It’s always fun to introduce novice “urban bikers” to the
ins and outs of riding the trails. Our neighbors, Alex and Jennifer, have
enjoyed the holiday donut rides with us from our homes, and Jennifer has even
ridden with me in the annual nighttime FW Rivergreenway ride sponsored by the
FW Parks Department. Alex, however, has
yet to start an urban ride from anywhere other than his own driveway. After this ride, we have changed all of that!
Our favorite FW Rivergreenway path is the Maumee Path. It is on the east side of FW, travels along
the Maumee River, eventually ending in downtown. More often than not, rides on this path end
at what we consider to be the coolest Starbucks anywhere at the corner of
Jefferson and Fairfield streets. The four of us decided this would be a great
morning ride destination and set off from our house at 7 AM.
It was a beautiful morning, although a bit cool for
August. We layered up, as much of the
path by the river is heavily wooded and could be cooler than at our
houses. We drove to the Carrington
Field trailhead on Coliseum Blvd. to start the ride. We enjoyed the shadows
that the early morning sun cast on the path and the River, traveled alongside
some FW neighborhoods, and soon found ourselves riding on the bike lanes in
downtown FW.
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| Our favorite Starbucks Jefferson and Fairfield in Fort Wayne |
The downtown FW Starbucks is located in a renovated old
Firestone Tire store. The store was
about to be demolished when SB purchased it, and turned it into a funky coffee
spot. Besides the typical ordering and
seating area inside, this SB has an outdoor ”garage” area, with tables, chairs,
couches and giant overhead garage doors that are opened (or closed) as the
weather warrants, as well as a fabulous outdoor patio area.
We got our drinks and pastries and sat under
the old photos of the Firestone as it used to be. Besides enjoying good coffee and great
conversation, we enjoyed looking at the
ridiculously low price for tires that was advertised in the old photo taken when
it was a Firestone store. The
architecture of the old store certainly stands out, and I, for one, am grateful
that SB rescued it from the wrecking ball, and maintained the façade, making it
both vintage and modern all at once. It
is no wonder it is our favorite SB location ANYWHERE, whether you sit on the
patio watching the wide variety of cars
go by on the major downtown thoroughfare (Tom says it’s a great place to “shop”
for a new vehicle..if you wait long enough, every kind eventually goes
by), or choose the garage, or even stay
in the store (when it’s too cold).
The coolest thing about Alex’s bike is that is has a nifty
pressure spring shelf on the back, an accessory to go along with its
designation as a “commuter bike.” While
we have never figured out how anything very big would fit under the pressure
spring arm, I was able to utilize it on my first ever biking/shopping
experience. This SB had Café Verona
K-cups for use in our Keurig coffeemaker at home….it was the first time I had
seen that blend in a K-cup. I whipped
out my gold SB gift card, bought a box, and loaded it on the back of Alex’s
bike. AWESOME!!!
The only thing left to do was to hop back on our bikes and
back to our car and back to our neighborhood….an adventure in biking and eating
and friendship, all before 10 AM!
The stats: 8.2 (RT), Time: 59 min.
, ODO: 387 miles
