In Which Spring Comes and Goes

My trike parked at Troy Park in Robins. We were hosting a grandson that day and I rode to two parks for activities and a restaurant for lunch--adding up to 27 miles, one of my longer rides of February.

All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all
“In My Life”—Beatles, Lennon and McCartney

Something about the second month of the year put me in a nostalgic mood. It was an unusual February in that, while that month is traditionally overlapping the coldest part of winter, this year it featured days of sharp contrast—some stretches that were too cold for an old man to bike or trike, some days where it was OK to bike with warm boots but triking was not practical and, finally, more than its share of warmer days that foreshadowed spring. It wasn’t just on the penultimate day of the month—one of the warmest—spring-like sunshine and warmth was sprinkled throughout the month.

Did the groundhog see his shadow? Some days, it seemed so. Some days it seemed not. Spring kept arriving early, then ducking out the back door for a sudden smoke break or something.

How else do I sum up February 2026? In January, I posted that I was seeking a name for my newest cycling vehicle, a recumbent tricycle. I’ll get to that topic again, soon, with an announcement.

February was, from a cycling point of view, a better month than January was. I rolled 267.35 miles, 72.45 miles on various bicycles and 194.9 on the trike. On Feb. 27, I rode 27.04 miles on the trike, which felt appropriate for a sunny, warm day. At the time, I thought it was my longest ride of the month but I was mistaken—I rode the trike for three rides that exceeded 25 miles in February, 25.14 miles Feb. 15 and 30.67 miles on Feb. 11.

Some images from two longer trike rides Feb. 11 and Feb. 15. This is Feb. 11, view of new fishing pier, I assume, on newly opened section of trail at Cedar Lake.

Feb. 11--Rest stop at Cedar Rapids Public Library, the main one downtown. Elementary art exhibit going on.

Lunch stop at Ellis Park on Feb. 11. I rode through the city on a trike with no name. For now.

Crossing Cedar River on Third Avenue bridge on my way north--watching young eagle.

New trail on east side of Cedar Lake. The sign says "closed," the many people using the trail said "it's actually open, don't believe every sign  you see." I rode on it Feb. 15.

I thought that I would set 30 miles as the next goal for March trike rides, forgetting that I had already exceeded 30 miles. Maybe 40 is the goal as I slowly ratchet up the distances.

On what? My wife is irritated by my habit of naming bicycles. I think of it as an homage to my mother, who had a habit of naming our family cars (although I don’t think all earned that honor—I don’t recalls that a trashy Ford station wagon we had for a few months ever earned a moniker, for example). Anyway, my oldest bike is The Fancy Beast, a mountain bike named because at the time I acquired it I had a less fancy old Schwinn mountain bike that I had called The Beast. My hybrid bike, which has a Tag-A-Long attachment and a bar to place a toddler seat on, is named Clarence—a direct call back to Clarissa, the 1959 VW chartreuse micro-bus that was the family car for the majority of the 1960s. My hybrid is the family bus, get it? The sleek road bike that I use for summer distance biking is Argent, because it’s a vaguely silver color.

I’ve never bothered to name the old red Schwinn tandem, but I don’t consider that to be one of “my” bikes, it’s more of a family fun bicycle.

Open coat on warm ride Feb. 16.

Trike in late afternoon light Feb. 16.

Warm February days make limestone trails unusable, mostly, at least to me. Not, apparently, to everyone. Part of Boyson Trail I didn't ride on Feb. 16.

Feb. 16--Warm enough today to wear biking sandals on trike ride.

Watching Connect CR bridge construction from detour, Feb. 5.

New bridge under construction over Cedar River, as part of expanding trail network in Cedar Rapids. Seen Feb. 5.

Start of detour around bridge construction Feb. 5.

Sunshine on The Fancy Beast, Feb. 4 ride.

Bike on trail on cool, grey day. Clarence on Feb. 25.

