Monday, November 23, 2015

2015 Coffeeneuring Rides 2-7: Lots of Coffee

Well, it's finally happened:  I've jumped into the modern age and downloaded Twitter.  As a result, I posted the rest of my coffee rides on Twitter.  In an effort to make it easier for the founder of Coffeeneuring to look at and judge my rides, I have posted links to the twitter posts below.  (This way she only has to come HERE to read about how lazy I was this year.

Compared to last year in the city, I really slacked off on the rides this year.  Not nearly as many pictures, not nearly as many interesting stories.  Lots of weekends where the coffee shop I wanted didn't exist anymore, or the bike lanes that are there on the map don't exist at all.  No one tried to kill me with a car, this year, so that's nice.

Anyhow, thanks to Mary at ChasingMailboxes (see link to the right) for the Coffeeneuring Challenge.

Without further nonsense, here are the rides, with ever so brief comments.  Go get your Twitter on and follow me @wardropjr

Ride2: Boxcar Coffee
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/652952353830666240

Just so we are clear, this ride involved me riding on a road called "Brighton Boulevard" to get to the coffee shop.  Denver has a pretty good bike infrastructure, and then it just disappears and dumps you onto a road with a 40mph speed limit and terrible shoulders.  It's a shame, too, because the place this coffee shop is located in is called "The Source."  It's got a butcher, a brewery (maybe 2), fancy dining, and coffee.  Great place, but terrible to ride to.  Though, other bike riders were there, so maybe I am just getting old.

Ride3: Denver Biscuit Company
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/653254467316355072

Is it cheating to just get coffee while you are out to brunch watching the Broncos with a morning beer beverage in the other hand?  Probably.  Is it really?  No, I followed all the rules.

It was standard coffee.  It went well with the sausage egg cheese biscuit syrup monstrosity I ate.

This was also my "epic ride" of the series.  I know the twitter post says 16mi, but I rode my bike to ANOTHER brewery on the way home (shoutout to Station 26) and so it was probably more like 22 miles or so.

The only bad part about Denver bike infrastructure?  Making it across I-25, the South Platte River, and the major rail lines in Denver (not to mention all of downtown Denver is at a 45 degree angle) makes it really hard to get from the West side to the East side of downtown.

This seemed like such a long long ride, but compared to my NYC jaunts, it wasn't that bad at all.

Who knew?

Ride4: Habit Donut Dispensary
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/655487940022300672

This was the first ride where I was disappointed because the place I wanted to go was closed.  How do I make myself feel better?  Yeah, I find a donut shop, and order a coffee.  This is also the first coffee ride I have ever done on my "grocery getter," a 1981 Peugeot Orient Express that is decked out with fenders and panniers.  She's a tank.

I also scored tickets to a CU Buffs game halfway through coffee, so I rode home in a hurry.

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Note to the readers:  By this time in the year, I had torn my calf muscle playing kickball.  That's right, kickball.  Yup.  Old.  Anyhow, from here on out the rides are short and barely meet the requirements, but my Dr. (read: sister) said that I shouldn't be riding at all if I wanted to be ready for ski season, and I do love ski season.
**

Ride5: The Laughing Latte
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/660677120427880449

This coffee shop is in a part of town I am probably not cool enough to visit, but they served me anyway.  Great coffee.  Nice little ride.  A little too big a hill for my tastes right at the end.

Ride6: Huckleberry Coffee
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/660881130028032001

This coffee shop was great.  Very cozy atmosphere and EXCELLENT tasting coffee.  Also, real close to home so I could really lay off the leg.  I will return.

Ride7: Crema
https://twitter.com/WardropJr/status/663501552078860288

Part 2 in our series of "The shop I want is closed."  Fortunately, there are lots of coffee shops in Denver, especially in RiNo, and so I just pulled a U-turn from bike lane to bike lane and landed at Crema.  This place was busy, very busy.  Great little porch out back for sitting in the sun, but then there were wasps.

And with that, Coffeeneuring 2015 is done.  That's 2 years in a row for me, and I'll wager a bet that I'm one of the only people that have coffeeneured in two different states:  New York and Colorado.

**
I now realize I should have taken a picture of the huge bruise on my calf to really perk this post up.
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