..............More than words could ever express.
Documenting our cycling shenanigans!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Rockin' my noggin with a RockiNoggins helmet cover
So remember the sparkly gold Nutcase helmet from this post?
Confession #1: I had an ulterior motive in asking for that for Christmas. It really always was intended to serve as a base for these super cute RockiNoggins helmet covers..... and I wanted something smaller and less round than my Marvin the Martian sized Bern Berkeley.
So, here I am sporting the RockiNoggin "Thunder" style helmet cover.
It has earflaps, which I thought I might utilize, but after trying it out, I discovered that they don't ride snug enough against my ears to really do much good, so I choose to just continue to wear the homemade fleece flaps that I have always worn under the straps (you can see it in this picture, too), so that the straps serve to hold them pressed to my ears to keep the wind out.
The RockiNoggins covers come with adhesive Velcro circles that you are supposed to stick to the outside of your helmet and then secure the hat to those with the strip of Velcro that is sewn around the inside of the edge of the cover.
Confession #2: I didn't do that. I really didn't want to put Velcro circles on my helmet in case I want/need to wear the helmet without a cover. And I found that the S/M size Thunder cover fits snug enough on my S/M size Nutcase that the Velcro doesn't really seem to be necessary. It certainly has never given any indication that it is going to go flying off my helmet as I have ridden. Your mileage may vary, but at least for this particular Thunder style in combination with my particular helmet, the Velcro is not necessary.
In fact, I think it might ride a little "weird" on the helmet if I attempted to use the Velcro, because the cover actually would not be able to be pulled down as far on the helmet. You can actually see in the picture below the strip of Velcro that is being unused.
Not sure why the whole things looks excessively crooked. Probably because I'm not using the Velcro, hmmmmm??? :) Probably.
I also need to take a pair of scissors to the tag that keeps flopping out, visible on the right side of this picture.
Now, also to go with this picture...... let's talk about the bill of the Thunder cover. The fact that you could land a small plane on it means that it is likely a wee bit bigger than perhaps it needs to be. But it definitely keeps the sun out of your eyes. I have not even worn my sunglasses while riding since I have gotten this cover.
And since the smallest details usually give the biggest impact, lets talk about the bling-bling that gives my cover that extra oomph of cuteness. RockiNoggins offers several different accessories that you can purchase from them, for instance:
Alas, though......none of those match my winter riding attire, my Hi-Viz fluorescent yellow reflective coat. But this girl can sew! So she made her own.
Using this tutorial, and the yellow fluorescent material left over from the sleeves I cut off of a T-shirt that is my summer riding attire, I made this. It's adorable. Yes it is. And easy, too!
Here's the back. A circle of craft foam and a hair snap clip (Package of 12 for $1 at Dollar General.)
And since the Thunder helmet cover actually came with the detail of a opening on the front of the hat, I had a perfect place all ready to snap my bling onto.
Here's another one I made using this tutorial (scroll to the very bottom of this tut to the plum-colored shabby chic one.) But I made it even easier. I simply used the already hemmed edges of those same cut off T-shirt sleeves, cut slits in them like the tutorial describes, and rolled it into a flower starting from one end. Easy peesy. Added a third little rosebud flower from the same material, some antique buttons, and I have another super cute accessory made from scraps! How green can one be?
Confession #1: I had an ulterior motive in asking for that for Christmas. It really always was intended to serve as a base for these super cute RockiNoggins helmet covers..... and I wanted something smaller and less round than my Marvin the Martian sized Bern Berkeley.
So, here I am sporting the RockiNoggin "Thunder" style helmet cover.
The RockiNoggins covers come with adhesive Velcro circles that you are supposed to stick to the outside of your helmet and then secure the hat to those with the strip of Velcro that is sewn around the inside of the edge of the cover.
Confession #2: I didn't do that. I really didn't want to put Velcro circles on my helmet in case I want/need to wear the helmet without a cover. And I found that the S/M size Thunder cover fits snug enough on my S/M size Nutcase that the Velcro doesn't really seem to be necessary. It certainly has never given any indication that it is going to go flying off my helmet as I have ridden. Your mileage may vary, but at least for this particular Thunder style in combination with my particular helmet, the Velcro is not necessary.
