Posts Tagged ‘Cocktails’
The good people at Bike Walk KC have a monthly happy hour at random spots in the city. This month they are having it at The Cashew at 2000 Grand on the corner of Grand and 20th, KCMO! So grab your bicycles, take the bus or walk on down to the Cashew and learn about lights, have a drink and meet some fun folks who are car free or car light! It’s always a fun event!
We’ll see you there!
We are excited to invite you to our first Spooks and Spokes Halloween Bicycle Ride! Costumes are not required, although we’ll be dressed up and encourage you to do the same. We’ll be meeting outside of Grinder’s on Locust between 18th and 19th Street. We will head to The Filling Station for a quick cup of Joe before winding our way to the Plaza to parade our Halloween attire. From there we will head to Westport and will stop in at McCoy’s for lunch. After lunch we will head back to Grinders for some spirits. The more the merrier, so please feel free to invite anyone you wish! Remember, this is a fun ride, and no one will get left behind; we will be riding casually. Hope to see you Sunday!
Below is a link to the route that has been proposed:
You can also go here and RSVP to the event page on Facebook! Hope to see you all there!!
Happy Birthday to me!! Hello everybody! Christopher here to talk about my birthday weekend. Sunday I turned 39 and started celebrating as soon as I got off work on Friday.
To start out the celebrating, Mandy and I met up with our friends Tom, Aubree, John, and Mark and made some new friends Calvert, Mark and Joel on Friday evening for le Tour de Pants bike ride. This was a very casual 13 mile bike ride but to make it fun, we all got dressed up in our “fun” shorts. I wore some Bermuda shorts and Mandy wore her fun polka-dot shorts. But it was Aubree that was voted the “best” shorts. They were quite colorful. After the ride, we all stopped in at Spin! Pizza and enjoyed a cool refreshment before Mandy and I retired for the night.
The next morning came early. The alarm was going off at 5 am and I found an alarm sound that was appropriate for Mandy. It was the sound of a bugle going off at an army base to wake up the troops! Mandy just giggled and was up and at it. This morning we were joined by our friends Alex and Tom.
We just met up at a park that was close and Mandy knows all too well. This is has been her starting point for years when it comes to her training. I was able to start out with them on the first 4 miles but it was tough. Hilly and my shins splints where really starting to burn.
After the first four miles, I grabbed my bike and followed behind the three of them so they could do another 4 mile lap, all the while, I was their pack horse and carried their water for them. It was definitely a hot one; even at 7:30 am. After that loop, Tom had to bolt because of work but Mandy and Alex did another 2 miles to complete her 10 miles schedule for the training plan.
Also, for a birthday present, my father traded me Jeeps. Mine was needing some work done on it, so to save me some dollars, my father traded me his for mine. His was the exact same year, just in much better condition and half the mileage. But there was one thing missing. I needed something to represent what I love to do, so I stuck this bad boy on the back of it. 
Thanks for the Jeep, Dad!
Later that night, Mandy had made reservations for us at J. Gilberts. What a great steak restaurant! The food was tasty and the service was excellent! Just before our dinner was served, Mandy handed me my birthday card. It was very sweet card but inside was another surprise…
…ear jewelry! Fitting, don’t you think? I’ve seen these a while back and have been wanting them but Mandy beat me to it. Thanks baby!
We finished off the evening at Jardine’s. This was Mandy’s first time there and she loved it. We sat in a romantic corner, had a couple of cocktails and listened to some Latin Jazz. It was a great end to a perfect evening!
The next day was a lot of relaxing, but not before I was surprised in the morning to Mandy singing Happy Birthday and bringing in my favorite dessert, Hostess Ding Dongs. I don’t need no cake, I’m good with these!
In all it was great Birthday weekend. Thanks to Mandy for making it wonderful for me!!
As I reflect on the years of my life up to now, I can say that I have had some good birthdays and I have had some good times. I remember a couple of years ago I listened to a Slipknot song for the first time and I just loved it. The song is “Vendetta.” There is a line in that song that just stuck with me. “Are you ready for the time of your life?” I listened to that song again today as I road home on my bicycle and I started to think, these last couple of years of my life have been the time of my life. I have kept my nose clean and really enjoyed life to its fullest. I have gotten married to a beautiful woman and my soul mate. So, “Are you ready for the time of your life?”… hell yes I am. I have been waiting for this moment, and I never knew it.
Cheers,
Christopher
The big day had arrived! We had plans to be married at the Truman Memorial Building on Friday the 27th at 12:30 in the afternoon. Accompanied only by our parents and siblings, we wanted this private affair to be meaningful and to the point; we have plans for a big wedding and celebration the following year, but we just didn’t want to wait! We had morning mimosas as we packed our belongings for our weekend getaway in Columbia for the Pedaler’s Jamboree: a 30 mile bike ride from Columbia to Boonville. With reservations at a Bed and Breakfast in Boonville, we would be biking the 30 miles back to Columbia on Sunday. The ceremony was lovely and intimate, and we were so happy to be surrounded by our loved ones as we committed our hearts and lives to one another forever. After the ceremony we headed directly to Café Verona, a quaint Italian restaurant in Independence Square with a romantic tradition of having couples engrave their names onto locks, fastening them on the wrought iron gate out front, and then throwing away the key forever! We kept our keys at the suggestion of Cathy (Mandy’s mother) to be thrown away into the river as we rode along the Katy Trail that weekend. Lunch was fantastic, and we had our first champagne toast as husband and wife in our new wedding gift, champagne flutes from Cathy (Mom)! As soon as lunch was over, we said our goodbyes and hit the road to spend the evening in Columbia celebrating our marriage.