But the teal trike is definitely mine—and it’s my main cycling chariot these days. I asked on Facebook for some suggestions, and received several creative ideas. I’m sure none of the were serious—after all, this is not a serious issue to begin with. One friend suggested “Trixie.” Another “Lucky.” I’ve decided I’m not going to go with any stripper names. A family member suggested “Picasso” because it’s blue and I draw with it, which I thought was clever. Another person suggested “Day Tripper,” which was among the stronger ideas—a description of the trike’s use plus a nod to the Beatles.

Well, I like the Beatles reference. Which brings me to the name I have selected, both in honor of The Beatles and because a name connected to Buffy Anne Summers just feels whimsical and appropriate. The trike is a vehicle of my fourth quarter of life, and the switch to trike riding feels both fun and a fundamental reminder that life means coping with living in change.

So, the Beatles song the trike puts me in mind of is “In My Life.” The lyrics note that, among friends, “some are dead and some are living.” I’ll go with the living end of that spectrum, for now. And the trike is also a fair-weather vehicle, a summer cycle.

Meet “Sommer Livin.” Spelled badly, I know (again, this is me and I am a terrible speller). I’ll probably just refer to her (I don’t know why Clarence is a he and Sommer is a she, except Buffy, right?) as Sommer.

Sommer Livin, aka Sommer, parked at Ellis Park several weeks before being named.

In Which a Memorial Ride Caps January

Sign another biker had on her bicycle for Jan. 31 ride.

Well, January 2026 is over. Last year, due to my heart surgery on Jan. 10, I rode no miles at all in the first month of the year. This year, weather was definitely an issue, as I managed only eight rides for the entire month.

Well, that’s about two rides a week. In the dead of a cold winter, perhaps that’s not bad. And I did roll for more than 100 miles in January.

Most of my rides were typical of my style of riding. I usually roll alone. I do not mind company, but I don’t always plan rides well in advance. And, while I enjoy a ride with others, I am also a bit of an introvert and don’t abhor some alone time.

The most memorable ride was the final one on Jan. 31. A local bike shop, Goldfinch Cyclery, joined with a national movement by planning a “We in Unity (For All for Alex)” ride to remember Alex Pretti and other victims of ICE violence.

Bikes parked at Ellis Park Harbor, west end of the ride, Jan. 31.

I did not know the route in detail, but from notes on Facebook I knew that it would be a short ride. I was toying with the idea of riding my trike—it’s my main cycling vehicle these days. But it is a very cold January, and I did not know how it would feel to wear my uninsulated biking shoes for this ride.

So, I did a test ride on Jan. 29. I put on three pairs of socks—a thin inner pair, regular exercise socks and a top layer of fluffy winter socks. I had on long underwear, an insulated shirt, long-sleeved T and sweatshirt under my biking jacket. In other words, pretty much the full winter regalia.

The temperature was in the teens Thursday, and there was a bit of a breeze. I headed up C Avenue to the Lindale Trail. There, I got a nasty surprise—the city has been doing good work clearing local trails, but hadn’t cleared the latest light snowfall, so the trail featured a thin, bumpy packed layer of snow.

Jan. 29 ride on Lindale Trail to practice for Jan. 31 memorial ride. Headed east on trail--you can see exactly where Cedar Rapids (no snow from latest fall removed) ends and Marion (snow cleared) begins. I hope Cedar Rapids will do better in the future.

I rode for about an hour, and was suffering a bit by the end. The verdict: Even with three pairs of socks, the bike shoes are not adequate a cold winter ride. Even my legs were cold by the end of the practice ride, which surprised me because in the past long underwear under my pants had been enough to keep my legs comfortable. Well, every day I grow older, and I know that my sensitivity to cold is more of an issue as I age than it was in the past.

That was Thursday the 29th. What to do for Saturday the 31st? On the one hand, a bicycle would allow me to wear warm winter boots. On the other hand, if I were to encounter a snow-covered section on the ride route, I would prefer three wheels to two. In the end, I decided that the downtown bike routes would be more likely to be clear than my neighborhood trail, and for the sake of comfort, I would wear the warm boots.