In fact, I think it might ride a little "weird" on the helmet if I attempted to use the Velcro, because the cover actually would not be able to be pulled down as far on the helmet. You can actually see in the picture below the strip of Velcro that is being unused.
Not sure why the whole things looks excessively crooked. Probably because I'm not using the Velcro, hmmmmm??? :) Probably.
I also need to take a pair of scissors to the tag that keeps flopping out, visible on the right side of this picture.
Now, also to go with this picture...... let's talk about the bill of the Thunder cover. The fact that you could land a small plane on it means that it is likely a wee bit bigger than perhaps it needs to be. But it definitely keeps the sun out of your eyes. I have not even worn my sunglasses while riding since I have gotten this cover.
And since the smallest details usually give the biggest impact, lets talk about the bling-bling that gives my cover that extra oomph of cuteness. RockiNoggins offers several different accessories that you can purchase from them, for instance:
or THIS
or THAT
or even THIS (ribbit!)
Using this tutorial, and the yellow fluorescent material left over from the sleeves I cut off of a T-shirt that is my summer riding attire, I made this. It's adorable. Yes it is. And easy, too!
Here's another one I made using this tutorial (scroll to the very bottom of this tut to the plum-colored shabby chic one.) But I made it even easier. I simply used the already hemmed edges of those same cut off T-shirt sleeves, cut slits in them like the tutorial describes, and rolled it into a flower starting from one end. Easy peesy. Added a third little rosebud flower from the same material, some antique buttons, and I have another super cute accessory made from scraps! How green can one be?
I will be making many, many more of these from all those cut-off T-shirt sleeves I have. I am going to have matching bling for every single shirt I ride in!
I will definitely be adding more RockiNoggins covers to my collection. Because I think they make a really cool product. And I'm going to need some summer styles, as well, right? :)
Friday, February 7, 2014
I'm a model! (But I think I'll keep my day job.......)
I was honored to be a guest model on a fellow Kansas cyclist's bike blog. LOL. Here's a sneak peek of my modeling debut.
You'll have to go to Randy and Nova's Bicycle Scrapbook page to see the full picture, though. :)
Without a doubt, Randy writes one of the most entertaining blogs we've read and his videos are hilarious. Randy and Nova's fun blog and Facebook page were actually the inspiration for us creating a bike blog of our own. We were searching for information on the Flint Hills Nature Trail around our town and Google provided us with this video. And we were hooked.
We haven't yet had the opportunity to meet Randy and Nova in person, but I know one day we will. And what a fun day that will be! :)
You'll have to go to Randy and Nova's Bicycle Scrapbook page to see the full picture, though. :)
Without a doubt, Randy writes one of the most entertaining blogs we've read and his videos are hilarious. Randy and Nova's fun blog and Facebook page were actually the inspiration for us creating a bike blog of our own. We were searching for information on the Flint Hills Nature Trail around our town and Google provided us with this video. And we were hooked.
We haven't yet had the opportunity to meet Randy and Nova in person, but I know one day we will. And what a fun day that will be! :)
Sunday, February 2, 2014
1945 picture of my dad and his bicycle
Today we celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday with a dinner with family, and cake and punch reception with friends. I was in charge of making the photo slide show. In doing so, I found this neat picture dated 1945 of my dad with his bicycle. I thought it an appropriate item to add to our blog.
I enjoyed spending the day celebrating with you and the family, Dad!
~~H
I enjoyed spending the day celebrating with you and the family, Dad!
~~H
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Date Weekend: Blue was the Theme! (Blues Game and Little Blue Trace Trail -- Independence, MO)
My Sweetie and I made what has become our annual trip to St Louis to see my Beloved St Louis Blues! Saturday night they were playing the 1st place overall team in the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks.
The trip down on Saturday was aided by a high tailwind of 15+ MPH to the tune of an average of 38 MPG for the 300+ mile trip in our little Honda Fit!
