Biking the Connector

I woke near 8am a little worried that I might be hung over. That wasn’t the case. Instead, just a tad bit tired, but that quickly abated once I sucked down a fresh cup of coffee. I think it was near 915am when I headed out for a run. Any fallout from Saturday night was left in the dust after 3 mile run. Felt just fine.

Mindy was up around 10am. By then I was in the kitchen whipping up a big breakfast – omelet and grits. These were my best grits yet, at least somewhat replicating those from the Retreat in S.C. Mindy enjoyed them as much as me. She asked if the plan was to wire the basement. Nope. Instead, the weather was so nice that we decided to bike the Scioto connector, which connects Valleyview to the Scioto bike trail.

After breakfast, I headed out to install the Thule bike rack on the Pilot, get the bikes down from the garage ceiling, air up the tires, then finally get them loaded onto the Thule. We left the house around 1230-1pm. No shower for either of us, though I did do a “Brian Tippler” since I stunk of old sweat from my run.

There’s a gravel pull-off near the intersection of McKinnley and Harper Rd. which is the trailhead for the Scioto connector. Pulled the bikes off, loaded a bottled water, locked the Pilot, then off we peddled. The city spent almost $5 million building the connector which consists of two gorgeous bike bridges over the Scioto river, both straddling 670, one on each side of Grandview. Surprisingly beautiful ride, and about a mile of the ride in covered woods – trees draping all the way above and across. Lots of river views one would otherwise never see. Truly makes me proud of my city. In not too much time at all we were downtown a North bank Park.

North Bank is where we’ve watched Red, White & Boom the past two summers. We both agreed that we should bike down next summer. Faster, easier. We stopped periodically for some sightseeing, taking in the enormous 2-year river narrowing project now underway. Right now it’s a mess but one can visualize the end result, which looks really nice. We peddled our way from North Bank to Bicentennial which is on an augmented bike trail while the river narrowing project continues on.

We stopped along the Scioto Mile promenade, just short of 229, again taking in the project’s progress. Biked on to 229 and Bicentennial where we parked and locked our bikes while we once again scoured the park for the Keebler Elf door supposedly somewhere in one of the trees. No luck again! The fountains were once again busy with guests – a bustling daily attraction, weather permitting.

After a brief respite it was back on the bikes and our subsequent return. Noticed a homeless man taking up camp under one of the many bridges along the river. Believe he had a nice bike up there too. We briefly considered calling the authorities but ultimately decided against. Climbing the slight uphill for each of the new river crossings was a bit more arduous on the ride back. I plowed on ahead of Mindy, and after the last climb I knew she’d be tuckered. Sure enough, she was. Good thing we were back at the trailhead. Guessing the ride or roundtrip 8-10 miles.

Surprisingly, despite a rainless forecast, it looked like imminent rain as we headed for home. Spotty though. It never did anything more than sprinkle at our place, but surrounding areas got heavy buy brief showers. Our plan was to take Rocky his birthday gift fully assembled – a pitch back net and balls. While we were loading it into the Pilot, Jimaken pulled up with the kids. Home quite a bit earlier than arranged. No biggie. Molly was along too. She looked tired.

We offered the kids to come along but both declined. Mindy and I left for Lindsey’s place near 320p. We wanted to be home by 4pm since niece Lindey was coming over too cut me and Jacob’s hair. Showed up at Lindsey’s apartment 10 minutes later and carried the large baseball pitch back net around to their back patio where they have access to a real nice green space. We set it up temporarily there so the boys could play with it. We watched Rocky throw about 20 pitches. He was excited so his control was off a bit.  Did my heart good to see him so excited. I joked with Lindsey. Saying she must have a dirty house since she never actually invites us in. She quickly shared that that wasn’t the case and offered me to come check. I declined. We needed to get home to intercept niece Lindey, who was coming over for dinner and haircuts.