Coffeeneuring Challenge 2025

Interior, Stillwater Coffee

Week One

1. Tuesday, October 14 (Cloudy, 59F)

Coffee at: Stillwater Coffee Company, 1275 N Center Point Road, Hiawatha [round trip 15 miles]

Trees are our friends and have many uses

Coffeeneuring is back for its 15th year, and I'm back for my second year. This is a great way to celebrate cycling and small businesses (as well as natural spaces, which feature in some coffeeneuring projects but not this one). Last year, my rides-to-fall-drinks occurred on days with high temperatures between 55 and 84 degrees, and as the weather turns colder with occasional rain, I could use some motivation wherever I can find it. The rules (Mary G 2025) call for seven rides of at least two miles round trip, to six different places, between October 11 and November 24, with no more than two per week. With so many coffee places in the core of Cedar Rapids, these rules pose no difficulty. Outside of the core, though, chains predominate--not a problem for the rules, but I'd prefer to keep it local. Given the length of some of the rides others reported on the Coffeeneurs Facebook page last year, I feel challenged to get out of town some in 2025.

Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Cedar Rapids
under cloudy skies

Today was cloudy and chilly. I rode, mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, to suburban Hiawatha. To give myself an extra mile, and to avoid a complicated intersection at Center Point and Boyson, I stayed on the trail as far as Tower Terrace Road before riding back through the factories to Stillwater.

Cedar Valley Nature Trail splits off from Center Point Road

That might have been unwise; I only had to be on Tower Terrace for about 0.1 mile, but it's a two-lane high speed road with gravel shoulders. Fortunately, no cars appeared as I panic-pedaled. 

Stillwater has no bike rack, despite its proximity to the trail--maybe I'm the first person ever to cycle here!--but I did find fellow blogger Robert Manson as well as a lot of Johnny Cash references in the decor, and free refills. Free or cheap refills are everywhere in eastern Iowa, but not in "real" cities... I'm guessing the rental prices (which are comparatively low here) determine this.

North window at Stillwater Coffee

While enjoying my coffee and apple muffin, I watched the biweekly Cities for Everyone webinar. This week Gil Penalosa hosted the legendary Ellen Dunham-Jones. She talked about the need through policy to "disrupt auto dependence" in order to meet the many challenges of aging suburban areas. A lot of her examples were from high-demand areas (Atlanta, Austin, Bethesda, Denver, e.g.); I'm glad she also talked specifically about areas without change-forcing levels of demand, because that's where we are here. I imagine retrofit is a tough sell anywhere, though, as witness Addison Del Maestro's post today quoting someone from Vienna, Virginia, worried about how increasing population through denser development would disrupt basic aspects of daily life like grocery shopping.

Blairs Ferry and Center Point Roads, Cedar Rapids:
One of several complicated intersections on the CVNT

While I was inside Stillwater, we got a brief rain shower outside. It was over before the webinar was, but my ride home made my butt look wet.

2. Thursday, October 16 (Sunny, 75F)

Coffee at: Dash Coffee Roasters,120 3rd Avenue SW [round trip 4.6 miles + 0.5 miles swimming]

bike, mural, and front window at Dash Coffee Roasters
(this mural is across the alley from the Lucille Ball one
pictured last year)

Part of the fun of coffeeneuring is following the exploits of others on social media. Several people were out before dawn this morning, and took lovely pictures of shops' lights in the darkness. Several people are doing themed coffeeneuring, and some of their themes are quite ambitious: one person is creating a haiku out of coffee stops, another is doing all Middle Eastern coffee shops (in the south suburbs of Chicago!), and another is devoting each stop to a color of the spectrum (today was "red"). 

Consider the curve wrecked, folks. I am not going to match that level of creativity. It occurred to me, though, that after seeing Bob Manson at Stillwater Tuesday, and meeting Bob Untiedt at Dash this afternoon, that I was on my way to a "Bob" theme. I don't know how long I can sustain this, but if your name is Bob and you like coffee and are near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, please message me!

Today began with showers that lasted longer than expected, but by 11:00 a.m., out came the sun and dried up all the rain. So I had a dry afternoon ride across the river to Dash via the Helen G. Nassif YMCA, and no worries about the possibility of a wet butt theme to my #coffeeneuring2025.

