Sunday ride report - Summer Parkways and Artfest

Ok this is a little late, I'm a slow writer. It's also a little rambling.  And no pictures - I couldn't be bothered with that. Well, I left my phone home. Left my Garmin home. Rode my Marin hybrid without a bike computer on it, so I was riding without the assistance of any electronic gadgetry.  Felt funny at first, but refreshing.

Here goes, hold on fast and be sure to tighten your valve stem caps:

My wife Debbie and I rode from our abode in the Shadle area to the Summer Parkways event in the Logan area at Mission Park and Chief Garry Park. It's funny - Mission Park seems far away from our home, but it was an easy 6 mile ride there. We just get too used to going places by car, when it can be so easy to bike to places.

Once we got to Mission Park I was a little confused where to go. Being hopeless with directions, I'd meant to check the map of the Parkways before we left but forgot. We found a nice volunteer at the SW edge of the park who wasn't too sure either, and handed us a map. Luckily, my born and raised in Spokane wife quickly figured which way to go, and we followed the route to Chief Garry Park. We might make a good Amazing Race team.

Discovered there are some nice wide streets to ride on down in the Logan neighborhood. (I know I should fill in some more details about the Parkways, but you'll have to use your imagination or check out the Summer Parkways Facebook page. I gotta get this post finished.)

After the Parkways, I was getting hungry, so we took the Centennial trail down to Riverwalk. Where do we want to eat? There's the Brewery there and a Thai place. Oh, let's take the new MLK Jr Way to downtown, and maybe eat at Madeleine's. Or maybe Rock City. Or head to Indaba, I have my Indaba card with me.  Or maybe eat in Browne's Addition.  I'm hungry and not good at making decisions!  Then I felt like a sandwich from the Brooklyn Deli. Made our way there and didn't see a good spot to lock the bikes up. Felt uneasy about it.  Ok, let's just go to Browne's addition, either eat at the Elk or Pacific Pizza.

Headed west on Second. Debbie's a real trooper. She's just been getting back into riding after tearing her ACL last winter, but was handling the city riding like a pro. We noticed a lot of traffic heading into Browne's.  Suddenly, Debbie yells out "Artfest"!  Oh of course - we'd talked about heading to Artfest after the Parkways. And forgot about it.  That solved the problem of where to eat. We both got shrimp tacos from the Baja Babes truck.

After Artfest we headed down Riverside and crossed the river on the Sandifur bridge by People's/High Bridge Park.  We were both wondering why we decided to go downhill, as we both knew we were going to have a big ride back uphill to get home. We both made it up the twisting hill climb across the river up to Summit drive without stopping. Proud to report I didn't use the ol' granny gear.

From there it was just a few miles back home. According to Debbie's Garmin, it was about 18 miles. A pretty good day, and it followed some good rides on Memorial Day weekend to the Farmers Markets and out to 9 mile.  Which I was going to post about but didn't get around to it.

Anyways, looking forward to the next Parkways on the South Hill. Will we bike uphill all the way there after work from downtown? Can I not get lost?  We shall see.