After a rainy afternoon and evening yesterday, today dawned sunny. Headed to the Park for breakfast - had breakfast pizza. From there to the HQ area of the park. When I got there, I found that aliens were riding our bikes. Spending the time riding the skills obstacles. (See first photo).
Was a relaxing morning visiting as waiting some away rides left for ride venues. Said my "good-byes" and headed to the motel. Day to explore paved trails in the Quad Cities.
Parked downtown Davenport at the Visitor's Center. They had a great bicycle map of the Quad Cities. From there, rode South along the Mississippi Iowa Riverfront Trail. Rode until that trail ended at Credit Island Park. Back North the trail until it ended at Isle Casino in Bettendorf.
The wind today was coming down the river. Had a easy ride with the wind back to the car.
When I got back to the car, I had just over 13 miles. A good ride, but the day was just too nice. It was ordering me over to the Illinois side of the river to continue exploring.
After some fits and starts to find a trailhead, I found Schweibert Riverfronk Park. Parking spaces and the Great River Trail runs through the park. Awesome!
Checking the map, I set off North the Great River Trail to Sylvan Island. Wantehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd to find out what this island had to offer (since there were "away" ride there during the festival. Found a network of dirt and crushed stone trails.
Rode around the island on my hybrid. Snapped the lower photo of the bike on a river overlook on the island. Stopped and visited with a family that had recently moved back to the Quad Cities from Medford, OR. Guess the economy is in the pits there.
Still not ready to turn back and call it a ride. Rode on North to the Convention Center. Time to ride the wind back to the car. Great 21+ miles ride and over 2 1/2 hours exploring by bicycle. And, I rode in all four of the Quad Cities today!
Finished up the awesome day with a meal at Thunder Bay Grill - just across US 61 from my motel. Settled into a comfy chair. Started with water and a glass of Iowa Pale Ale. Asked the waiter that i wanted to relax and process the photos before ordering. That done, ordered a burger and fries and started this blog posting. Nearly perfect timing - about to finish the post when my food arrived.
Great ending to the day. Packing up and heading to Kenosha in the morning.
1 comment:
Count me as one of the advocates of cycling, or walking, around a place to explore it, rather than driving. You get so much more feel of the details that way.
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