Maiden West Papio

April 11, 2020

Greetings!  

What have you been up to? Eh?  Must have a bad connection.  Anyway, if you are like me you are deciding which long-term radon monitoring device to purchase and enjoying a refreshing Angry Orchard cider. Please fill me in on your doings at your earliest convenience.

How are you and the COVID-19-asaurus getting along?  I hope you are staying healthy and keeping your distance.  I am fortunate to be working from home now.  It is nice for the most part.  I’ve got a comfortable place in the basement.  Just me, a pinch of radon, and lots of Yerba Mate.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Mate, it’s a South American green tea that Mrs. Snot bought for me awhile back.  I think it’s pronounced like (check)mate, but maybe it’s more like a pirate matey!?  In either case, my sweat pants and shirt are comfy and so are the slippers so the Yerba Mate is probably the only kind of mate that'll be happening around here for awhile, ya know what I mean?  Heh.  Along with this comfort; however, I have not been riding my bike to and from work as usual.  This has been mildly disconcerting.  The vast majority of my bicycling over the years has been commuting.  This has resulted in the following:

·     I’m not usually very interested in epic bike vacations because I get enough riding as part of my usual routine.

·      I also do not do much recreational bicycling unless I am getting ready for some kind of longer charity ride.

·      I don’t want new bikes often because they’re just going to get all trashed from commuting.

So those are my usual values.  But lately things have changed and so I have been out for 2 recreational bike rides in the past 2 weeks!  I might have even been on 3, but I initially could not locate the right way to get onto the West Papio Trail east of downtown Millard (pronounced Me-lard, accento en el lard).  After this minor fiasco, I took some time to check the beautiful online map created by the helpful folks at MAPA.

It showed me the way to the promised land occupied by the WPT.  And now, here is a video recap of how a person can get there (mostly as a reminder for me for the next time I can’t remember how to get there due to my usual lack of recreational bicycling.

It is a great trail! I went past Olympia Cycle, where I purchase the bike eventually known as The Old Bastard.  The trail people left some remnants of ye old railroad and a few informational signs that I enjoyed extensively.  

Hell Creek used to contribute to some hellacious floods!

All that pavement gets the creeks a-flowin' more than in yesteryears!

There was also a nice bench where I sat briefly whilst enjoying my Clif bar.  

This is at the trident-shaped confluence of Hells Creek, the West Papio Creek, and the South Papio Creek.  

Diabolically fascinating, eh?!  There was also a nice memorial.

There were people out there walking, jogging, bicycling, even roller-blading!  

Families picnicking!  

It was glorious and I highly recommend you get out for some recreational bicycling at your earliest convenience.  

I have also been using my formerly valuable time to catch up on important cinematic experiences (e.g., I watched Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci last night).  Previously I watched The Farewell, with Awkwafina, which was also enjoyable, in less of a puerile, B-movie way.  I may also eventually watch Parasite and Can You Ever Forgive Me?.  So those are some of my big plans.  I’m still working on that GarageBand thing. I’ll get back to you soon.  How about you?  Give me a call and let’s catch up!  Hello in there.

Love,

BSO