I made other adjustments, too. I again wore insulated long underwear but also a thin pair of pajama pants under my regular trousers. I added a regular T shirt under the three other torso covers, and chose a zip fleecy rather than a sweatshirt for the top under-coat layer. I felt a little bit like I was the younger brother in “A Christmas Story,” yet I was warmer.

Normally, if I were to ride downtown, I would cycle there, but this day, unsure of my cold endurance, I loaded the bicycle into my van and drove to the start of the ride. I got there a bit early, and by the advertised arrival time of 1 p.m., only seven of us waited in the cold. But it was half an hour before the ride was set to start, and in that time a steady stream of bikers arrived. I counted at least 70 people in a quick look at the crowd before the ride, and I think there were a few more than that.

Before the ride, Logan from the bike shop said a few words. He spoke well. Biking means freedom, and recent tragedies have been an attack on freedom (my words, not his). I won’t get more into my feelings on this biking blog, but I did write a post on this to topic on another of my blogs.

Speaker from bike shop talks before ride Jan. 31.

After the short speech, we started out from Plaza Park where the big red Cedar Rapids sign is, headed down to First Street and headed west, aiming after several blocks on a bike lane to a bike tail which would take us to Ellis Boulevard, and then to Ellis Park.

The wind was cold and my face was in slight discomfort. But it was not quite as cold as the day of my practice ride—and I had more layers on. That strategy seemed to work. When I arrived at Ellis Park Harbor, near the end of the line of bikers (no surprise, I am a slow rider), I was doing fine.

Well, I do not know if the right word was “fine,” given the reason for the ride. I mean I was doing physically well. We milled about for a few minutes, in quiet conversation or alone with our thoughts, and then headed back to the starting point.

Custom flag on another bike seen before Jan. 31 ride.

I think the choice to ride the bike was a good one. There were a few spots with snow and ice, and I was on my road bike, but I just rolled across them. Overall, the pavement was clear, much clearer here than on the Lindale Trail. I was glad to be on the bike for several reasons. The main one was the warm boots. Also, the ride was at times on a narrow walkway or bike lane, and the bike was better for those places just because it takes less space than my trike. And while I was near the end of the ride both coming and going, I am sure I did a better job keeping up with the pack riding my fastest bicycle than I would have on the tricycle.

As noted, I do enjoy a ride by myself. But a memorial ride like this is meant for a group. It helps to know that there are others who mourn the unexpected loss of a biker and a nurse and others—that decent people will gather publicly on this winter day in remembrance.

In January, I rode 108.8 miles, 14.66 on bicycles and 94.14 miles on my trike. The final six are the ones that will stick with me the most. Thanks, Goldfinch Cyclery, for this event.

Image from Jan. 9 trike ride. A new bike-pedestrian bridge across the Cedar River is taking shape, built on the foundations of an old railroad bridge.

In Which I Summarize and Seek a Name

 

Pretty late afternoon winter sun shines on the visibility flags of my tricycle as I pause on a ride Dec. 20, 2025, along the Krumholtz Trail in Marion, Iowa.

We’re about a week into the new year of 2026. I want to look back a bit on 2025 and then look ahead.

I’m not big on New Years resolutions—I don’t dislike the practice, I’m sure setting measurable goals are a good motivator for many people, but it’s just not the way my brain works. And in my biking life, unexpected events derailed my last attempt to attain a goal. At the start of 2024, I noted on this blog that I had ridden 2,954 miles in 2023, and stated that I wanted to top 3,500 in 2024.

Here's what I wrote in January, 2024: “In 2023, I rode 3,346.22 (miles), I’m sure a modest milage total for serious bikers, but a slight increase in annual miles for me. In 2024, I’m setting a goal of 3,500 miles. I’m still working (I retire in spring, 2025), and I hope that my bike miles will go way up in 2025, but a 50-mile increase from 2023 to 2024 seems doable, I hope. Maybe 4,000 in 2025? We’ll see.”

