Camping in Chadron as we approach the Cowboy Trail

Wow, the Chadron State Park in Chadron, Nebraska is beautiful!!! Cabins, tent sites, and RV spots -- all super green, clean, and lovely. There are lovely hiking trails, archery targets, trail rides on their horses, etc.

These turkeys were just wondering between campsites without a care in the world.

And here are a couple good shots of Paula... We bicycled around the camp ground, which is quite large, but the hills are attention-getting! Great for hill training though...

Unfortunately the weather is overcast with scattered thundershowers, so we're not going too far afield on our bicycles. We overshot where the trail is finished, so plan on heading for Valentine and Norfolk tomorrow. The Cowboy Trail is supposed to be finished between these two. More details as we get them...

Riding in and around Aurora, CO

Weather in the Denver area has been rather warm lately -- into the 90's, so when we saw forecasts only in the high 80's with cloudy mornings, we decided to jump on our trikes and RIDE.

After three rides on the Piney Creek Trail west towards Cherry Creek State Park, we broke the pattern to discover what lay east. The map showed that the Piney Creek Trail ended in about a mile, but also showed a number of other trails in the area. Have GPS, will travel. We ultimately ended up at Aurora Reservoir with just a small bit of on-road riding The reservoir was beautiful, and mid-week trail use was very light. The wildlife sightings were spectacular.

Here's some of the wild life we saw:

 

Turns out this eagle had captured a snake, and was working on getting it to submit to being lunch.

The next day, we left Amy's home around 7:30AM and rode the Piney Creek Trail west to the Cherry Creek Trail. Again, breaking our previous pattern, we headed south on Cherry Creek Trail trying to reach Franktown. Alas, the final bit of the trail isn't open yet and since the only way to make the final miles to Franktown was on busy, high speed highway, we turned around before Franktown. We still got a beautiful 48 mile ride out of the day. 

The previous evening featured thunderstorm with high winds and torrential downpour, so parts of the trail were rather wet and trees were toppled. In this picture we're up past the rims navigating the puddle. Slow speeds allowed us to get through unscathed (or wet).

This sign made me chuckle based on the warm temperatures. However I bet these trails are used throughout the year.

And then this one had us both a bit worried. This is not our favorite species!

The cloud formations are grand to look at. This one was most unusual. 

The trail sports this sign. There were 113 cyclists and 38 pedestrians today, 23290 cyclists and 12154 pedestrians this year. Definitely worth the taxpayer dollars, I'd say... 

The Van-Conversion Continues...

When we found out we'd be spending more time with the trike being worked on by Rachel and Steve at Rocky Mountain Recumbents, we decided to see what we could do to improve our van for traveling.

The rollout bottom tray for the trikes has been a perfect solution for loading and unloading, but we quickly became tired of not having organized storage locations for our camping gear. Plus the inverter we had purchased to turn DC to AC decided to quit. And while we liked the swivel front passenger seat, it didn't allow two people to comfortably relax inside the van on cold mornings/evenings or during bad weather.  Each of these things proved solvable during the week we spent with Amy and her family in Colorado.

We contacted Mike from Grand Mobile RV Repair, who turned out to be top-notch. He recommended an inverter that also had the converter (battery charger) built in, allowing us to replace two units with one.  The new inverter/converter unit also increased the wattage to 2000W. A definite win for all things electric on the road, especially those all important trike batteries!

While waiting for our appointment with Mike, we analyzed the "big picture." We quickly realized that the location of the inverter (under the rear passenger seat) and the converter (between the passenger seat and the van wall), would make the job very time consuming. So, we decided to de-install the rear passenger seat, the old dead inverter, and the converter. Once we had done that, moving the cooking pod from its location across the van's sliding door area to the inside of the van where the passenger seat used to be turned out to be a no-brainer. In tiny living spaces, freeing up inches matters... a lot.

The next idea to hit was to upgrade our Yeti ice chest (read ice-consumer every other day), to an electric refrigerator. Amazon to the rescue. We chose a Dometic CFX-35, which is still in an ice chest top-loading format. This format maximizes efficiency because cold air doesn't "fall out" every time you open the unit. Unfortunately the new unit was 2 inches taller than the ice chest was, so we had to build two inch extensions for each side of the pod. Lowes and Home Depot became our best friends!

With the creative juices flowing, we then decided we could do a better job on bug screens than we were able to purchase for any reasonable price. With Amy's sewing machine, we crafted our own screens for the large side door and rear doors. Window-screening fabric, magnets, flat zinc-coated iron bar, and a sewing machine became our frustrating friends. But in the end we prevailed. Paula also got our sun screens for the large front windows to roll and store above the front storage deck. A grand plan, as the screens can be easily damaged.

Then it was on to tackling storage. We found a soft-sided shoe caddy designed to hang from a closet clothes rod. We mounted this under one of our storage cabinets. The caddy will hold shoes and small frequently accessed items that otherwise become hard to locate even in a tiny living space.  We also found a couple more large hooks that allow us to hang some of the items that had been living on the trike deck. We can now unload/load our trikes without unloading non-cycling related gear.

Now we have a van with no extra stuff in the way. And we have a way for me to sit in a lawn chair, facing Paula to play Qwirkle when the weather gets nasty.

All through this process, Amy lent us her tools and garage space. And while she and Mel were off to Sante Fe to see operas with our Mom, Alex dealt with how boring it was to live with two women who were so focused on fixing our van. To Alex's relief we took a trip to Colorado Springs to see his school -- University of Colorado/Colorado Springs, and to have lunch at the Golden Bee -- a wonderful Irish Pub with exquisite Reuben sandwiches, and of course, lovely beer.

After lunch we walked the ground of the Broadmoor Hotel. Alex may have finally decided we were two-ok aunts to have around...

