mm DRUM brakes. Both Kirk and Joshia, worked her trike over and now she's got great brakes!

Well that catches us up, will add the ride on the 5th. next blog, thanks for coming along for the rides, Happy Holidays!

November 22, 2024 A very "strange" ride!

We again, needed to head up to Angletech to set up a service appointment to get the disc brake/drum brake swap done. Well out of habit, I got us over to the T-Gap trail south to the Pikes Peak Greenway and west on the Sinton Trail. Oops, I forgot about the Eliston St/I-25 bridge demolition going on till Nov 25th!! So, we had to detour over the Garden of the Gods Road on Sinton Road. Garden of the Gods Road and I-25 is a real mess of traffic, we had to do a stop and go several times to get from Sinton Rd and head west on GoG Road! Finally got to Chestnut St and crossed over to the other side of the road that has a double wide sidewalk/path heading up to GoG Rd. and Centennial Blvd. Crossed back over to get into Angletech. Appointment set for Dec 4th, 10 AM. 

We headed back to King Soopers Food Store to see if we could afford to purchase a "turkey" for the "Take a Turkey to Work" program but alas, couldn't afford one so we gave them a $10 donation for Care and Share so they could add someone else's donation and buy a turkey for the area needy! LOL, well of course we ran into more Road Work construction on the way there so we stopped at Starbuck's for iced tea and our brown bag lunch! 

Then back tracked to the food store, it was a bit crazy but we finally found a way out to Fillmore St and picked up the South Centennial Extension Bike/Walking Path

 back over to the Pikes Peak Greenway. Picked up the Rock Island Connector & Trail over to the Templeton Gap Road bike lane, heading north over to Nancy Lewis Park for our afternoon snack and then continued on the bike lane to a access path and west on the T-Gap Trail back to the storage unit! It was a strange ride, lot's of not normal "twist and turns" but it was also a nice day to get in a ride! Here's a Relive Video of the ride!

Till next time, Happy Trails and Happy Thanksgiving Season too!! :)

November 2024, heading towards Thanksgiving Day

November 12, We headed up to our dealer, Angletech, on a kinda sloppy day after a 3 day snowstorm! We used the "Back Route" up the South Centennial Blvd bike lane as they have the Sinton Trail closed off at Elliston Street to demolish a old bridge! We went up to order the parts to convert Jo's TRICE T from "mirrored" disc brakes, which have been a real problem keeping them working, to DRUM BRAKES. Parts have to come from England so it will be 2 to 3 weeks before the swap can get done!  

 

November 14, We have been riding East and North a lot so decided it was time to head to the Westside of the Springs and into Manitou Springs. Using the Midland/Creek Walk Trails. It was a really nice sunny, warm day so we headed to the current ending of the Creek Walk Trail at Mayfair Road. Headed back the Mesa Springs Greenway to Monument Valley Park to eat our afternoon Think Bar, (high protein, NO SUGAR, Low Carb), it seems every afternoon the winds pick up with a coolish breeze, time to head for the storage unit and tuck in the trikes!

November 15, today was just a FOOD RUN for weekly food and household supplies. It was the chilly day of the week, after dropping off the food at the apartment we headed over to the Fillmore Street Mc Donald's for a BOGO Big Mac! Gray clouds came in and the breeze got chilly, headed directly to the storage unit!

November 16, We decided to ride out and check the progress on 2 of the 4 new, "Lighted Crosswalks", the city is installing to make it MUCH easier to get across at these "Street/Trail Intersections"! Sadly, the Murry Blvd/Rock Island lighted crossing showed no progress since last visit, Bummer! Decided to head out to the Shook's Run/Unitah Street crossing and was surprised to see a crew working on a Saturday!! Not only was the 2nd street pole up, they actually got the new "concrete" poured and drying for the connection over to pick up the Shook's Run Trail heading south!! Looks like this could be finished and working very soon, Thanks City of Colorado Springs!! :)

