Friends Helping Friends

TLE and I were trying to remember the last time we rode the Cannondale tandem, and much to our chagrin, we finally agreed it was back in Campbellsville, KY in early October just before we started working at Amazon.  We rode out to Green River Lake that day, and since then we have not ridden it one time.  In our fulltiming world if you don't use something at least every 6 months what are you carrying it around for, right?  So, Monday, we got the tandem out to do the 20+ mile bike path loop around Sioux Falls which was recommended to us by the Flickema's.

We wanted to get a pretty early start, and certainly "early" is a relative term, but in this case it meant around 8:45 am, which is very early for us.  The skies were mostly clear as we started our ride south from the Fairgrounds to pick up the bike path along the Big Sioux River.   The bike path pavement was pretty new, and it was very smooth riding.  A little over half way we stopped at Josiah's Coffee House and Cafe for breakfast.....it is just off the bike path a couple hundred feet, and we can see why Yelp gives it 4 stars (Tripadvisor - 4 stars, and Urban Spoon - 5 stars).  The coffee is smooth and rich, and the pastries are heavenly. Thank you Todd and Dawn for the recommendation.

Internet photo of Josiah's....we ate outside, of course!

From there we continued north now to Falls Park, which I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago.  This is really a beautiful place anytime of day, or night.

Falls Park

Since we had just been there a couple of days before we only tarried a few minutes before pushing on.  Even though there are not a lot of signs along the trail giving direction it is a pretty intuitive trail.  We only made one wrong turn, and realized it pretty quickly.  Nevertheless, more signs at intersections would be a nice addition.  We liked the trail so much I think we will ride it the opposite direction Tuesday, or Wednesday.

We finished the loop just before 11 am having done 23 miles.......every time we ride the tandem we wonder why we waited so long to ride it again.  We have a wired intercom so we can communicate with each other easily, and it is nice to know TLE is always right behind me....I never have to wait for her to catch up....:-)

Around 11:30 I headed over to Todd's coach to work on a few projects that need to be completed before they head up to Spearfish to the Newell mini rally on Saturday.  Todd has accomplished a lot of the interior upgrades, and it is looking fabulous.  He had one issue with the bathroom lights not working, so I did a little trouble shooting and got power restored.  Then it was time to install the LED brake/turn signal lights on the front and back of his coach.  Once that was done I got to work getting his ALCOA wheels shinning again.....one down 3 to go.

It was a great day in Sioux Falls Monday, and Tuesday our friends Tom and Darlene McCloud will arrive in their 2002 Newell....they will feel like they are slumming being parked next to our 30 year old coaches........not really.....Tom and Darlene are the most down to earth people you will every meet, and Tom has said more than once if he had seen my 1982 first he would have bought it.

Just as it was when we first met Tom and Darlene, we have quickly become friends with Todd and Dawn.  I first met Todd through the Newell Classic website, and then got better acquainted with him through the Newell Gurus website  when he was looking at the 1984 Newell he eventually bought.  The motto of Newell Gurus is "Friends Helping Friends", and that is what Tom and I will spend time doing Tuesday, and Wednesday.....helping Todd, our friend, get his coach ready for the rally.

Thanks for stopping by!