We spent the weekend visiting a daughter in college.
Saturday, October 8, 2016
First activity was watching her run with her WWU XC team on a very rainy, cold, wintery Saturday morning.
We understand it is the Pacific Northwest and it rains all the time there, but even she said "This is much harder than it normally rains."
And then rain and squiggly things got on my lens. Of course, on probably the best picture I got of her.
Tall trees on the road to Lake Padden where the race was held.
After getting drenched at the race we went back to our hotel and put our clothes in the dryer, after stopping by the grocery store to get a box of rice to put one of our phones in to try to dry it out since the rain had appeared to kill it. Good news, after letting it dry out in the rice for the entire weekend, it eventually ended up getting back to working order, thankfully.
Later in the afternoon we met back up with the daughter, had Vietnamese noodle bowls for supper at Pho 99, then she took us on a short driving tour after Bellingham, showing us her favorite sites.
We then went north of town to visit Locust Beach. She said this is an amazing place to watch the sunset, but the entire day had been rainy and overcast, so no sunset tonight. As this article alludes to, it's not the easiest beach to access. There is a lot of walking to get to it, both from where we (questionably legally) parked and then down many, many steps built from railroad ties in the side of a steep bluff.
We finished off the evening and our time with her with ice cream at Mallard Ice Cream in downtown Bellingham.
They are known for their interesting and inventive ice cream flavors. He tried the Corriander, she had Licorice. Both were yummy!!
Sunday, October 9, 2016 -- Afternoon
With no concrete plans for this day, other than being to our hotel in Seattle by evening, we decided to check out Whidbey Island on the way back.
Then we walked down a short sandy path to enjoy a brief view of Admiralty Inlet from atop the bluff
The second lighthouse on the island, Bush Point Lighthouse, is not open to the public. See the welcoming sign?
It is on private property in a residential area. The road down to it had numerous signs warning "Tsunami Area." I'm not sure that's a place I would want to live.
As we parked our car on the residential street to get out to take our pictures, we got the stinkeye from some people going into a house. *Shrugs* We got out and took our pictures anyway. Rebels been rebels since I don't know when.
Then she wanted to find a sandy (not rocky) beach that we could walk on for a while and listen to the waves and watch the seagulls and cute little shore birds. Google told us Double Bluff Beach was "the sandiest on Whidbey, reminiscent of the sandy beaches you would expect to find in areas like Southern California." It sounded like that was what she was looking for, so we headed to the south end of the island to visit this beach.
The remnants of someone's heart made out of shells
Lots of driftwood was washed up on this beach.
Including this entire large trunk of a tree.
And there were many lean-tos built out of said driftwood along this beach.
Truthfully, I was pretty disappointed in our visit to this beach. There was literally not one single seagull or shore bird to be found anywhere. And you know why we think that was? Unbeknownst to us at the time, this is a very well known "open leash beach" and there was indeed a plethora of dogs running everywhere. In fact, I believe we were the only people we saw on the beach who did NOT have a dog with them.
But, hey, a beach is a still a beach, right? And I definitely can't see one of those just any day where I live either, (sigh.........) So, make the best of it and move on.
While we sat in our car at the Clinton to Mukilteo ferry waiting area to take us back to the mainland, I was able to get a shot of this group of seagulls sitting on a wire. Hi, cute little seagulls! I think the ferry charge was only $8 or so. We didn't think that was too bad.
As the ferry approached Mukilteo, the light in the lighthouse came on for us! I thought that was cool.
We needed to get to Seattle to get our bike ride in before it got dark, so we didn't have time to stop and visit this lighthouse, which is the Mukilteo Light Station. Maybe we can on other trip.
Sunday, October 9, 2016 -- Evening
We drove to downtown Seattle to rent bikes from the Pronto Bike Share. We have ridden on these type of bike share system in several large cities (Houston, San Antonio, San Diego -- that blog post is sadly not written yet) and have always been happy with the experience as it enabled us to get bike rides in on trips where we have flown to our destination and weren't able to bring our bikes with us.