We stopped along the way in a small town for a window marker to write the traditional “Just Married” on the back window of the Explorer. Once we got to Columbia we checked into our hotel, and we were elated to see a “not so dirty duckie” on our jacuzzi. We ran some quick errands before stopping in at Murry’s, an Italian restaurant with live jazz; we quickly left when we were seated in a cramped corner with a screaming child :). We opted instead to head to Bleu , a favorite restaurant we’d been to before the last time we were in Columbia. To our surprise, we ran into Peter, a friend of Christopher’s, who was nice enough to buy us some champagne in honor of our big day. Exhausted from the excitement of the day (Mandy was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she had a new last name), we retired early to prepare for our big weekend.
We woke up early the following morning and headed to registration for the Pedaler’s Jamboree. Sporting our cruisers for the event, we fixed our new baskets and homemade “Just Married” signs to the back of our bikes, and they were the hit of the ride! We grabbed breakfast at the starting point, Shiloh Bar and Grill, which is a stone’s throw from where we jump onto the MKT Trail for the start of the ride. The weekend was originally slated to be 90 and sunny, but Saturday morning was unusually cool and windy, with a hint of mist. We hopped on our bikes around 11 and started off on the MKT trail for about 8 miles before it connected to the Katy Trail. We stopped at the first creek we came to and threw away our keys to the lock we fastened on the gate at Café Verona, never to be found again! Our first stop was in Huntsdale, about 12 miles into the ride. They had a blues band, snacks, and beer, and we stopped long enough to fuel up and say hello to the Groody Bros (which are the guys who have done work for us on both of our bikes).
Between Huntsdale and our next stop at Rocheport, we made some pit stops at a bluff with Native American pictographs and also a marker for the Lewis and Clark expedition. We made friends with some very fun people from Omaha, Nebraska, and we hiked with them up a huge hill to the Les Bourgeois Vineyards where they bought us a celebratory glass of wine! Thank you Victor and Stephanie! Our 2nd stop was in Rocheport, and we enjoyed another beer but didn’t stop long as we were eager to continue on our way. We passed through an old train railroad cave, and opted to ride through flooded parts of the trail that were actually closed off instead of taking the detours. The weather turned out to be perfect for us: it was cloudy most of the day which helped us stay cool, and the mist was very refreshing! Our last stop was in Franklin and this proved to be a very happening place! Swarms of people milled about, talking, laughing, and listening to the bands. We argued over whose beer was more badass: Christopher chose the IPA with an angry elephant head on the front, and Mandy chose the Buffalo Sweat…Mandy is still insistent that hers is more badass. We were happy to be interviewed by our new friend Bill Poindexter for his blog Carfree American. We have posted this video below.
We rode the few remaining miles to Boonville where we decided to check into our Bed Breakfast at the Highstreet Victorian before heading to the concert and post-ride party. Our Bed and Breakfast was beautiful, and our innkeepers Gene and Kriss were wonderful! They gave us some blankets to take with us to the concert because it was so rainy and cold! The headlining bands were Ha Ha Tonka (Mandy’s new favorite) and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. We’re sad to report that we were so exhausted and tired from the last few days that we cut the party short and were back and in bed before 9, missing the last band! We knew we had a long day’s ride ahead of us on Sunday, and we wanted to be well-rested.
The next morning we had breakfast with some of the other guests, and we were out the door and on the road by 9:15! Our trip back was faster, and our stops weren’t nearly as long as the day before. We were anxious to get back home, but we still stopped and enjoyed some of the sites and visited with our new friends. At our stop in Rocheport, we walked back to our bikes after listening to one of the bands, and we were very happy to discover that an anonymous person had placed leis on our bicycle baskets! All weekend long we had heard “Congratulations” and how happy people were for us newlyweds. It was a great end to the trip!
By the time we made it back to Columbia, we were pretty tired but happy, and we stopped in at Shiloh for lunch before heading back to Kansas City. Getting back home around 5, we were happy to see our boys, and we spent the evening drinking wine and eating sausage, cheese, and crackers while watching The Expendables and Rocky IV (what better way to spend your honeymoon than watching kickass movies? Mandy said she was so happy her head was going to explode). It was a great start to the rest of our lives as Mr. and Mrs. Beltz, and you all were with us in spirit! We appreciate all of your love and support as we continue this awesome journey together. Please take a look at our fun video below; it’s just clips of our weekend together set to one of the meaningful songs that signifies our relationship.
Much love,
M&C