I met my friends Bob and Phillip at Dash to talk about the history of efforts to reactivate Redmond Park. Dash, praise be, is open til 6:00 p.m., which makes them one of two independent coffeehouses in the core that's open past 2:00. I had a double chocolate scone (not pictured) with a one of their pour-over coffee offerings; my unpretentious drip coffee order is not available past 1:00.

my coffee, and some beans for home, under the approving
eye of Elton John

On my way home, I saw a car run a red light; a car turn left in front of oncoming traffic; and an SUV parked in the bike lane. Coffeeneuring is a challenge, in more ways than one! But on this lovely afternoon, the weather was not one of those.

Elsewhere, Planetizen reports Austin, Texas, has put their back into building sidewalks and bike infrastructure, which has resulted in sharply reduced street fatalities (Ionescu 2025).

Week Two

3. Sunday, October 19 (Cloudy, 62F)

Coffee at: Lightworks Cafe, 501-B 7th Avenue SE [round trip 4 miles]

It was windy this morning, but not painfully so, and the traffic was extremely light as is usual on a Sunday morning. I took a somewhat indirect route downtown, and encountered less than five cars on the way.

I met some friends at Lightworks, a coffee shop located behind Benz Beverage Depot on the edge of downtown. They were doing a pretty good business, but we were able to find a table without difficulty, and borrow chairs from the other tables when more people arrived. I had a bag of beignets, one of their specialties, and managed not to cover myself in powdered sugar.

beignets and coffee at Lightworks

My friends discussed city politics, what with local elections coming up in a couple of weeks. Half of us arrived on bicycles, which is a good sign, and I was able to spread the coffeeneuring message. I think I'm still the only person in Cedar Rapids doing it.

artwork at Lightworks is by co-owner Nathan Graham

4. Thursday, October 23 (Sunny, 58F)

Coffee at: Kismet Coffee and Bloom, 1000 3rd St SE [round trip 4.2 miles]

I went to Craftd on Tuesday, but it was too chilly and windy to ride

It's been a chilly week, but I could no longer delay ride number 4. What was I going to do, put it off until November? In the Midwest, that is not such a hot idea, if you'll pardon the pun.

Once on my bike, it wasn't so bad. The wind that has brought us this (admittedly seasonable) weather finally had died down, and I wore gloves and a heavy jacket against what was left of it. The autumn leaves are well underway...

view of Loftus apartments from Bottleworks Park,
across 3rd Street from Kismet

...and I left late enough that the ride towards downtown wasn't too bad.

My destination was Kismet, a delightful coffee/flower shop that opened in New Bohemia in late 2021. New Bohemia already had a lot of coffee offerings, but none were florists, and Kismet has been prospering fragrantly for four years.

More (but not much more) seating is upstairs,
along with more (many more) flowers

The young couple that operates the shop has a young child who makes occasional appearances; whether for that reason or another, it's a particular hotspot for young people with tiny companions. With the Loftus apartment building almost ready for occupancy on the other side of 10th Avenue, they seem about to have a lot of potential customers nearby.

Bike parking at 3rd Street and 10th Avenue SE

Kismet usually doesn't have food available, but when they do, it's memorable. Today's offering: maple scones.

Coffee and scone by the window

However, even the seemingly innocent pleasures of coffeeneuring are fraught with worry. Today's New York Times included a story about a new report by Coffee Watch showing that in Brazil, clearing forests for coffee farming has resulted in drastically declining rainfall (Livni 2025). Coffee Watch director Etelle Higonnet is quoted as saying "The ecologically destructive way we grow coffee is going to result in us not having coffee." I should surely pay more attention to coffee sourcing than I do!

Say it ain't so, Frank!

Week Three

5. Tuesday, October 28 (Cloudy, 51F)

Coffee at: Uptown Coffee, 760 11th St Suite A, Marion, IA [round trip 15 miles]

Uptown welcomes you!