November 18, LOL, well sometimes you have a ride that is a total PITA!! We headed south on the Cascade Ave bike lane to America the Beautiful Park. Picked up the Midland Trail over to 8th Street. Had to use the "sidewalk" till the 8th Street bike lane started. Heading south again on the bike lane, ran into road construction, forced out into traffic for a bit then as we got to our turn at Cheyenne Blvd to pick up the bike lane, MORE road construction all the way up to Cheyenne Middle School, we had to Play with Traffic, Arrugh! Finally it cleared out as we headed up the Canyon. Heading for the Sacred Grounds Cafe, arrived to find out it's CLOSED on Mondays! :( Headed up the bike lane to the Starsmoore Center to use the restroom, LOL, it's CLOSED on Monday's!! Lucky for us, a hiker told us of another restroom in the off street parking lot and YEA, it was actually OPEN!! ;) 

Fought the traffic again heading back down the bike lane and road construction, got over to a side street and made our way to the Panera Bread at the Southgate Shopping Center! It was chilly sitting in the shade outside on their patio so we got HOT tea instead of iced tea and split a cinnamon rasin swirl bagel along with our brown bag PB and sugar free jelly sandwich!! That hit the spot, decided to see IF we could get through the Hugh construction project at the I-25 and Nevada Ave/Tejon Street intersection. They are adding new Sidewalk/Trail crossings, luck was on our side! The new concrete path is open heading north on Nevada Ave, (not done on the side heading south, FYI), we headed towards down town over to America the Beautiful Park and finally, the Mesa Springs Greenway to Monument Valley Park. Back up to Cascade Ave bike lane over to the double wide sidewalk along Nevada Ave to Fillmore Street to pick up 4 prescriptions for Jo at the Walgreens Drug Store, then back over to the Cascade Ave bike lane and headed to the storage unit!! 

It was such a mess, didn't shoot a video or even take any photos!! So, I will leave you with the lowly RELIVE video for the ride! Till next time Happy Trails and upcoming Holidays!

October into November 2024, Indian Summer, then WHAM Winter!!

Ah yes, behind as usual, so let's get at it right away!

October 29

This was just a local area ride on back streets, bike lanes to showcase some of the Halloween Displays we found in the area around our home. It was a REALLY WINDY day but still a FUN ride over all!

 

November 1

We headed up to see if the re-aligned portion of the Rock Island Trail and Murry Blvd, new lighted crosswalk was dry, it was so we headed East to the end of the Rock Island Trail just before Powers Blvd. They have made progress on the crosswalk, but it's still not finished and working as of yet. We ended the ride on the North ending point for the Mesa Springs Greenway, then headed back to Cascade Ave bike lane back to the storage unit. 

November 2

Decided to ride the Templeton Gap Trail, this trail has two different ending points just before the Austin Bluffs Parkway, we decided to take the straight-ahead portion to its end at Ranch Road, a few blocks short of Academy Blvd. Started the video heading back south, then west.

It was getting a bit late, so we headed over to Bonn Park to eat our snack then headed back to the storage unit, tucked in the trikes and walked home

November 5

Had several things to do on the 3rd and 4th so no ride. Sadly Jo came down with a sinus induced migraine headache, so she stayed home. I headed out for short ride as the weather was going into full time WINTER mode by the evening hours. Just did a loop of several trails, stopped at Panera Bread for iced tea as it warmed up enough and ate my brown bag lunch. Headed out of Panera Bread and wow clouds came in WIND came up and the temps seemed to drop 5 or more degrees!! Headed south on the Pikes Peak Greenway and took the Rock Island Connector up to Cascade Ave to end the video and headed for the storage unit then braved the wind back to the apartment!

Sadly, it's been SNOWING on and off from the late afternoon on the 5th. to today, the 8th!

We are supposed to ride in the Veteran's Day Parade with the Pedal Powered Veteran's Group but I'm not sure the back streets from the apartment to the storage unit (1.2 miles each way), to be able to pull our wagon with E-assist batteries and gear!! It's going to be a real last-minute decision on weither we make the parade, RATS! Hope your getting in some good winter season rides! BJ :) 

October 2024, continued, still trying to catch up!!

 Hello, yep, still trying to catch up, my world has become a "Merry-Go-Round" and I can't get off, LOL! ;)

October 23, just a color ride along the Cottonwood Creek Trail!