What we saw was a math-challenged rider who didn’t reach his goals. For various reasons, it wasn’t possible for me to ride RAGBRAI in 2024 or 2025, which cut my miles. And, as 2024 went on, I started to develop troubling symptoms—dizziness and chest pressure—that led me to limit longer rides as the year was coming to a close. Late in the year, I saw a heart doctor, who declared me temporarily unfit for biking for a time, until I had a heart bypass operation in January of last year.

So, instead of increasing my miles in 2024 and 2025, I actually rolled fewer miles—2,954 in 2024 and 1,843 in 2025 (1,842.7, to be more precise, but I’m rounding the other years to whole numbers).

From a spreadsheet I keep in my Google Drive (yes, I am that nerdy), my monthly mile totals riding bikes and my trike in 2025. Note the huge spike in September--I was given a new tricycle for my birthday in late August. Rides slowed down after that due to both a two-week trip in October and bad December weather, but maybe September shows the potential for more future miles.

I have decided that I am not setting a mileage goal for 2026. Instead, I’m going to recognize that I’m at a point in life where I don’t need to prove anything to myself or anyone else, and I want to just do what I enjoy. I’m retired now, I have no career mountain to climb, and I want to roll across the planet as much I am comfortable doing, enjoying myself and being grateful for each healthy day and each mile I can roll.

I would be lying to say I don’t hope to exceed my 2025 total miles, I just am saying I will roll what I can and try to be content with and grateful for that.

A big reason that I rode less in 2025 was that it was a truncated biking year for me. My miles in January and February were zero due to my medical adventures. It took about half the year for me to rebuild my biking ability—in fact, an irregular heartbeat post-surgery entailed a follow-up heart procedure in July, and while I did start riding my bikes again in March, it wasn’t until after the July correction of that irregular beat that I really started riding in earnest.

Report on a trike riding adventure:We had heavy snow in late November, and on Dec. 9 I rode my tricycle on the Boyson Trail. It was mostly clear (kudos to the City of Marion, they do a great job clearing snow off of recreational trails). But near the McGrath VW dealership, snow had been pushed off of their parking lot onto the Boyson Trail. I tried to trike around it, but tipped on the edge of snow mountain. I was going very slowly, neither me nor my trike were harmed, but I did file a complaint with the dealership via their web page. To their credit, they quickly answered back and said that they would clear the snow that they had put on the trail. Below, the same stretch of trail seen during my Dec. 20 trike ride on the same trail. The trail is clear.

Due to my surgery, to encourage my continued rolling adventures, my children and my wife conspired to buy me a recumbent tricycle for my 67th birthday—so the nature of my rolling has shifted. The tricycle is heavier than a bicycle, but also sturdier and more stable.

It remains to be seen what the trike will mean for my miles in 2026—yet another reason I’m not setting a specific mileage total goal.

To what do I aspire to ride in 2026? Mainly, to continue rolling and to enjoy the journey. I want to meet the rest of Team Joe and family in central Iowa sometime, and do my first twilight trike ride along the High Trestle Trail. Maybe this year, I can gather some children and grandchildren and enjoy a family trail trike and bike adventure. I would like to visit more regional parks in 2026, now that my wife and I are both retired, and hopefully we can bring some bikes along for some rides at those places.

CR Biker on final ride of 2025. Too cold that day for the trike, but I enjoyed a ride along the Grant Wood Trail leading east of Marion. Wasn't sure of the conditions so I rode The Fancy Beast--the trail was mostly clear but there were a few snowy spots, so it wasn't a poor choice.

Deer seen by Grant Wood Trail on Dec. 31, 2025, bike ride.

Rode my hybrid bike (too cold for trike) Dec. 21 to Cedar Lake. The trail system around the lake is being extended, this is a yet unopened new stretch of trail on the east side of the lake.

Clarence, my hybrid bike, at Cedar Lake Dec. 21.

Tricycle parked on Krumholtz Trail during Dec. 20 ride. What should this trike be named?

Snow on park field beside the Boyson Trail Dec. 20. December got a bit warmer at the end and much of the snowpack had melted by this point, but there were still places blanketed in pretty white.