It turns out this Seattle bike system apparently has not been too successful and is being scrapped, a decision that was made in the 6 weeks after we used the system for this ride. The troubles apparently started in March 2016 (article here) and the city threw quite a bit of money at it to prop it up and get it going. The date of our ride was 10/09/2016. Just a few days later, this 10/13/2016 article states the city was planning to change to bike share system to using electric bikes. However, the death knell for the entire system seems to have finally rung, as this 11/28/2016 articlestates the program will end in March 2017, and the replacement system they had been working on is also officially dead.
We were very happy with our ride on the Pronto bikes along the Elliott Bay Trail.
They even had helmet rentals at the bike kiosk (sign said it was the law). This was the first bike share system we have utilized that offered helmets and it was a very welcome.
A 25
mile wet and muddy ride on Indian Creek Trail in suburban KC. This trail bridge
obviously had been underwater during the flooding rains of the last 48
hours. Look at that debris!
And a wedged hedgeball!
The wording on the Taco Bell packet wasn't in focus, but it says "You are my soul mate". And it's true.
We had a great Labor Day weekend of bike riding and Royals baseball!
We started out Saturday morning hitting some garage sales in Olathe. Found nothing except a $5 carpet shampooer that we then had to keep getting in and out of the car for the rest of the weekend every time we needed to get our bikes out. LOL
Then we went to Dick's Sporting Goods in Leawood to check out a bike she has been looking at online. Now that mister has a lighter bike that fits him better, she struggles to keep up with him. He is encouraging her to find a lighter bike for herself and after much research this is the one I have narrowed my search down to. Front disc brakes are important to me for the sake of ease of removal. V-lock brakes are a real pain to have to hook up and unhook every time we want to remove the front tire, which is every time we load it in the car. When funds allow, I will likely be purchasing this bike, a Diamondback Clarity 2, but probably not until next year's summer riding season. I'm ready now, but the bank account is not.
We then did a 10-mile ride on the Tomahawk Trail, followed by lunch at Gates BBQ on State Line Road, then headed to our motel to get showered and changed for the Royals game that evening.
It was Salvy bobblehead night for the first 20,000 fans through the gates, and we planned to be to the stadium and be in line when they opened the gates at the standard "1-1/2 hours before game start time." Game was at 6:15, so we figured the gates would be open at 4:45. When we arrived at the gates at 4:30-ish this was the scene, which we expected.....
but what was alarming was we encountered several people headed back toward the parking lots with armloads of Salvy bobblehead boxes. Turns out they opened the gates long before that and people had been waiting in line starting at 1:00. We lucked out, though, and got our bobbleheads. Another 15 minutes later and we'd have been out of luck and very disappointed. There's son and I. I am sporting our 3 bobblehead boxes safely packed away on my back ........
...... waiting in line to willingly consent to having Chevrolet send us junk email just so we could score a free pair of dorky looking sunglasses! LOL
There's the dorky sunglasses and the coveted bobblehead. :)
Salvy splash, baby! Jumbotron for scale.
It was also Bacon Day at the K. 75 degrees, Royals baseball, bacon, and bobbleheads. For a day that started out being woken up by the first (and hopefully last) earthquake I have ever felt in my life, it had a pretty sweet ending.
As you can see our HyVee seats were in right field, and oh gosh, my favorite Royal, Paulo Orlando, just happened to be the right fielder that night and I was sitting right there.
Life is indeed good. Especially since I get to share it with this guy! And ride bikes. And watch the Royals win, which they did that night.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
We drove to the Clinton, Missouri trailhead to start our ride from the western end of the Katy Trail.
It takes a minimum of 10 minutes to get the bikes unloaded and all the paraphernalia we take along on our rides packed onto the bikes.
Caboose at the entrance to the trailhead.
