Took A Nice Little Ride, Today

Since the weather guessers were all predicting another 75 degree day, today, I took the day off and went for a ride. I figure that there probably aren't a whole lot more of these days in store, this year, so I wanted to take advantage of it.

At 7:15 A.M. I was at the post office, to send these two packages off, using the Automated Package Center. The top package, some drawings for my mom, was no problem. The tall one, however, was.

It is the Kinesis fork that I posted about yesterday, going back to Ben's Cycles for a refund. Unfortunately, it won't fit in the bin provided for the APC, so I had to wait until the P.O. opened at 8:00 so that I could mail it off at the counter.

So, I sat and read the Westword until 8:00, then went inside and mailed it off. Finally, I was able to get on my bike and ride.

I rode over the Cherry Creek Trail and headed south. I was supposed to meet Mark at Pablo's on Sixth, at 10:00, so I figured that if I rode down to Kennedy Golf Course, then turned around and headed back north, that I would be at Pablo's around 10:00.

I got to the top of the hill by the golf course at about 9:00. It was a little hazy toward the mountains, but a very pretty morning.

I took my jacket off, since the temperature was warming up. Then, I headed back north.

As I took off, I noticed that my front tire was a little low. As I rode, it seemed softer and softer. After about a quarter of a mile, I pulled over to take a look. Sure enough, I was having a flat.

No problem. I opened up the saddle bag to get a new tube and my pump. Hmmm. I didn't find a tube.

Oh, yeah, I gave it to someone else, a while back and forgot to replace it. So, I figured I could just air the tire up, ride until it went down again, and repeat as necessary until I got to Pablo's. From there, we could run over to Turin Bicycles and get a couple of tubes.

Unfortunately, my pump appeared to be broken. But, that was okay, as well. Like NASA, I adhere to the concept of redundant systems, and I had a CO2 inflator in the bag, along with 5 cartridges.

Five cartridges...four of which had already been used. Hmmm, again.

I aired the tire up and took off, as fast as I could, racing the leak. I made it to Colorado Blvd before it was unridable. I pulled out the CO2 inflator, and used the last gasp it had, hoping to avoid a hike. I got barely enough inflation out of it to be able to ride, slowly.

I knew I couldn't make it to Pablo's, so I detoured over to the Denver Bike Rip-off..er, Rack. It is a commuter-oriented annex of the bike shop I worked at, last. Buying stuff there is akin to throwing a party with the contents of your hotel mini-bar. But, it was too early for any other bike shop to be open, and I was stuck.

Pretty much, I was their dream customer.

Fifteen minutes later, with a $7.00 (!) tube in my tire (and a spare in my bag), I continued on toward Pablo's. I was there by 10 minutes past 10:00. I got my coffee and scone, snagged a patio table, and waited for Mark.

Mark showed up about 5 minutes after I sat down, and got his own coffee and something to eat. After sitting and enjoying the coffee, we decided to ride around North Denver/Highlands for a bit.

Eventually, we decided it was time for lunch. As we rode along, discussing where to eat, we approached Little Man Ice Cream. I had never even heard of it, so I wanted to stop and check it out.

It's sorta like Denver's version of the Brown Derby!

Turns out, they have food, as well as ice cream. I had creamy tomato soup and a grilled gorgonzolla sandwich. Darn good, I might add.

The location, right next to the old Ollinger Mortuary/Crematorium adds a bit of a twist. But, I didn't let it affect my appetite.



That's my dessert on the top of the cart. A scoop of Orange Creamsicle ice cream, in one of those papery cones. Delicious.

After lunch, we continued to aimlessly ride around Denver, with a stop at Mark's house, for a bit.

Eventually, we wended our way around to Cheesman Park, where we split, and each headed to our respective homes.

I stuck a cyclometer on the Red Rockhopper, last night, just because I wanted to see how far today's ride ended up.

At 4:30 P.M., I pulled into my driveway, with a bit over 50 miles on the clock and almost 9 hours of enjoying one of the nicest Indian Summer days that we've had here. Hard to beat, flat tire and all.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 40 degrees cooler and wet. I'm thinking it might be a nice day to just ride down to the coffee shop and hang, before doing my errands and grocery shopping.

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