Winter sun over creek at east end of Krumholtz Trail, Dec. 20 trike ride.

Most of all, I just want to spend pretty days rolling along, enjoying this still gorgeous planet from the seats of my trike and my bikes. Weather has limited my miles so far in 2026, but in the first six days I’ve done three rides—two on bikes and one on the trike, although the trike is beating the bikes in total miles (8.46 miles on two chilly, short bike rides; 16.64 trike miles from yesterday, a warmer day).

The bikes have been a bit of a mixed lot lately. I planned to ride my hybrid bike, Clarence, a few days ago, for example, but discovered a broken pedal. Then, I was going to swap it for my old mountain bike, The Fancy Beast, but it had a flat tyre. Thus, my most recent bicycle ride was on my road bike, Argent, even though I do not commonly ride that bicycle a lot in winter.

2026 is starting with some challenges--a flat tyre on The Fancy Beast and this broken pedal on Clarence.

Whatever. I am limited in trike rides by the fact that the pedals on my tricycle require biking shoes, and the specialized pieces of cycling foot gear that I own are definitely not fit for cold. It was lucky that it was warm enough Monday for those 16 plus trike miles, and it looks like I may be lucky and trike again tomorrow, which will be nice.

Finally, I get down to some real business. I have homework for you, dear reader: a little poll. I would appreciate the hive mind’s input on a question my new status as a tricycle rider raises.

I have habit of naming my bicycles, and I want to honor my new tricycle with a moniker.

My tricycle as I pause to eat a snack at Cedar Lake during Jan. 5 ride. What should I name this vehicle?

What should the trike be named? I posed the question on a Facebook image from a recent ride. The suggestions I received didn’t yet resonate with me. One person suggested “Bart” because he thought maps of my recent rides looked like I was frequently drawing a character from the Simpsons TV show. I haven’t watched that show much, however, and I don’t feel like using the name of a fictional personality I don’t know much about. One of my sisters suggested “the Martian” because the invaders in War of the Worlds used tripods. I am amused by that idea, and maybe if the trike was green I might go that way—but it’s not. The trike is blue, and space invaders are little green beasts, not blue meanies.

And yes, I’m a Beatles fan, and yes, “Blue Meanie” has potential, except it does not quite fit the personality of this sturdy steed.

So, what should it be, blog pals? That’s the really important issue for 2026—the key goal I can accomplish soon, with your help. Let’s play a game: Name that trike.

Please comment your suggestion on this blog (or in a comment on Facebook if you see a link to this post there). It’s not an election—your humble correspondent is the Task Master and full decider in this event—but I would appreciate your ideas.

In Which the Planet Tilts to Winter

My trike, briefly parked at Thomas Park in Marion, Iowa, during a late November ride along the Boyson Trail, parts of which were recently paved.

The sun never gets super high at this time of year, but still looks pretty in the afternoon, seen on November trike ride to Cedar Lake.

Late afternoon sun at Lowe Park in Marion, Iowa. seen in November.

Well, it’s been quite some time, biking blog pals. I’ve been fine, but what with one thing and another, I have not been writing a lot here lately.

I place the bulk of the blame on my own aging memory but I’m willing to share some resposibility with the TSA and modern air travel. For three weeks at the start of October, I was off my trike and my bikes due to a pleasant journey.

My wife and I drove up to the Twin Cities to visit our oldest daughter who lives in a suburb of Saint Paul with her family. Then, we flew out from Minneapolis to visit our oldest son and his family in San Francisco.

We had packed our laptop computer, since I was planning to possibly use it to process images. But it would have been a pain to take it on a flight, so we left it in a suitcase in a closet in the basement of a house in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. Where, when we returned from San Francisco to visit for a few more days and then drive home to Iowa, we left it.

Shucks. It was inevitable this blog would be on hiatus for some time as I spent a fortnight and another week moving across the planet via planes, cars and feet. But that hiatus was extended by the delay getting our laptop back—the laptop is what I use to both edit images and write blog posts.

