32-Mile Monday

Only Tracked Part of the 32 miles this morning

Jacque's got some work to do for one of her consulting contracts customers after she gets off from the Beehive Home in Edgewood this afternoon, so we decided I'd do another bicycle ride from front door to work.  This really is an enjoyable ride, at least after the first nasty 3 miles.  It's a mess bouncing down the gravel/washout/rocky/rutted road from out house to the paved road at Frost, then it's about a quarter mile of straight and level riding, and then a long slow pull for 2 miles up to the "Triangle" intersection of North-14, Frost Road, and Sandia Crest Road.  Then after that, even MORE hill for another couple miles or so, which looks steeper but for some reason is not as hard to climb or as frustrating as the west end of Frost Road.  I stopped at the Triangle Shell station to top off my tires and enjoyed a good snort of water and a short breather and then off again.
I looked at my video feed of today's ride and was struck by how pretty the area is we live in here in the East Mountains.  I see it every day and take little notice of it, but looking at the video it struck me as extra nice.  Go Figure:

I'm always frustrated at the time it takes to load up all my STUFF, with a loaded backpack on the front luggage rack and a loaded pannier on the rear bars of the seat in back, water bottles on the side brackets, radio, etc, etc.  But I like my "stuff" and miss it when I don't have it all.
Of course, part of what makes this long ride fun is the several miles (at least 4) of smoking downhill grade where I can easily reach 30+ MPH without pedaling.  Actually, I CAN'T pedal that fast;  my legs would fall off if I tried.
I talked on the ham radio to one of our now-several ham/bicyclist commuters this morning, actually 2 of them:
W5MHG Mark, who was NOT on his bike but passed me in an intersection and rolled down his window to call out a friendly greeting (and called later on the radio to say HI again) and Phil W5PWB, another daily commuter.  It's always a kick to talk to another cyclist on the ham radio.  Helps ya feel like you're not the only weirdo in the world.
Awakening BG:  162                           Post-Ride BG: 168
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2         Ending Voltage: 10.3

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 31.90

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.0.  Mph                          11.7 mph             36.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
2 hours 46 mins               2 hours 26 mins         20.2 mins