I'm rolling in some pretty hefty mojo about right now...... I almost
had talked myself out of going for my bike ride today. But it's 85
degrees (yes) and I'm thinking there aren't going to be many more of
those for a number of months, so I forced myself to change my clothes,
do my stretches, fill my water bottle, snap on my helmet and get on the
seat, with the goal of a 5-mile ride, even though there is a hefty wind
today. Oddly enough, I decided to get my 5 miles today in
a part a town I almost NEVER ride in. So, I'm booking along and I see
something in the road in front of me, so I swerve around it, and then I
slam on my brakes. It was A FREAKING IPHONE!!!! WTH, right?!?!. So, I
go back and pick it up. It doesn't look damaged. I hit the button and it
comes on just fine. So, I take it to the house it was laying in front
of. Knock on the door. A lady answers and I tell her "I was riding my
bike and found this lying in the road beside your driveway." Immense
relief on her face and she says "Oh my gosh, THANK YOU!" Right place,
right time. Almost like I was *meant* to find and return that woman's
phone unharmed.
At this
point, I'm thinking some stars just aligned pretty nicely and I likely
have a heaping helping of good karma due to come my way, so I'm just going to go ahead and apply it to a Royals win tonight. Don't dick around with my gift, boys, OK?
Update 10/26/2014, 10:20 p.m. : Obviously the Royals didn't get my karma memo. Maybe I'll get a raise at work tomorrow? :)
~~ H
Documenting our cycling shenanigans!
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Wabash Trace Trail - Shenandoah, Iowa
On the second day of our birthday trip back in October of 2014, we started off in Shenandoah, Iowa riding the Wabash Trace Nature Trail, parking in the Waubonsie Park trailhead.
Trail goes off to the left once you cross this bridge.. Not real obvious.. I seem to recall a bit of marital strife over that! :)
Wife does not recall this at all. So it must not have been too big a fight. LOL ~~ H
Finally we are off into the tree tunnel!
Very pretty!
We decided to do the southern route toward Coin in the morning because we were playing the Bicycle Ride and Seek game we had discovered on Facebook and needed to find a tunnel, and Google maps had indicated that there was one just a little south of town where Highway 2 crossed the trail. And do you know, Google maps was right? We found our tunnel! Picture of bike with it was what was required for the challenge.
But on the flip side, I can't get over how ugly that bike was before I had it painted pink. It's hardly picture-worthy. Oy. ~~H
Look! No sharks allowed... LOL
(Yes, he is making fun of me. :) You can read our Raccoon River Trail blog post here to see what the shark reference means! ~~H )
Shenandoah is a really neat small town with a great downtown. In fact, our very nice and clean hotel, the Shenandoah Inn and Suites was located in the downtown business district. The homemade banana bread offered with the free breakfast was delicious. I would recommend this hotel to anyone riding the Wabash Trace and needing lodging for the night. It was a surprising find of the most pleasant kind in a town with a population of just 5000.
(Picture snagged off the Interwebs since I neglected to snap one of my own, but I wanted to give them a shout-out here on our blog since we were so pleased with our accommodations. ~~H)
Dollar Generals are becoming as numerous as Wal-Marts, it appears, and downtown Shenandoah boasts one, too. I have to say it's the first time I've ever seen one in a location such as that. I usually only see them as freestanding structures or in suburban strip malls.
Zooming in closer you can see one of multiple benches and bike racks scattered through the inviting downtown area.
Zooming in even closer, you can see the tiles of children's art drawings embedded into the pedestals. And again, these were scattered all through the downtown area. How cool is that, seriously?
Art is so important to quality of life, and how neat for those kids to know that their art is permanently on display in such a public manner.
And more art, in the form of a large mural depicting the trail on the side of a downtown building.
Another feature of downtown is the "Walk of Fame" paying tribute to famous Iowans. This one honors the founder of Pella Windows.
Had no idea Shenandoah was the birthplace of the Everly Brothers!
(This is also perhaps the smallest house I have ever seen in my life. ~~H)
For lunch we decided to try the restaurant in the old Depot!
Our nutritious meal after we had already sampled it heavily!
Neat memorabilia!
3
With our bellies full we were ready to tackle the northern route of the trail out of town. We parked in the trailhead at Sportsmans Park to start our ride from there and were immediately able to check off another Bicycle Ride and Seek list item for that month: Movie Title!
One of the great classics. It'll make you cry, yes it will. ~~H
Guessing Shenandoah's high school mascot is the Mustangs, based on the artful bike rack at this trailhead.