Long aside, I know, but after the voyage I spend the waning days of October and the whole month of November rolling across the planet, usually on three wheels and sometimes on two.

November, from a trike or bike riding point of view, was a decent month—it was warm and dry for late fall, with some frosty mornings and blustery, chilly days to remind me I live in Iowa. The world was much greener and pleasant than it usually is in the 11th month in this part of the Northern Hemisphere.

This and next images, me during unusually warm November trike rides. It's Nov. 22 in this image and I don't have a coat on.

Stopping by Oakshade Cemetery, were my parents rest, on Dia de los Muertos, Nov. 2.

I guess cemeteries were a theme. Riding my trike through Mt. Calvary Cemetery, where I visit the Sisters of Mercy who rest there. I taught at Mount Mercy University, founded by the sisters, before I retired to ride my tricycle.

Final selfie of this post. Nov. 13 ride takes me by Cedar Lake.

And then came the week of Thanksgiving.

The cool, sunny days turned colder. And then it suddenly got very cold. On the Saturday after turkey day, the winter weather switch was fully engaged—11 inches of dense, heavy snow carpeted my world.

That was Nov. 30, and it was Dec. 5 before I rode my first post-storm ride—and that was a short jaunt on the Fancy Beast so I had a mountain bike to cross snow or ice. I needed the wide tyres of that bike, and indeed walked about a mile of a 7-mile journey to get past the C Avenue sidewalk, which is both the most heavily traveled pedestrian route in my neighborhood and the one least well cleared.

The Fancy Beast, paused on C Avenue Dec. 5. I'm returning home from Lindale Trail and have dismounted to walk across the most ice and snow covered section of the sidewalk.

Lindale Trail on Dec. 5 ride--the trail, in both Cedar Rapids and Marion, is much clearer, although a bit of snow here and there means I'm not unhappy to be riding my mountain bike.

My November rides featured one 35-mile jaunt south to the nearby town of Ely and back along the Cedar River Trail. On that ride, I was interested in seeing progress being made on a new pedestrian-biking bridge that is under construction across the Cedar River between the New Bo neighborhood and Mount Trashmore.

It will be Eastern Iowa’s answer to the High Trestle Trail Bridge, I suppose. Not much of an answer because I’m sure the HTT will still be much grander and where all the cool Iowa bikers gather. Still, it will be very nice to have this new bridge crossing our largest local river in a couple of years.

Many deer seen on November trike and bike rides.

The new bridge being built between Czech Village and New Bo over the Cedar River. The bridge uses the old foundations of a closed railroad bridge. The project will soon close this segment of the Cedar River Trail, and I hope they create a bypass or detour and don't just close one of the busies bike trails in town.

Snake on a trail--seen on Cedar River Trail south of the river.

The weather in the world here at the start of November looked more like September, but by month’s end, even before the winter snow arrived, most trees had become bare and the world started to take on a bit more of its brown, sleepy winter hues. It was surprising this year how many bugs persisted into late November this year, but they aren’t persisting now.

Saturday, Dec. 6, another snowstorm was here. It was colder too, so I didn’t try to ride in the morning before the late afternoon snow blew in. Sunday, I spent my outdoor time clearing snow and filling bird feeders. I’m pretty sure the roads won’t be ready for a ride Monday (I drafted this post before Monday but posted after, and yes, roads weren't ride ready Monday). It will take some time for pavement to be clear enough to be passable.

There aren’t any days in the 10-day weather forecast that look warm enough for getting my as yet unnamed tricycle, or even my mountain bike, out for a ride.

Whatever. I’ll be happy to squeeze in any miles I can this December, as weather allows. In October, I rode 97.44 miles, not many even by my low standards, yet not all that bad since three weeks of the month were spent away from my trike and bikes. In November, I rolled for 262.78 miles. My total so far this year is 1,776.22 miles. I am pretty sure that I won’t make it to 2,000 miles in 2025, but with luck should top that in 2026!

