Back to Biking~

A beautiful Easter Sunday, sunshine & temperatures climbing into the mid-80's with 20-30 mph wind gusts.  We'd made reservations for an early dinner in Mineola.  I also had the bright idea of getting our bikes out of the shed & back on the trail.  I had no idea if I could even balance with one eye, but after a few trials & errors - things got easier.

Between the handle bars~

How long it's been since we've had the bikes out, I can hardly remember.  It was in Washington, probably 2015 when we went camping with the Peters at Ft. Flagler.  Before that, mostly on the Centennial Trail prior to Farah & my adventure.  This is the section of trail Farah & I rode in reverse, last September.

At the point where Farah & I got on the trail~

Riding on the limestone was a new experience, but easier than I'd thought. Of course we picked the uphill grade & were ready for a break by the time we reached 275th.

The way we'd come~

A gentleman pulled up, coming from the opposite direction.  He asked where we'd started & said we'd reached the high point of this stretch of trail.  From here on would be mostly downhill into Silver City.  That good news renewed our interest in continuing forward. :-)

Concrete!

We soon came to trail that had a concrete surface! Of course nicer than the limestone & a little more out of the wind. Speeding along, we reached Silver City in no time.

Downtown Silver City

It's a tiny, quaint little town. Nothing open on Sunday. A bike shop, porta-potty in good condition & water not yet turned on. We looked at some of the store fronts, the one below long closed up.

Old style~

Since I hadn't fully charged my Garmin, it gave out just before we reached town.  At the park, was a nice Gazebo & trail signage.

Butch~

We hitched the bikes to the available hitching post.  Of course there are no horses allowed on this, or any other section of the trail.  The exception being a 6-mile stretch south from Council Bluffs. Farah & I rode it often.

The jail was built in 1911 & restored in 2007

Behind the jail, was this nice old wagon, flag flying.

Park like setting~

I had to look around, one of the horses had fallen down, but there they were! The last of their kind on this trail. One with his front legs missing & the other with the hind legs gone. A sad testimony to how little horses are appreciated for all they have done for us - throughout history.  They sported some very weathered tack.

Wagon horses~

From here we turned back.  It was nice having the concrete about half the way back to the high point & we flew the final miles into Mineola.

our route~

 The round-trip was 8.6 miles.  I told Butch that next time we eat after the ride - not before!  At least my completely boring hours at the Y on the elliptical, seem to be paying off.