We looked over the map and decided we would try to ride to Imogene! It was only 9 miles. At that time, that was a LOOOOOOOOOONG ride for us! We talked to a couple who had just returned from riding that way. He told us it was uphill, but only a 2% grade.. not bad at all... I noted that he had a Pikes Peak biking shirt on.
We both duly took note of Mr. Pikes Peak's attire. In other words, "grade" and "not bad at all" are relative terms. LOL ~~H
The section of trail from the depot trailhead to the river is paved asphalt, but the rest is all crushed limestone.
The bridge over the East Nishtabotna River.
We made it!
(OK, technically we made it to this sign that said Imogene. I think the actual town was another mile or so up the trail and, folks, we had no burning desire to see what the actual town of Imogene offered because, frankly, we were dying at this point -- because we were young riders then and not nearly as whipped into shape as we are at the time we are writing this blog post 2 years later. My apologies to Imogene and its citizens. I'm sure your town is amazing. Maybe someday we'll come back and ride that extra mile into the city proper. LOL ~~ H)
Here is how we looked after riding the 9 miles back to Shenandoah... looking a bit drained...
 |
| We never found a box to pay said fee.... |
 |
| Sometimes we need a little direction! |
Trail goes off to the left once you cross this bridge.. Not real obvious.. I seem to recall a bit of marital strife over that! :)
Wife does not recall this at all. So it must not have been too big a fight. LOL ~~ H
Finally we are off into the tree tunnel!
It was a bit of a climb up out of town to our destination! (Back when we struggled to ride 5 miles :) )
We decided to do the southern route toward Coin in the morning because we were playing the Bicycle Ride and Seek game we had discovered on Facebook and needed to find a tunnel, and Google maps had indicated that there was one just a little south of town where Highway 2 crossed the trail. And do you know, Google maps was right? We found our tunnel! Picture of bike with it was what was required for the challenge.
I clearly followed none of fellow Kansas bicycle blogger Randy's excellent and expert tips about How To Photograph A Bike.
But on the flip side, I can't get over how ugly that bike was before I had it painted pink. It's hardly picture-worthy. Oy. ~~H
Cool old barn along the trail as we headed back to Shenandoah!
Look! No sharks allowed... LOL
(Yes, he is making fun of me. :) You can read our Raccoon River Trail blog post here to see what the shark reference means! ~~H )
When we got back to Shenandoah, it was lunch time so we headed back into town.
Shenandoah is a really neat small town with a great downtown. In fact, our very nice and clean hotel, the Shenandoah Inn and Suites was located in the downtown business district. The homemade banana bread offered with the free breakfast was delicious. I would recommend this hotel to anyone riding the Wabash Trace and needing lodging for the night. It was a surprising find of the most pleasant kind in a town with a population of just 5000.
(Picture snagged off the Interwebs since I neglected to snap one of my own, but I wanted to give them a shout-out here on our blog since we were so pleased with our accommodations. ~~H)
Zooming in closer you can see one of multiple benches and bike racks scattered through the inviting downtown area.
Zooming in even closer, you can see the tiles of children's art drawings embedded into the pedestals. And again, these were scattered all through the downtown area. How cool is that, seriously?Art is so important to quality of life, and how neat for those kids to know that their art is permanently on display in such a public manner.
And more art, in the form of a large mural depicting the trail on the side of a downtown building. Had no idea Shenandoah was the birthplace of the Everly Brothers!
(This is also perhaps the smallest house I have ever seen in my life. ~~H)
For lunch we decided to try the restaurant in the old Depot!
Our nutritious meal after we had already sampled it heavily!
Neat memorabilia!
Possibly a lamp from one of the train cars?
They will let anyone into this place. See the dork at the table!
There's a beautiful ghost trapped in their mirror!
3
Lots of eye candy everywhere you look in here!
And more homage to their trail.
One of the great classics. It'll make you cry, yes it will. ~~H
Guessing Shenandoah's high school mascot is the Mustangs, based on the artful bike rack at this trailhead.
We looked over the map and decided we would try to ride to Imogene! It was only 9 miles. At that time, that was a LOOOOOOOOOONG ride for us! We talked to a couple who had just returned from riding that way. He told us it was uphill, but only a 2% grade.. not bad at all... I noted that he had a Pikes Peak biking shirt on.
We both duly took note of Mr. Pikes Peak's attire. In other words, "grade" and "not bad at all" are relative terms. LOL ~~H
The section of trail from the depot trailhead to the river is paved asphalt, but the rest is all crushed limestone.
A common sight on this ride: Cornfields.
The bridge over the East Nishtabotna River.
My man on the bridge over the East Nishtabotna River. :) ~~H
More beautiful tree tunnel!
Sharks aren't allowed on this trail, and neither are horses. ~~H
Trailside pond, heavy on the algae.