Before the game we checked into our hotel out in upscale Creve Couer, Mo.
It is not showing in this picture, but apparently the city logo is a fleur-de-lis above a heart with a crack down the middle of it, as it was carved into several of the concrete columns at this same intersection. Google tell me that Creve Couer means "broken heart" in French. That is very interesting to me. ~~H
Typically we have tried to stay at the Drury Inn down by Union Station so we could just walk to the game. The Creve Couer Drury was having a special and our room was almost half what it would have been at the Union Station Drury. Love that they offer a parking garage since we travel with our bikes in the car.
We arrived early enough that after checking in we headed out to get some dinner before the game. We had enjoyed the Chevy's Tex Mex when we were here last summer, so we decided to eat there again. There was one just down Olive Blvd from our hotel. It was in an interesting renovated old building with what looked like a garage door in the side.
We asked our waitress what the history of the building was. It was a renovated school bus barn. They had lots of neat nostalgic items placed around as you can see in the below picture.
We actually looked up our blog on our phones before we ordered to see if we had noted what I had ordered last summer when we were here, because I wanted to order the same thing. And dang if we didn't actually have it in there. So, I guess even if we are the only ones that read our blog, it came in handy. LOL
http://just-keep-pedaling.blogspot.com/2013/07/grants-trail-st-louis-mo.html
The food was excellent! As difficult as it is for me to say, You can't go wrong with Chevy's! :)
(He's a Ford Mustang fan, America....... ~H)
After enjoying our scrumptious meal, we headed to the Scottrade Center for the Blues Game. We got there early enough to take some pictures before the game started.
The Blues were on ice the first 2 periods, falling behind 3-0!! In the third Anaheim seemed to run out of gas after having played the Blackhawks on Friday night. The Blues tried to make a comeback falling just short in a 3-2 loss. Even though they lost I truly enjoy the experience of seeing them in person. To anyone who has never attended an NHL hockey game, I encourage you to attend. I stress it being an NHL game you attend. I am not really a fan of the minor league local hockey as I enjoy the skill more than the fighting that can digress in those games.
After the game we returned to our hotel, and planned out our Sunday. It was suppose to be dry and warmer on Sunday, so we hoped to ride our bikes on the Creve Couer Lake Bikeway over to where it connected with the Katy Trail. When we awoke Sunday morning, ate our scrumptious Drury breakfast, the temperature was still sub 30 degrees (umm, yeah. NINE degrees is definitely sub-30 -- and not happening ~~H) so we changed our plans and decided to wait and ride in the Kansas City area. The weather forecast showed by early afternoon that the temperature there should be just shy of 60!
She takes over the narrative:
So before we left the hotel, S looked up any trails that might be on the east side of Kansas City and found notation on the Kansas Cyclist blog of the Little Blue Trace Trail in Independence, MO, so we loaded up and headed west. As we started to close in on Independence on I-70, she says to he, "Do you know where to go to find the trailhead?" He replies "I have an idea."
Oh boy.
So, she pulls out the iPhone, pulls up the Little Blue Trace Trail on TrailLink where there is even a button to click to show the map. Which it did. And that's where technology failed her. The iPhone flat would not cooperate with zooming in enough to see what roads the trailheads actually were near. Not helpful. Add to that, the 32 ounce drink that had been consumed since St. Louis was making the need to find a bathroom high on the list of priorities. So, those 2 factors combined to ensure that she of little patience got a wee bit short of temper as we found ourselves on a long stretch of bypass with no crossroads, no trailheads and no gas stations/bathrooms in sight.
At that point I had to insist that we call a halt to this trailhead goosechase nonsense, and find me a gas station with a bathroom. A couple miles up I-470, QT finally put me out of my misery.
So, that little problem resolved, he suggests that if the iPhone is not cooperating with zooming the map enough to allow us to see the road names, let's try hotspotting the iPhone and using my Kindle to see if the bigger screen on that would make the map function better. He's a smart cookie, that husband of mine.