Check our next blog entry for our last ride on the Cherry Creek Trail...

Cherry Creek Trail with both Trikes!!

Yesterday we traveled back up to Fort Collins to pick up my trike. Rachel (and Steve) had done a wonderful job replacing the motor and wiring harness. While they weren't able to completely hook up the lighting system (rear light and brake light don't work, and front running light), but at least I have a headlight. It is wonderful to have my trike back, and I thank Rachel and Steve for their quality work and persistence. If you're every near Fort Collins, drop in to see them at Rocky Mountain Recumbents!

We returned to Aurora in the thunderstorms, but made it back successfully. This morning we worked a bit further on crafting the custom mosquito panels for the side door of the van. It will be a big improvement over our existing solution.

Then, since the weather said it would only get to 88 degrees, we set off around 12:30 for a ride. We again took the Piney Creek Trail and the Cheery Creek Trail, on a similar route that Amy showed us. This time we got within 6 miles of the end in central Denver, but based on the time, needed to turn around. My HP Velotechnik S-Pedelec performed flawlessly. It is so grand to have it back!

Some places had puddles, but we coped.

Wildlife seen during the ride included rabbits, prairie dogs, and three deer. The grasshoppers you can keep though! They were much too prevalent for our tastes.

                                     

When we returned our nephew, Alex, had made dinner for the three of us. Good thing because after 45 miles, we were more than ready. Thanks, Alex!

A great day!

Check out Paula's video: https://gopro.com/v/ngkebRn5V8lV

Adventures with Amy

After leaving my trike with Rachel at Rocky Mountain Recumbents, we drove down to Aurora to see my sister, Amy, and her family.  We got to deal with some rush-hour traffic, but nothing like the Bay Area, so all was good. We parked Bertha, our van, on the edge of Amy's driveway, leaving room for Amy to get in from work. We unloaded dirty laundry to Amy's laundry, and then sat down to a lovely dinner with Amy's family in their lovely air conditioned home.  Temperatures continue to be in the 90's so we're drinking lots of water, and loving any place that is air conditioned.

We arose early to get in a bicycle ride before the temperatures soared. Amy led us on a lovely ride on the Piney Creek and Cherry Creek trails. Paula road Rocky Mountain Recumbents' Catrike Dumount, I rode Paula's HP Velotechnik Scorpion with BIONX assist, and Amy rode her Pedego.

Temperatures from 7:30 to 10:00 were glorious. Just enough breeze from moving to stay cool; plus we soaked up any shade we could find.

Surfaces over the 26 miles were either concrete bike trail, park roads, or hard-pack dirt. Easily traveling the whole time. We're glad Amy was our guide though, as we could never have found our way back.

Amy spotted a turtle on our route, and of course we saw lots of birds. At one point we paralleled a dog park. One American Bulldog even had sun glasses on.

Sorry to be so sparse on photos. This bike doesn't have a phone mount like mine does. The wonderful news is that the new motor appears to be the trick for getting my trike back on the road. Rachel called with the good news, so we'll pick it up tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

Rocky Mountain Recumbents and the Waffle Lab

This morning dawned early due to our habits. Plus it's nice to get started while the weather is still milder. Temperatures today would top out at 99 degrees.

We broke camp in Fort Collins earlier than we planned because our 1/2 and 1/2 for our coffee had gone off. Not being able to deal with this, we headed over the the Waffle Lab -- a breakfast place in Old Town.

They have a wonderful menu of sweet and savory waffles. I had a traditional waffle with bacon, raspberries and syrup, while Paula had one with bacon, over-easy egg, cheddar, and avocado. Waffles were fabulous, coffee was bitter, so we traded those for lattes and were much happier.

We found more statuary to enjoy out front, this time with a bicycle theme.

Then it was off to Rocky Mountain Recumbents. What a wonderful shop! Rachel was there to greet us, and was super knowledgeable, and jumped in to begin trouble-shooting the trike's issues right away. Her son, Fletcher, kept trying to help, but at age 1 he was great at entertaining me, while Rachel worked with the trike diagnostics. Initial attempts looked like the second battery jumper wire harness was the culprit, but as I started on a test ride the same error codes resurfaced.

We decided it was best to leave the trike with Rachel and head out on a bike ride. Rachel was gracious enough to lend us a Catrike Dumont, which Paula road (unassisted) while I rode Paula's Scorpion with BIONX pedal assist.  We road the Poudre River Trail, that we would highly recommend. The terrain has very mild elevation changes, and enough s-curves to keep it interesting. Much of the trail follows the river, so most of the time the heat was bearable. It ranged from 94 to 99 degrees. Rolling was helpful both for the slight breeze and to keep the mosquitoes away. When we stopped I would feed the mosquitoes their full complement of human; these mosquito bites are getting really old!

Check out these few photos of the trail. I'm sure we'll have more in coming days.

When we returned to the shop, Rachel had my trike electrically connected to a new rear wheel and motor, with no error codes occurring. Based on that trial, she's hoping that mounting the new wheel and motor tomorrow will solve all the issues. Fingers crossed everyone!

On another day that we returned to Fort Collins, we decided to give the trikes a spin and investigate the different breweries and pubs in town. You see, Fort Collins has 21 breweries, but we knew we wouldn't see them all. All started fine at New Belgium, then on to Odell Brewing Co, where the thunder clouds gathered.

We saw this great truck on our way to the Horse & Dragon Brewing Co. Once we arrived, the flood gates opened. We hung around their tap room wrapped up in their fleece blankets, as we were soaking wet. 

While there the next table had two humans with this wonderful pit bull. She was glad to be out of the rain. Her human said she only wears the muzzle harness to keep other humans from fearing her. She was incredibly sweet and friendly.