In Which Summer Rolls Into Fall

Sept. 11--One of several rides this month down Grant Wood Trail, bike parked on bridge near east end of paving.

September—astronomical fall arrived late in the month on the equinox, but weather-wise, in the Midwest, cool, crisp air is a normal feature of this month, which usually feels like autumn.

We often see our first mild frost in September, sometimes by mid-month. Not this year. September turned out to be both very warm, with summer-like highs in the upper 80s many days, and very dry.

Since I have a new tricycle to ride—as yet unnamed, by the way—I took advantage of this warm month for some longer rides. I’m not doing any RAGBRAI-length days yet, but rolling beyond 20 miles wasn’t an unusual distance for me in September. For the month, I rolled 438.97 miles, almost double the total of any other month this year. So far in 2025, I’ve rolled 1,409.17 miles on my bikes or my trike (and not all my September miles were trike miles, I’m still a CR Biker, too).

It was a beautiful month for riding. Monarch butterflies, rare earlier this year, were common as they are flying through Iowa on their long migration from across the continent to overwinter in Mexico. Asters, those pretty fall flowers, appeared, while some summer flowers persisted. Often, I saw Monarchs drinking from Asters.

Asters by Basile Hall on Mount Mercy University campus, seen on Sept. 15 trike ride.

Another campus view, this one Sept. 28, Bee on Asters behind Warde Hall at MMU.

Sept. 22--Summer-like sun on first day of astronomical fall, Cedar Lake.

Long-blooming summer flower, Day Lily, in garden at Lowe Park on Sept. 21.

Sept. 21--Monarchs on Asters at Lowe Park.

Sept. 21--Flowers in gardens by art building, Lowe Park.

Early this month, I rode my nameless tricycle north as far as Center Point. On the final day of September I went farther south, riding to Ely.

That final ride was noteworthy because I rode with Mike Miller, a neighborhood friend. I usually ride solo, but in September my two longest rides were both just over 30 miles and both with companions, my sister Cate Sheller on one, Mike on the other.

On Sept. 30, Mike and I headed own the Cedar River and Herbert Hoover trails to Ely, visited the ice cream shop there, and headed back. We paused at the clock tower by the National Czech and Slovak Museum, and watched as it chimed 1 p.m. The clock puts on a bit of a show, playing music and opening doors to have cultural figures rotate into view.

Sept. 30--West clock face near Czech and Slovak Museum. Note this face shows months and zodiac signs. East face shows sundial. Analog clock is above those faces on both sides.

Sept. 30--My biking friend Mike Miller suggested staying at clock until it struck the hour. It was a good idea.

The clock has a standard face, plus a sundial on that same face, and a second face that marks the months and zodiac signs.

The clock marks time in many ways. As I mark distance in miles. Not many miles, I concede—my rides are modest for a biker—but the miles have been increasing, which is nice. When winter sets in, it’s likely that I’ll be doing more bicycling than triking, just because I can wear warm winter footwear when riding a bicycle.

The trike requires biking sandals or shoes. My specific bike footwear is not insulated.

Me at Center Point, 13 miles north on Cedar Valley Nature Trail, starting to do longer rides.

Rode to Ellis Park and crossed Cedar River on bridge there on Sept. 15.

Sept. 9--Common sight on Lindale Trail. Indifferent deer.

Sept. 23--Rode past paving and limestone to grassy end of Grant Wood Trail.

Riding the new trail on the west side of the lake--seeing Pelicans and other birds at Cedar Lake Sept. 22.

Mixed messages seen by Cedar River Trail at south end of Cedar Rapids Sept. 8.

Rode to east end of Grant Wood Trail on Sept. 23.

Still, that colder weather is a challenge for the future. How far into the future, I wonder, as summer weather has continued through the first month of what would usually be fall.

Not that I’m complaining. I’ve enjoyed the increased miles on the anonymous trike. My one question for your consideration and comment—what would you name this tricycle?

Sept. 30--Trike in Ely, south end of final day of September ride. What should this trike be named?