Finally, we found this link to a PDF that showed "Hartman Heritage Center Parking" for the Little Blue Trace Trail. Well, that was something at least. So, we backtracked 4 or so miles back to I-70 and then got off I-70 at Little Blue Parkway. The landmark you are looking for here is the bank with the dual-phallic awning.
I just can't for the life of me fathom what committee said "Yes, those would look awesome right at the front door of our bank. That's the statement we want to make." But that's neither here nor there, I suppose. It does make it easy to know what exit you need to take off of I-70 to get to the trailhead parking, we know that now.
Once on Little Blue Parkway after exiting I-70, cross over I-70 to the Hartman Heritage Mall. In the mall parking lot, take your first right. You will see some playground equipment and even this sign (finally!)..........
I was not impressed with how not well-marked this thing was and how difficult it was to find, nor how hard it was to even find information on where to park on the Internet...... but that can be said for most trails we have ridden so far, honestly. And that, my friends, is the topic of a whole 'nother blog post yet to be written, so stay tuned to this station.
But with all that hassle behind us, we put it aside and set out to enjoy our bike ride on a beautiful winter day, even if it was a bit windy!
The trail was seeing a lot of use today.
It is a nice urban trail that follows along the Little Blue River.......
From where we parked, it followed alongside the river, behind the mall, beside a hotel, under I-70 and through suburbia.
The trail started out paved in the area around the mall and under most of the bridges.
Other than that, it is a natural surface (very fine chat, if any at all)......
I'm not sure this first warning in red on this sign was necessarily always heeded........
Based on some of the ruts we encountered......
There were still areas that were pretty soupy even as we rode today, so I suppose there were 4 fingers pointing right back at us, huh? :)
Parts of the river were also still frozen.
Somebody painted the lid of this drainage pipe (I guess that's what it is, anyway). Too cute!
And that was our mid-winter ride on the Little Blue Trace Trail. We plan to come back and ride more of it this summer.
After ride dinner at Cheddar's but we failed to get pictures. We just snarfed it down. LOL
The trip down on Saturday was aided by a high tailwind of 15+ MPH to the tune of an average of 38 MPG for the 300+ mile trip in our little Honda Fit!
Before the game we checked into our hotel out in upscale Creve Couer, Mo.
It is not showing in this picture, but apparently the city logo is a fleur-de-lis above a heart with a crack down the middle of it, as it was carved into several of the concrete columns at this same intersection. Google tell me that Creve Couer means "broken heart" in French. That is very interesting to me. ~~H
 |
| Hard to believe that picture is right in the middle of a bridge over I-270 |
We arrived early enough that after checking in we headed out to get some dinner before the game. We had enjoyed the Chevy's Tex Mex when we were here last summer, so we decided to eat there again. There was one just down Olive Blvd from our hotel. It was in an interesting renovated old building with what looked like a garage door in the side.
We asked our waitress what the history of the building was. It was a renovated school bus barn. They had lots of neat nostalgic items placed around as you can see in the below picture.
 |
| No, I'm not the "neat old nostalgic item". I hope. ~~H |
We actually looked up our blog on our phones before we ordered to see if we had noted what I had ordered last summer when we were here, because I wanted to order the same thing. And dang if we didn't actually have it in there. So, I guess even if we are the only ones that read our blog, it came in handy. LOL
http://just-keep-pedaling.blogspot.com/2013/07/grants-trail-st-louis-mo.html
The food was excellent! As difficult as it is for me to say, You can't go wrong with Chevy's! :)
(He's a Ford Mustang fan, America....... ~H)
 |
| The quantity of black beans here was almost lethal, however. |
After enjoying our scrumptious meal, we headed to the Scottrade Center for the Blues Game. We got there early enough to take some pictures before the game started.
 |
| This was not a case of lackluster attendance. We were one of the first ones in the door. The game was sold out. |
The Blues were on ice the first 2 periods, falling behind 3-0!! In the third Anaheim seemed to run out of gas after having played the Blackhawks on Friday night. The Blues tried to make a comeback falling just short in a 3-2 loss. Even though they lost I truly enjoy the experience of seeing them in person. To anyone who has never attended an NHL hockey game, I encourage you to attend. I stress it being an NHL game you attend. I am not really a fan of the minor league local hockey as I enjoy the skill more than the fighting that can digress in those games.