Bridge over a country road.
You see some real weirdos while out riding! :D
We made it!
(OK, technically we made it to this sign that said Imogene. I think the actual town was another mile or so up the trail and, folks, we had no burning desire to see what the actual town of Imogene offered because, frankly, we were dying at this point -- because we were young riders then and not nearly as whipped into shape as we are at the time we are writing this blog post 2 years later. My apologies to Imogene and its citizens. I'm sure your town is amazing. Maybe someday we'll come back and ride that extra mile into the city proper. LOL ~~ H)
But we made it back to our vehicle and lived to write this blog post.
On the drive back home we rewarded ourselves by stopping at the most hilarious combination restaurant/ice cream place/farm supply store in Nebraska City:
Taco John's/Dairy Queen/Orscheln.
He's gotta have his Potatoes Ole!
She's gotta have her Dairy Queen Blizzard!
Video of our ride:
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Steamboat Trace Trail -- Brownville to Peru, Nebraska
Reviewing our pictures and videos we discovered that we had never posted about our birthday trip to Nebraska and Iowa back in October of 2014, so we present it now, two years later!
It was birthday celebration weekend for one of the pedalers of this blog so we headed to the next state north to ride the Steamboat Trace Trail from the southernmost trailhead in Brownville, Nebraska.
Neat old building remaining from a golden era in Brownsville!
First thing we encountered when we started off on the trail was a detour!
They even provided a map of where you needed to ride to follow the detour. The thing the map does not show is that the detour was an extremely steep climb up from the low ground near the river up into town. Hmmm, do we follow the detour?!?!?
Nope! We were rebels and walked the bikes across the construction zone. We do not condone ignoring construction zones! In this case we could tell it was safe to cross.
The trail runs along the Missouri river bluffs, sometimes right along the river and sometimes fertile fields they squeeze between the bluffs and the river.
Nice of them to warn us right after we had out teeth rattle out by washouts! :)
Your bike's pointed the wrong way!
Taking a break on a nice bench they provided........
....... right beside this bridge
Ready to get back at it! Showing off her special gloves that work on touchscreens without having to take them off!
Back to the tree tunnel!
Neat picnic table right along the river!
Beautiful!
Along the trail there are some carvings in the rock wall that were done by Roland Sherman. You can read more info about them at this link.
There were some other carving in the same area that I'm pretty sure were done by teenage boys, but we decided not to post those here because this is a G-rated blog. :) ~~H
Eventually we reached our northernmost destination, Peru!
One of the cabins provided at the campsite.
On the way back we snapped another picture with the carvings!
Pointing out a remnant from the railroad that once traversed this path!
Actually if I remember correctly, this was for a Bicycle Ride and Seek scavenger hunt item. We were supposed to find something with our age on it? Haha!!!! In this case it was a divisible factor of my age. ~~H
After a long day of riding we traveled on to Shenandoah, Iowa for the night because we planned to ride the Wabash Trace Trail there tomorrow. We got checked into our hotel and then went and found dinner at a Godfather's Pizza and got some strange items on their buffet! Nothing beats a nutritious post-ride supper of jello, pudding, pizza and picked beets!
A little video from our ride!
It was birthday celebration weekend for one of the pedalers of this blog so we headed to the next state north to ride the Steamboat Trace Trail from the southernmost trailhead in Brownville, Nebraska.
First thing we encountered when we started off on the trail was a detour!
They even provided a map of where you needed to ride to follow the detour. The thing the map does not show is that the detour was an extremely steep climb up from the low ground near the river up into town. Hmmm, do we follow the detour?!?!?
Nope! We were rebels and walked the bikes across the construction zone. We do not condone ignoring construction zones! In this case we could tell it was safe to cross.
The trail runs along the Missouri river bluffs, sometimes right along the river and sometimes fertile fields they squeeze between the bluffs and the river.
Your bike's pointed the wrong way!
Taking a break on a nice bench they provided........
....... right beside this bridge
Ready to get back at it! Showing off her special gloves that work on touchscreens without having to take them off!
Back to the tree tunnel!
Neat picnic table right along the river!
Beautiful!
Along the trail there are some carvings in the rock wall that were done by Roland Sherman. You can read more info about them at this link.
There were some other carving in the same area that I'm pretty sure were done by teenage boys, but we decided not to post those here because this is a G-rated blog. :) ~~H
Eventually we reached our northernmost destination, Peru!
On the way back we snapped another picture with the carvings!
Actually if I remember correctly, this was for a Bicycle Ride and Seek scavenger hunt item. We were supposed to find something with our age on it? Haha!!!! In this case it was a divisible factor of my age. ~~H
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