30 Miles for Brake Pads and Burgers

Mary picked white for the tread color.  Her other options were red or green.  Gonna miss those old wheels.  they served quite well.  

The plan was to get up early and rebuild Mary's Trek 1600 and head out for breakfast.  New chain and cassette, new wheels and tires to be placed on the bike before we could get food.  Simple tasks.  I even remembered to re-calibrate her computer.  But I work slow and distract easily.  It would be a lunch run.  The rebuild was complete except for one item.  Actually four items.  Brake pads.  Lunch would have to be located with in proximity of a local bicycle shop.  we headed north to Kyle's Bikes in Ankeny.  as the fastest growing metro city this side of Waukee there had to be someone to eat.  We headed north on the Neal Smith Trail.

Never mind the "trail closed" sign.  Avoid the detour and just walk around the work.  Kyle's is located across the street.  We took the detour on the return.  Found ourselves on the corner of Butternut and Sugarberry Ct.  A residential neighborhood.  I wonder how many diabetics and peedos live around here?  Hansell and Gretel definitely not safe!!

This was maybe my third visit to Kyle's.  Fast in friendly.  I felt bad not specifying 2 sets of brake pads.  The gentleman had to go to another building to fetch them, twice!  Mary browsed inside while i got my hands dirty installing the new speed scrubbers.  In the meantime, Laura and Will rolled up.  They were heading to the Trestle via FireTrucker Brewery.  At Kyle's they needed a tire for her "go fast" bike.  Will was going to have to carry the tire around his neck for the remainder of the trip..  He should have ponied up the extra $$ for a foldable tire and stash it away on his bagger.  Kids...

Thunderhead Sports bar was recommended by Kyle's employees as the place to get a good burger.  I vaguely recall seeing this before on our previous adventure through Ankeny.  It had a lot of things going for it.  On the proper side of the trail, food, clean, not crowded and craft beer.  I enjoyed the mushroom cheddar burger.  Mary had a bacon cheeseburger. After ordering I realized that they featured their own house brand craft beer so I had the Cornstalker Dark Wheat.  Brewed in Kearney, Nebraska, I found this beer to be tasty and light with a nice malty aroma.  This sated my need to go on to Firetrucker.  And with the impending rain a good decision.

Fully functional bike, food in our bellies we headed home.  A few sprinkles here and there but no deluge.  i did not overexert myself and aggravate my bronchitis, kept the body far from redline.  I felt like i could have done another 70 miles.  Perfect day for riding.  Cool breeze and overcast.  Discretion.  felt good to get 30 miles in.  Good to have a successful test ride.  Good to share time with Mary.