Showing posts with label Bike Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bike Friday. Show all posts

Saturday, March 31, 2018

ERRANDONNEE 2018

This is the rundown of our 2018 Errandonnee Challenge. The Errandonnee Challenge is designed to get you out on your bike no matter the season, or weather. The challenge requires we complete 12 errands by bicycle within 12 days, and ride a total of at least 30 miles between March 20-31, 2018. There are a few other small rules that must be followed. Those being that there are 10 categories of errands that can be accomplished, but only 2 errands max per category. These categories are:

  • Personal Care
  • Personal Business
  • You carried WHAT on your bike?!
  • Arts and Entertainment
  • Non-Store Errand
  • Social Call (includes restaurants, coffee, and other social activities)
  • Work or Volunteering, School (includes dropping off kids)
  • Store (includes bike shop, running store, grocery store, etc. You know, a store.)
  • Wild Card
  • and new this year, Peaceful Everyday Actions, which I think is awesome given the state of the society we are currently forced to endure, unless we choose to do otherwise, which this category helps us to make.
This year we covered a total of 37.5 miles, on our Bike Friday tandem or Hokitika 2-BE-ONE tandem. Here are our results.

DATE: March 21, 2018
CATEGORY: Personnel Care
OBSERVATION: Physical Therapy for Laura and her troubled knee. Riding the bike makes it feel better, which is a good thing otherwise I don't know what we would do with ourselves.



DATE: March 21, 2018
CATEGORY: Social Call
OBSERVATION: Coffee Shop. We always enjoy going to our favorite coffee shop, Silk City Coffee. They always enjoy us arriving on our tandem. Makes for a great combination.


DATE: March 23, 2018
CATEGORY: Arts and Entertainment
OBSERVATION: Playing games. It takes place at our favorite coffee shop on Friday nights, but playing games while also there enjoying live music, now that is entertaining.




DATE: March 23, 2018
CATEGORY:
You carried WHAT on your bike?!
OBSERVATION:
Filomena's Pizza. To continue with our usual Friday night tradition, after the games at the coffee shop we grab a pizza and take it home to eat.



DATE: March 24, 2018

CATEGORY: Personnel Care
OBSERVATION:
CardioExpress Gym. Got to keep in shape for riding the tandem.



DATE: March 24, 2018
CATEGORY:
Store
OBSERVATION:
Home Depot. Stopping to pick up some electrical supplies to work on the model railroad I am construction in the  basement.



DATE: March 24, 2018
CATEGORY:
Store
OBSERVATION:
Joanns. More supplies to work on the model railroad. Toiling around in the basement, playing with trains, it is nice to actually get out every once in a while.


DATE: March 24, 2018
CATEGORY:
Peaceful Everyday Actions
OBSERVATION:
Sweet Frog. This might be stretching the category a bit, but sitting back and enjoying a cool, sweet treat while contemplating the state of affairs in ones life certainly qualifies, I think.



DATE: March 25, 2018
CATEGORY:
Personal Business
OBSERVATION:
Post Office. Dropping of some mail that needed to be delivered.


DATE: March 31, 2018
CATEGORY:
Personal Business
OBSERVATION:
Another postal run, but this time to deliver a package to the Credit Union that was incorrectly delivered to our house. Happens frequently. The difference being Main St. vs S. Main St.



DATE: March 31, 2018
CATEGORY:
Peaceful Everyday Actions
OBSERVATION:
Picking up garbage along the local stretch of the East Coast Greenway near our house. It inspired hope in us as we watched all the people out enjoying the day, families in the park, kids playing in the musical park, people walking their dogs. People thanked us for cleaning up the limited garbage along the path, and some even joined in to help. How awesome is that?




DATE: March 31, 2018
CATEGORY:
You carried WHAT on your bike?!
OBSERVATION:
Auto Zone. Unfortunately we are still reliant on our car, especially when you have young adults who want to drive it. We needed to replace the battery. How better to get a replacement than by tandem bike.        



