Today's trip tracked very well methinks
Jacque was a delegate for today's Republican pre-primary meeting at Sandia Casino and needed to leave Church early enough to get there in time. I decided I'd rather stay for the entire meeting block and ride the bike home from church: Catch a ride with the bike on the Jacque-Mobile's rack, which would get me to church non tired and non sweaty and non stinky, unlike the trip home on the bike. Jacque was worried about today's weather report: Wind and snow coming in for later in the afternoon. I figured What the Heck, we get out of church meetings at noon, that should give me enough time to get home on the bike before any really bad weather shows up. So I unloaded the bike at Church, chained and locked it to a handicapper parking sign in the parking lot, and lug my pannier, helmet, and bike electronics cluster inside to the coat rack area where I stowed it on the upper shelf. I had snacks in the pannier and 2 full water bottles in the clips on the bike. I wore a regular jacket (instead of a dress coat) on the outside of my white shirt and tie so I wouldn't mess up my good coat folding it into a bundle to Bungee across my handlebars for the trip home, and wore thick wool socks inside my western boots so as to look dressy but keep the toes warm for the ride home (it's still winter time here in the great American Southwest). Enjoyed church, and of course got "the treatment" from my friends who spotted the bike and thought I was nutso. "12 miles? You're Crazy!" Along with other encouraging comments.
So, after church, I saddled everything up, ate my power promoting snack of 6 chocolate donuts, velcro'ed my dress pants into the insides of my tall boot shanks, and rode away. After all the funny comments I half expected some kind of audience as I got ready to roll but I was ignored, not a bad thing to happen when you're crazy.
I immediately noticed that dressy cowboy boots are not well designed for biking. The rounded smooth soles did not grip the pedals well and I had to sorta balance differently and keep a certain position and tension on the pedals to keep from losing them, especially when starting off. I also was worried about getting the nefarious black chain grease on my right pants leg in spite of the tall boot shanks they were tucked into, but I made it home OK with no grease stripes I could find, an unusual happenstance for me after riding the bike for any distance. But it added to the normal fatigue of riding up hill and down dale.
I was bugged again today about the motorist attitude: Almost all will attempt to give me at least a little room when they overtake and pass me, but almost NEVER does anyone slow down, wait for oncoming traffic to clear, and then use the then-clear other lane to pass me without crowding me in my own. If oncoming traffic blocks entry in or across the middle line, then they just crowd right by me, anything but slow down and wait for a few seconds. BAH
The wind was a bit extra strength speed and cold wise but it was still good to be out and biking. I had to stop and rest a couple times climbing the long last pull up Sedillo Hill but it still wasn't bad.
When I finally arrived at the turnoff to our 1-mile of nasty muddy dirt rutted rocky excuse for a road, I really didn't appreciate wearing my dress boots, undamaged thus far by the trip. The mud wallow at the bottom of the gully through which our road traverses is a good 3" deep at the deepest but underneath this muddy water is also the firmest surface over which to travel. I tried to walk the bike a bit around the puddle but the mud was even deeper so I just walked my pretty boots through the puddle, replacing the nice shine with a brown scum of mud. Which took me some few minutes to wash off gently when I got to the house.
Pre-Ride BG: 100 Post-Ride BG: 153 (with lots of snacks in between)
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.8 Ending Voltage: 12.3
Ride's Lowest Temperature: 44 degrees F Highest Temperature: 52 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 12.3
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
06.5 Mph 7.8 mph 33.9 mph
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 51 mins 1 hours 37 mins 14 mins 21 secs
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