R17 2 RideOut: Free Stuff

We are still in Des Moines in this blog

Steven and the Mayor and I rode down Kingman Boulevard, then on to Polk Boulevard, and then took the long zoomy hill down Ingersoll and got on the bike trail in Waterbury. Normally, we would have taken a right and headed towards the Clive Greenbelt, but we hadn't gone a mile when Steven announced, "I'm hungry." 

So we took a left on the trail and went about a quarter of a mile to the McDonald's on Grand Avenue. Normally when I ride by this McDonalds, zooming along on my bike, I look at the people in line in the drive-thru with disdain, and smelling the stank of gross grease, I am smug as I think about how good I am for riding my bike and not eating McDonalds. (This of course ignores the fact that when I take Holiday on a road trip, she always gets a hamburger, and that usually means that I get a hamburger as well, and that there had been a lot of road trips in my recent history--those are over now so I can go back to being smug). 

But this time we turned into the parking lot, leaned our bikes against the wall and went inside. I hope Steven will chime in here and remind us what exactly happened with the clerk, but I believe there was some sort of cock up with my coffee. I just wanted a small coffee, but that wasn't an option in the computer, and so I couldn't have it. I had to have a medium coffee. I teased the clerk about it. He was pretty funny and teased me back. 

We all sat down with our food--well, Steven had food. The Mayor doesn't eat food as you all know. And I had already had breakfast, so I just had one of those disgustingly sweet iced coffees. But then then clerk came over and brought us some free stuff, to make up for the problems with the register--he gave me a yogurt parfait and Steven a small bag of M&Ms. Then he teased us some more and we joked back. 

Steven had way too much food, so we squirreled the extra egg McMuffin into my "fun pannier" (more on that later) and then got back on the road, this time actually headed west towards Jefferson. 

It never ceases to amaze me that you can ride from Jefferson, Iowa north west of Des Moines all the way to Martensdale, Iowa, south of Des Moines, nearly 80 miles all on bike trails. The network around the city of Des Moines is amazing and growing every day. If you want to the extent of these trails, just follow Pochy and Luke on SnapChat! 

The first day of our RideOut would be completely on bike trail, which was amazing, and safe, but also, it would turn out to be challenging in its own way. 

Freshly fed and caffinated, we zoomed westward, zig zagging on the curves the Clive Greenbelt, until we emerged from the forest next to Hickman Avenue and went straight west.