After the game we returned to our hotel, and planned out our Sunday. It was suppose to be dry and warmer on Sunday, so we hoped to ride our bikes on the Creve Couer Lake Bikeway over to where it connected with the Katy Trail. When we awoke Sunday morning, ate our scrumptious Drury breakfast, the temperature was still sub 30 degrees (umm, yeah. NINE degrees is definitely sub-30 -- and not happening ~~H) so we changed our plans and decided to wait and ride in the Kansas City area. The weather forecast showed by early afternoon that the temperature there should be just shy of 60!
She takes over the narrative:
So before we left the hotel, S looked up any trails that might be on the east side of Kansas City and found notation on the Kansas Cyclist blog of the Little Blue Trace Trail in Independence, MO, so we loaded up and headed west. As we started to close in on Independence on I-70, she says to he, "Do you know where to go to find the trailhead?" He replies "I have an idea."
Oh boy.
So, she pulls out the iPhone, pulls up the Little Blue Trace Trail on TrailLink where there is even a button to click to show the map. Which it did. And that's where technology failed her. The iPhone flat would not cooperate with zooming in enough to see what roads the trailheads actually were near. Not helpful. Add to that, the 32 ounce drink that had been consumed since St. Louis was making the need to find a bathroom high on the list of priorities. So, those 2 factors combined to ensure that she of little patience got a wee bit short of temper as we found ourselves on a long stretch of bypass with no crossroads, no trailheads and no gas stations/bathrooms in sight.
At that point I had to insist that we call a halt to this trailhead goosechase nonsense, and find me a gas station with a bathroom. A couple miles up I-470, QT finally put me out of my misery.
So, that little problem resolved, he suggests that if the iPhone is not cooperating with zooming the map enough to allow us to see the road names, let's try hotspotting the iPhone and using my Kindle to see if the bigger screen on that would make the map function better. He's a smart cookie, that husband of mine.
Finally, we found this link to a PDF that showed "Hartman Heritage Center Parking" for the Little Blue Trace Trail. Well, that was something at least. So, we backtracked 4 or so miles back to I-70 and then got off I-70 at Little Blue Parkway. The landmark you are looking for here is the bank with the dual-phallic awning.
Once on Little Blue Parkway after exiting I-70, cross over I-70 to the Hartman Heritage Mall. In the mall parking lot, take your first right. You will see some playground equipment and even this sign (finally!)..........
I was not impressed with how not well-marked this thing was and how difficult it was to find, nor how hard it was to even find information on where to park on the Internet...... but that can be said for most trails we have ridden so far, honestly. And that, my friends, is the topic of a whole 'nother blog post yet to be written, so stay tuned to this station.
But with all that hassle behind us, we put it aside and set out to enjoy our bike ride on a beautiful winter day, even if it was a bit windy!
The trail was seeing a lot of use today.
It is a nice urban trail that follows along the Little Blue River.......
 |
| A gaggle of geese right there. Honk honk! |
The trail started out paved in the area around the mall and under most of the bridges.
Other than that, it is a natural surface (very fine chat, if any at all)......
I'm not sure this first warning in red on this sign was necessarily always heeded........
Based on some of the ruts we encountered......
There were still areas that were pretty soupy even as we rode today, so I suppose there were 4 fingers pointing right back at us, huh? :)
Parts of the river were also still frozen.
Somebody painted the lid of this drainage pipe (I guess that's what it is, anyway). Too cute!
And that was our mid-winter ride on the Little Blue Trace Trail. We plan to come back and ride more of it this summer.
After ride dinner at Cheddar's but we failed to get pictures. We just snarfed it down. LOL
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Indian Creek Trail (Olathe to Overland Park, KS)
We found ourselves in Kansas City again today to watch one of the offspring run in a meet with her indoor track club. After the race, since it was 40-ish degrees we took the opportunity to ride more of the Indian Creek Trail.
