Double B-day Ride

July 28, 2012  PEDALS adventure: 

One of the benefits of having Tom’s and my birthday “next-door” to each other (his is the 28^th, mine is the 29th ...one year and one day apart!)  is that you can more easily have an “event” that celebrates both.  We did that by having a Double Birthday Ride on the Monon with Jon, Ashley, Ryan and Heidi on Tom’s day, July 28.

Meeting at the Monon as it crosses 86^th  St. in Nora is a great place because  (1) there is a shopping center with great parking away from the stores, but close to the trail and (2) there is a Huddles Frozen Yogurt store at this spot on the trail…always a bonus to have food on the trail!  Not an official trailhead, but it ought to be.

Booth Tarkington Theater in Carmel

We love the Monon because it is almost all wooded and shaded, which helped on this sunny afternoon.  The beauty balances out the challenge of the high number of users on the trail…I always keep an eye on my  rearview mirror for speed bikers coming up behind us on this trail. After a short ride north (about 3 miles) , we were in the town of Carmel.  We took a side trip to look at the two new performance venues that were built in Carmel along the trail.  The Palladium and the Booth Tarkington Theater share a large area with a garden in between the buildings....and absolutely REEK of wealth and affluence.  You can tell a place is “rich” when they “draw” the parking lines in the brick street with other different colored bricks (as pointed out by our resident building cost estimator Ryan).  Checked out the 2012-13 schedule at the Booth Tarkington Theater….My Fair Lady in the spring….one of my favs!

A few blocks north and we stopped at Bazbeau’s outdoor seating for pizza!!  I’m sad I forgot to get a picture to remember this 3^rd time we’ve stopped here during a Monon Ride, but the 3 pizzas were amazing (The Luke, The Meat Lovers and The Margharite).  Since this is as far north as we have ever been on the Monon, our goal was to continue north to see the end of the Monon. 

That goal was cut short when we reached a “road closed due to construction” sign on the trail a mile or so north!  We had noticed several side trails in Carmel and Heidi suggested we take one of them as an alternative.

The Gang at the Hagan-Burk Trailhead

We happily rode down the Hagan-Burke Trail, which turned out to be another urban trail filled with trees and peacefulness.  The H-B trail had a  connector trail, The Greyhound, which took us to Carmel HS, where we reminisced about HS tennis matches that the guys had played at Carmel.  Back on the H-B trail, we found ourselves going through lots of trees, passed a Carmel Police officer (immaculately dressed in shorts and a golf shirt driving a golf cart on the path), rode under Keystone Blvd) and came to the end at 146^th street in the town of Westfield.  Jon was impressed we were so far north of Indy.

The Monon Tunnel under I-465

The ride back was just enough to get us ready for frozen yogurt at Huddles, where we enjoyed loading up our bowls with awesome flavors and yummy toppings.  My personal favorite was Grapefruit frozen yogurt. It was perfectly refreshing, "as is" without toppings, after a long ride...and after a bigger helping of chocolate and caramel fro-yo with oodles of chocolate toppings that Tom and I shared.

Heidi's and Ashley's Fro-yo creations

We finished the Celebration Ride with a shopping visit to Marshall’s, conveniently located in the same shopping center (along with a Starbucks shop).  The day was filled with good people, good times, good food….and a shopping trip to boot!  Happy times and happy birthday to Tom and me!

The stats: 15.7 (RT), Time: 1 hrs. 47 min, ODO: 344.51 miles

Notable Nature Sightings:  None…too many people on the trail