October 24, we headed north on the Rock Island Trail up to check out the "progress" on the new crossing signal on Murry Blvd & RIT. They have to poles up and installing the signal box! Bummer, we couldn't go any farther ease, on the RIT, they decided to "re-route" the trail at the intersection to bring it to the signal box so they were pouring concrete and the trail was blocked off! We headed west on the RIT to pick up the Canal (Homestead South) trail over to Galley Rd., Arrugh, I guess due to the laying of "NEW Pipe" on Galley Rd., they tore out several sections of the Canal Trail so we couldn't get the Mc Donalds at Murry Blvd and Hwy. 24!!! We turned around for the 2nd. time in one ride! Back to the RIT, over to the Academy Blvd. access Path and to a Mavrick station/store for iced tea and LUNCH!

Headed to Shooks Run Trail and the Good Neighbors Meeting House for afternoon snack and tea! Rode back to the storage unit, then walked home!

October 25, Jo had a heart doctors checkup so I headed off by myself and rode several different trails and bike lanes. Took a couple of photos on the Foothills Trail! Wandered around here and there, then back to the storage unit. Nice day for a solo ride but missed my riding buddy!

October 26, The Out and About on the Recumbents TEAM is back together, we headed for the Sinton Trail to go to our dealer/shop at Angletech. If you ride a older TRICE trike like Jo does, it has "mirrored" hydraulic disc brakes, we had the original brake system replaced with new TEKTRO mirrored hydraulic disc brakes, they are the ONLY company left that makes them these days!! To be honest, they have been a "problem" since installed!!! We are looking at replacing them with a set of "90mm" drum brakes but the tech's needed to check to see if the "KINGPINS" would match up to drum brakes, otherwise new Kingpins are VERY expensive!!!!! 

Kirk, is pretty sure her current Kingpins will work with the swap and they have a set somewhere in backstock of new wheels with drum brakes but he didn't know where to find them. Joshia, will be back on the 29th. so, IF they do actually have them, he knows where and then we will get a service appointment to have them installed. From Angletech, we continued on Sinton to Foothills to the 31st. Street bike lane to Colorado Ave, stopped at Starbucks for iced tea and brown bag lunch. Then over to the Mesa Springs Greenway, over the I-25 Ped/Bike bridge to Monument Valley Park and our favorite spot for afternoon snack at Stanley Lake. Headed to the storage unit and home!

October 27, We just took a Food and Household Supplies Ride to the Walmart Market Place on Union Blvd, headed home dropped off the food and headed to the Mc Donalds on Garden of the Gods Road and I-25, via the Pikes Peak Greenway, then north on the "doublewide" sidewalk to Micky D's! Since we got a later than normal start today we just headed back to the storage area, PPGW, west Templeton Gap Trail and the Cascade Street bike lane!

Well, that's it for now, caught up again as we didn't ride on the 28th., we are doing a walk to downtown and from 5:30 to 7:00 PM taking a Ghost Tour of the old Carnegie Library Downtown, Colorado Springs! Should be FUN, till next time "Happy Trails". 

October 21, 2024 The Harder I try, the "behinder" I get!!

 LOL, it's me, trying to play catch up again! Come along and I will fill you in on what's been happening with us!

October 14, a final "Color Ride", on the Pikes Peak Greenway/Cottonwood Creek Trail, just up to the Cottonwood Creek Park.

October 15, the weather was talking about some possible "strong storms" by early afternoon, so we decided to ride the Templeton Gap Trail and stay a bit closer to homebase than we normally do. Lucky, it didn't rain, just a slight spitting on our walk home from the Storage Unit. Breezy but a nice day overall! Another short Colors Ride on the T-Gap!

October 16, LOL, This is a lost ride, we didn't take any photos and sadly, I can't remember where we rode to! It's hell getting OLD!! ;) 

October 17, Again, we had the threat of "afternoon storms" so we stayed close to home, heading south on the Shooks Run trail towards downtown to drop off our National Election Ballots and the downtown ballot box. Next, was the Pikes Peak Greenway over to the Monument Creek Trail and Monument Valley Park. Headed back towards the storage unit via the Cascade St. bike lane, we just kinda wandered around here and there before the afternoon rains finally showed up.

Sadly, it's getting to that time of the year were the rides are fewer and shorter due to how long it takes to "warm up" and what time the SUN goes down! Thanks for riding along, till next time, Happy Trails!