We started our ride from the Johnson County Community College campus where we had been for the race, and met up shortly with the trail after crossing to the other side of Quivira Road.
We had a leisurely 18.5 mile ride that covered a span of 3 hours and 3 minutes. We blazed along at an average 6 miles an hour. Partly because statistically we would be classified as "middle-aged" (sigh.....). Partly because we stopped to take a lot of pictures. But mainly because there were many icy stretches that we simply had to walk our bikes very gingerly across for safety's sake. The stretch of the trail that paralleled I-435 that was sandwiched between an apartment complex and the interstate sound barrier wall (and therefore has very little benefit of sun) was particularly prolonged and treacherous. That was the least fun part of today for her. The least fun part of today for him was likely when he took a spill on an icy patch. Let's just say, the back wheel of the bike went right, and the front wheel and the rider went left. That was my Blades of Glory finale! Score 0.0 S~~
We rode right up on a coyote standing having a drink in the middle of the icy creek under the 119th Street Bridge. Couldn't get the camera out in time to get a picture of him. But here are a couple pictures of some great mallard ducks from another part of the ride. Dynasty of ducks? S~~
And of course, you go under several major highways while traversing this trail.
Isn't my helmet cute? I will devote a post solely to it in future days.
The trail goes through the Corporate Woods section of Overland Park. (Big corporate building in background for demonstration purposes.)
After-ride dinner at Mi Ranchito Mexican Restaurant.
Very much enjoyed the day spent with you sweetie riding our bikes! Looking forward to many more miles together! S~~
We started our ride from the Johnson County Community College campus where we had been for the race, and met up shortly with the trail after crossing to the other side of Quivira Road.
We had a leisurely 18.5 mile ride that covered a span of 3 hours and 3 minutes. We blazed along at an average 6 miles an hour. Partly because statistically we would be classified as "middle-aged" (sigh.....). Partly because we stopped to take a lot of pictures. But mainly because there were many icy stretches that we simply had to walk our bikes very gingerly across for safety's sake. The stretch of the trail that paralleled I-435 that was sandwiched between an apartment complex and the interstate sound barrier wall (and therefore has very little benefit of sun) was particularly prolonged and treacherous. That was the least fun part of today for her. The least fun part of today for him was likely when he took a spill on an icy patch. Let's just say, the back wheel of the bike went right, and the front wheel and the rider went left. That was my Blades of Glory finale! Score 0.0 S~~
We rode right up on a coyote standing having a drink in the middle of the icy creek under the 119th Street Bridge. Couldn't get the camera out in time to get a picture of him. But here are a couple pictures of some great mallard ducks from another part of the ride. Dynasty of ducks? S~~
And of course, you go under several major highways while traversing this trail.
 |
| Voted Best Named Highway by teenage boys and men who act like teenagers. :) And, indeed, it travels both north AND south. Yes....... yes, it does. It was dripping on me... :) S~~ |
 |
| What a boring name for a road. |
Isn't my helmet cute? I will devote a post solely to it in future days.
The trail goes through the Corporate Woods section of Overland Park. (Big corporate building in background for demonstration purposes.)
After-ride dinner at Mi Ranchito Mexican Restaurant.
 |
| Hers -- Fish tacos and Pepsi (AKA, Heaven's nectar) |
 |
| His -- Pork tamale, cheese enchilada and chili rellano. It Rocked! S~~ |
 |
| Down the hatch! Nom-nom-nom! |
Very much enjoyed the day spent with you sweetie riding our bikes! Looking forward to many more miles together! S~~
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Our 2014 goal
That's 5 miles a day. OK, actually 5 x 365 = 1825, but I like round numbers. And besides, this gives us a built in 5 days "off". Also, we know that when the weather gets warmer and we are actually riding outside again every day, our average ride will be much longer than 5 miles. But this seemed like a good conservative attainable goal to shoot for in our first "full" year of cycling. We can DOOOOOOO it, Bobby Boucher!!!!
~~H
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