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

Hard to believe that picture is right in the middle of a bridge over I-270

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.

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.
 

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.......

A gaggle of geese right there. Honk honk!

 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

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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.

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~~  

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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

Our 2013 cycling accomplishments

We started this new cycling lifestyle (and this blog) in the last week of June 2013.

Here is how we ended the year.  We are impressed with ourselves.  Yes, we are.  :)

In essence, we spent the equivalent of 5 whole (24-hour) days on our bikes. And that, my pretties, is a good thing.


***************************************************************

His stats:

Her stats:  

I have no fancy graphics for mine, because until the end of September, I was actually still operating with (gasp!!!) a "dumb" phone. So our first three months of tracking was actually just with his phone, on his account, based on his calories burned, etc. 

So, these are just very rough estimates for mine:

Total miles: 1016.41

Total hours: 123.89

Needless to say, in 2014, we intend to Just Keep Pedaling!!!!

Stay with us for more awesome adventures!!!!!

Date Day: Our Indian Summer day in Late December! (Indian Creek Greenway -- Leawood, KS to Kansas City, MO)

Last night with the forecast for today to make it into the 50's,  we decided to find someplace to ride our bikes today.   With the recent snow melt, we knew we would have to find a paved trail.   I made the suggestion that we make it a date day and go to KC,  find a new restaurant to eat at and a new bike trail to ride.   So my sweetie grabbed the map of Kansas City bike trails we got at the meeting of the Flint Hills Trail Board last month, and tossed it at me.(Just about landed in his bowl of salsa when I did.......  ~~H)

Forecasts of warmer weather this time of year usually brings with it higher winds, so I looked for a trail that I knew would be somewhat sheltered from the winds. I quickly spotted one on the border between Kansas and Missouri that follows Indian Creek as it makes its way toward the Little Blue River.   It crosses through the towns of Leawood, KS and Kansas City, MO.   The trail is known as Indian Creek Greenway.

Now we had to decide upon a new restaurant to try.  We both are Mexican food fans so I did a quick search of blogs for a recommended restaurant in the area we wanted to go ride.   One that kept getting mentioned was Dos De Oros. It is at the intersection of Blue Ridge Blvd and Holmes Rd. 
Link to the Dos De Oros Website

    
Saturday morning, we awoke, loaded the bikes and packed the car.  I had to return my handlebar extensions to my bike as I had moved them to our indoor rider to make it more comfortable.  (A permanent set for the trainer bike is on the way from Amazon as we speak. ~~H)

My sweetie made the 1-1/2 hour drive pass faster by busily working on a project she has planned for her bike helmet this summer.    (Here's part of it.  Any ideas?  LOL  ~~H)

As we were driving we noted that in the shadowed areas that not all the snow had melted and began to wonder if our ride would be entirely ice/snow free...  

We arrived at Dos De Oros right around 12:30 and as we entered were quickly teleported to heart of OL' MehEECo.  This was truly authentic Mexican food!  I got four soft tacos and my sweetie got 2 tamales,  we also got some chips and guacamole.   I traded a taco for one of her HOT tamales.     Everything was Yummy Yummy in our Tummies!

~~S

H takes over the narrative:  We headed over to the Leawood Aquatic Center parking lot, one of the trailheads of the Indian Creek Greenway.

 
Here was our weather conditions:

The trail was seeing pretty heavy usage from this trailhead today. Cyclists, families with kids, exercisers, people with dogs (never see anyone walking a cat, now do you? Hmmmmm........) (~~S Actually we did on Grant's trail in STL if you remember Sweetie :) )  Got our bikes out of the car, realized that we did still remember how to unfold them and get them into riding position again after a few months of not having done so.

The trail had many slushy, snow packed, and/or icy spots along the entire 10 miles that we rode, but it was not impassable.  We just took it slowly.  We weren't out to win any races, and since it took us 1-1/2 hours at an average speed of 6.4 mph to cover that 10 miles, that was pretty obvious!!

 There were also large portions of the trail that were completely clean and dry.

We crossed the state line from Kansas into Missouri under the State Line Road bridge, but alas, there was no painted line for us to photo-op with one foot in each state.  Sad face.  Here's the best I could do.

 Over on the Missouri side we did photo-op this sign.  We would have taken it on the side that said "Welcome to Missouri", but some goober had spray-painted graffiti on it.

Shortly after crossing into Missouri, you encounter the spot where the historic Watts Mill used to operate on the Indian Creek.

There's the original millstone.

Rode on a few more miles, still meeting many people out enjoying the the beautiful day(~~S and even some fishermen on the creek!) and utilizing the trail, just like us.  People were very friendly, many warning of "Ice ahead", so we returned the favor to people we passed, too.

Back to the car, we got everything packed back up, found an unlocked shelter house bathroom (bless you, City of Leawood) to change out of our damp, sweaty clothes (because warm and dry feels wonderful in the depths of December, yes it does.)

In discussing our supper plans, we both determined that we weren't particularly hungry right then, but at the same time, neither of us wanted to have to make supper when we got back home.  We decided we would see how hungry we felt at the town halfway home, an hour down the road.

Beautiful sunset as we headed westerly towards home

As we approached Ottawa, the halfway point, we decided we were ready to eat now, so we Googled "Ottawa Kansas Italian" and it gave us two options, right next door to each other, just a few blocks off where we would be passing through Ottawa anyway.  We chose the one that had 3 reviews on Yelp, giving it a rating of 4-1/2 stars out of 5, Bella Cucina.



What a wonderful little restaurant with great ambience in an old downtown building. Sometimes it's just nice to class things up and get away from the chain restaurants. I am admirer of all things girly and pretty and the interior definitely fit those descriptions.

My tummy also appreciated the good food.

All in all, a most wonderful day spent with someone I love!  Can't ask for more than that!

~~H

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