Headed east out of Clinton the first stretch was wide open so we worried a bit about the wind
But 85% of the portion we ended up riding today looked more like this and we were thankful for that, so we didn't have to battle the wind.
Parts of the trail were lined with native grass and wildflowers as part of a prairie restoration area.
A rider from the Ukraine who stopped to talk to us along the trail. He spoke English quite well. He was on a quest to ride the entire trail, and was hoping to make it to Sedalia by the evening. He had supplies packed to camp along the trail.
Beautiful Tree Tunnel!
Where's Clark?
This dork is always photobombing me!
The turtle was taking a break from his race with the hare!
A cool old trestle over Sand Creek!
From about 25 yards back we both contemplated what the creek name on that sign was. He thought it said "Toad", she thought it said "Suet", so she won the "Our Middle-Aged Eyes Suck" contest because she at least got the "S" right. ~~H
B-E-A-U-TIFUL!
For some unknown reason I got a wild hair to hang my bike on the bridge. If you follow our blog I have had a tendency to do that on occasion. It is much easier to do with my much lighter Cannondale!
There was a bit of marital strife in obtaining the picture below. :) My sweetie had a specific picture in her mind of what she wanted and it involved me leaning over to take said picture. This was my first attempt at it. Which I took without leaning over. ERRRRNT! She again came and tried to show me how I was to take the picture... "You need to lean over like this .....", she said To which I got on my knees and started to take the picture... ERRRRRNT! Too low. She again came and tried to show me how I was to take said picture... To which I responded "You know with my back I cannot lean over..." Too which she stomped off and said "NEVERMIND, you got the picture the first time..." As you can see I did... :D
Town sign as we approached letting you know the amenities available!
The Calhoun trailhead is up a very steep hill from the trail.
We were both huffing and puffing by the time we got up here!
A legend describing the ride from Calhoun to Windsor.
Another legend describing the ride from Calhoun to Clinton.
Goes into great detail!
Interesting history of Calhoun posted at the trailhead.
As we rode through Calhoun we saw the only walkers I recall seeing on the trail the entire day!
Cool old elevator!
Less than one mile east of Calhoun.
A bench, nicely landscaped with railroad ties and mulch on the ground,
strategically placed for a scenic view of .........
the town's turd ponds.
Just too funny.
Luckily today they weren't also aromatic.
Sign showing we were coming into Windsor and the amenities available in town.
A History of Windsor, Mo. from the trailhead.
A neat caboose next to the trailhead commemorative of the 1976 Bicentennial! Click here to read more on the history of the caboose.
You cannot see in this picture that a man in a wheelchair was coming down the trail and was unable to cross because a trucker decided that was an adequate parking spot while she ran into Casey's.
When we got into Windsor it was lunch time and we again had strife
over where to eat. We saw on the sign as we rode into town that said
there was a Dairy Queen and a Sonic. We cussed and discussed it and
decided we would try DQ. So I looked on Google maps and it said we
would have to ride back a couple of blocks and then turn east. It turns
out, east was all uphill. So, when we got to DQ we were a bit worn
out, only to discover it was not a Brazier, nor was it even a sit-down
restaurant -- it was a really vintage model where you walk up to the outside window and order. While they did have
burgers and hot dogs, we were also needing to use restroom facilities
and refill our water bottles. So after more cussing and discussing and
my Sweetie beginning to have smoke coming from her ears... :) we headed
back to the Casey's by the trailhead to just get something there. I
will let her elaborate more on her experience there at the Casey's, but
needless to say more steam began to form around her ears and I think her
head spun around a couple of times...