Wednesday, November 29, 2017

COFFEENEURING 2017

Tis that time of year, the Coffeeneuring Challenge. If you have read some of our previous posts, you will know what the Coffeeneuring Challenge is. If not, here is a brief explanation. It is a fun challenge put forth by Mary G. of chasingmailboxes.com in which, over the course of seven weeks, you ride your bike to seven different places, at least 2 miles round-trip each time, drink seven cups of coffee (or similar), and take seven pictures as proof of your coffeeneuring. Simple as that. The theme for us this year was locally owned, free stranding, true coffee shops. They are all awesome places, and we hope you give them a try.

Below are the results of our seven coffeeneuring rides:

COFFEENEUR #1

WHERE: Daybreak Coffee Roasters
                  2377 Main St, Glastonbury, CT              
                  http://www.daybreakcoffee.com/ 
DATE: October 14, 2017 
DRANK: Ice coffee and a latte with a cookie on the side.
DETAILS:
Nice ride to the center of Glastonbury. Can get a little congested near the center of town with narrow and busy roads.
DISTANCE: 14.7 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem




COFFEENEUR #2

WHERE: Silk City Coffee
                 763 Main St, Manchester, CT              
                 http://www.silkcitycoffee.com/
DATE: October 21, 2017
DRANK:
Two lattes, one with caramel, the other with chocolate.
DETAILS:
Our home town coffee shop just down the road from our house. Always like riding down our four lane Main Street just to let people know that there are bikers in the area, so watch out!
DISTANCE:
2.5 miles
RIDING:
Bike Friday Tandem




COFFEENEUR #3

WHERE: Story and Soil Coffee
                 387 Capital Ave., Hartford, CT              
                 https://www.storyandsoilcoffee.com/
DATE: October 22, 2017
DRANK:
Pumpkin spice latte and mocha latte.
DETAILS:
This is a new coffee shop that we found out about through the owners of Silk City Coffee, our home coffee shop. Located in Hartford, we always enjoy a ride into Hartford because there is a growing number of bike lanes and bike paths under development. Plus, it is actually fun riding around through the city. Now we have another great excuse to go.
DISTANCE:
21.2 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem
 


COFFEENEUR #4

WHERE: Grounded Coffee Co.
                 387 Capital Ave., Willimantic, CT              
                 http://groundedcoffeecompany.org/
DATE: November 4, 2017
DRANK:
Maple spice lattes.
DETAILS:
Another new coffee shop that we found out about from our local coffee shop. This was our longest ride during the challenge, but it is a great ride as almost all of it is along the East Coast Greenway. In this area of Connecticut the ECG consists mostly of off road trails (parts currently being constructed) and rail trail. Certainly nice to get away from the traffic sometimes and just enjoy the surroundings.
DISTANCE:
38.0 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem





COFFEENEUR #5

WHERE: Berkins Blend Cafe
                 1003 Hebron Ave, Glastonbury, CT              
                 http://www.berkinsblendcafe.com/
DATE: November 5, 2017
DRANK:
Mocha lattes.
DETAILS:
One of our standard coffeeneuring stops not far into Glastonbury from our house. An easy ride along roads with mostly wide shoulders. Plus we love the access to the computers they have at some of the tables. Booked a room for a hotel in South Dakota while we were there. Badlands here we come!
DISTANCE:
9.8 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem



 


COFFEENEUR #6

WHERE: Kevin's Coffee Roasters
                 78 Windsor Ave, Vernon, CT              
                 Kevins-Coffee-Connection
DATE: November 18, 2017
DRANK:
Heath bar flavored coffees.
DETAILS:
A new coffee shop for us, although they have been there for 27 years. Had a great conversation about travel with one of the "regulars" while we were there. An easy ride on a rail trail to get there and undulating back roads to get back home (we don't like to take the same route twice if we can help it).
DISTANCE:
21.4 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem





COFFEENEUR #7

WHERE: So G Coffee Roaster
                  882 Main St, South Glastonbury, CT
                  SoGcoffee
DATE: November 19, 2017
DRANK:
Chai tea latte and mocha latte.
DETAILS:
A nice undulating ride through the back roads of Glastonbury, through forests, over streams, you get the picture.
DISTANCE:
19.8 miles
RIDING:
Hokitika Tandem