Big thanks to Mary G. and all the folks at Coffeeneuring HQ, because absent this project I would not have ridden today, and I'm glad I did! It was deterrently chilly this morning, but the rain was going to hold off until afternoon, and what was I going to do, wait until November for nice weather? As it turned out, the ride was not bad at all, though I didn't stop for pictures or to check the trail counter. I had broken a sweat by the time I got to Uptown, though my ears were cold. I met two riders on the Lindale Trail into Marion; one had a plexiglass face mask, while the other had a wrap for his head that fit under his helmet. I should at least look into the latter.

Uptown is adjacent to Marion's wonderful Art Alley

Uptown Coffee operates out of the front of a bar in a historic downtown building. It was doing a brisk business today, though mine was the only bicycle parked outside. The multitude included, for the second time in five coffeeneuring efforts, Bob Manson of The Indie Bob Spot. (See ride #1.) For those of you keeping score, this makes three encounters with Bobs in five, though only two unique Bobs. (My son Robbie joined me at Lightworks last weekend, but he goes by Robbie and therefore does not qualify as a Bob.)

My workstation at Uptown.
Not pictured: gooey and delicious peach pie bar.

I put in my earpods for the Cities for Everyone webinar (episode #98), my "must see TV" every other Tuesday morning. (See ride #1.) Host Gil Penalosa interviewed Kristian Villadsen, an architect formerly with Jan Gehl's firm, and now co-creative director at BRIQ, also in Copenhagen. He talked about designing communities in ways that make it "easy" for people to make the more sustainable choices, and "We want to create places that invite people to partake" (italics mine). (Villadsen also said: "90 to 95 percent of zoning regulations were written between 1950 and 1970, when, to be honest, we did some of the worst city planning of all time.") My ride to Uptown today was rewarding, but could not be described as "easy, fast, convenient," which would be the ideal.

I left directly after the webinar, and was home well before the rain started. I did stop to record the reading on the trail counter. As I did, a longboarder and a cyclist went by, so I added them to my count.

Lindale Trail, just east of C Avenue NE

Elsewhere today, Streets.MN's post today discussed how people in Minneapolis-St. Paul used bicycles and transit to access a protest, as well as the sad necessity of continued protests. And word came of a proposed pedestrian plaza in Seattle.

6. Thursday, October 30 (Clearing, 54F)

Coffee: RETURN to Kismet Coffee and Bloom, 1000 3rd St SE [round trip 6.3 miles] 

The tree on my street has more leaves than it did 
same time last year (see last year's post)

Today is warmer and lovelier than was Tuesday, but after nearly freezing last night my morning ride was chilly. I added a few extra miles by riding through downtown and then along the river by the Mott Building, the southwest side's answer to the Cherry Building. No pictures of my trip, because it was too cold to stop! It was lovely, as witness the tree by my house pictured above, and I stayed warm except for my ears and neck. I really need to get one of those head goiter things.

Grass was soggy with dew:
Bottleworks Park between Full Bowl and Kismet

I returned to Kismet--coffeeneuring rules allow one repeat visit per year--for my biweekly coffee with Randy the Wizard. Unlike last week, they did not have maple scones today... no food at all in fact. Happily, Tim Salis was on the job at The Full Bowl a block away, and I scored a couple buckwheat banana muffins.

The Full Bowl, 129 10th Avenue SE

The mums are still vibrant at Kismet.

mums on the steps leading to Kismet's front door

I sat on the second floor at Kismet this week, which almost qualifies as a new place, but probably doesn't.

My coffee and muffins are on the coffee table

Besides the prodigious couch--sufficient for family reunions! or business meetings if it's a small business!--this is where their floral workshop is located, so there are plenty of green things on view.

Second floor shelves

On the way home, the sun was fully out and taking full effect! 

Friday 10/31 brought an update from Chasing Mailboxes with great pictures from the field. Meanwhile, I have one ride to go before I qualify for a patch...

Week Four

7! Tuesday, November 4 (Cloudy, 61F)

Coffee at: t.b.d.

SOURCE: Mary G., "Coffeeneuring Challenge 2025: You're Only 15 Once," Chasing Mailboxes, 20 September 2025

LAST YEAR: "Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024," Holy Mountain, 15 October 2024

COFFEENEURING IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:

Brent Lineberry (Orange Gnome) is in the Atlanta area