Have you ever
just been irritable as absolute hell, I mean just pissed at the entire
world and all its inhabitants, and you can't even pinpoint the reason why
yourself? Well, that's the mood I was in at this point in the story. I was tired, I
was hungry, I was thirsty, and I really had to pee, and while Casey's
does not ever make my list of choice places to dine, let along rank in the
top 5 or 10, at this point we at least KNEW where Casey's was. I was in
no mood to continue riding around a town I knew nothing about, looking
for eating establishments that may or not even exist, or may or may not
be open, or may or may not offer a place to sit down. So, back to
Casey's we went. BUT, as is par for Casey's chain-wide (because we
encountered this in Jefferson, Iowa, on our ride there as well) there
are no bike racks to secure your bike to, and there is not a water
dispenser on the pop fountains -- the reason being, no doubt, so that
you will buy a $3 bottle of water. So, those 2 things in addition to fatigue, hunger, thirst and bladder at capacity, all contributed to the ear smoke
and the head spinning husband so aptly described. So, I say to him, "Just get inside and find
yourself something to eat and use the bathroom, and I will stay out here
with the bikes and then we will trade off." That's the highly sanitized
version, anyway. The live version was peppered liberally with profuse profanity,
and relayed at a loud volume. :)
Now, mind you, while all this venting of mine was going on, this guy in the red shirt in the picture below, who we didn't know, was also at the Casey's airing up his bike tire.
When he was done airing up his tire, he came up to me (gutsy guy) and said, "Would you mind watching my bike, too, while I run in and grab a Gatorade?" I told him I would be happy to. So, I'm standing there keeping watch over the 3 bikes, mine behind me, husband's to the left of me, and stranger's to my right. About 15 seconds later I heard a very LOUD bang and my right ear immediately started ringing. My split second reaction was gunshot, but then I saw stranger's bike falling over and I knew immediately what had happened. That kind of mollified my bad mood a tiny bit, because I'm thinking "and I thought I have having a bad day......" So, I pick the guy's bike up and was still holding onto it when he came out of the store with his Gatorade. The look on my face must have given something away because I think he said, "What?" I asked, "Was it your front tire that you just aired up?" He confirmed it was. "Uh, because I think you overinflated it and it just exploded." To his credit, he was very, very cool about it. "Oh man. I should have known better than to use compressed air. They tell you not to," he said. He was a prepared cyclist, though, and had an extra tube with him, so he took his bike back over to where he was standing at the trailhead in this picture and proceeded to replace his shredded tube.
We took our Casey's lunch and went and sat at a picnic table at the trailhead near there. He got his bike fixed and was on his merry way again before we were even finished with lunch. He had said he had ridden from Clinton, too, and we never saw him at all on our ride back, so he must have gotten back to his car without further incident. ~~H
So, that brings us to the next picture... After we had eaten our Casey's haul I went to throw away our trash and was walking back over to my sweetie when the thought hit me that I had missed my Snickers Moment! I thought to myself I should have come back out of Casey's with a giant Snickers bar for my Sweetie because she had become someone else... And lo and behold I looked down near the trash can and there was this Snickers 'Satisfies' wrapper laying on the ground, so I picked it up and handed it to my sweet wife and she responded with a chuckle! She was back! Turns out she had just been Hangry!
At every entrance to the trail there were signs saying no horse and buggies on the trail. They did allow horses, but not pulling buggies. This is likely why, because the locals would use the trail as a shortcut!
We rode on up the trail to the eastern edge of Windsor where the new Rock Island Trail crosses below the Katy Trail. It will eventually connect Kansas City to the Katy trail. The portion running from Windsor to Pleasant Hill is set to open later this fall. We turned around at this point and headed back towards Clinton.
Just south and west of Windsor underneath the Highway 52 bridge we found a dumped couch, so I had to go get a picture with it to post on the Bike Geocouching Facebook page.
It was a bit of a climb to get up to it and the rules are you have to have a picture with you AND your bike with the couch...... didn't think about how difficult it might be to get my bike back down!
We made it back to Clinton (and wife was much less cranky on the ride back with her tummy full ~~H). The headwind we thought we would have was actually just enough to keep us cool in the sunny spots but not a drag on our riding.
