Tried the Bike Trailer Today

 We had a few minor maintenance details for the house over the weekend.  First of all the kitchen lavatory set started linking like a bandit so we had to turn off the service valves to those.  Of course we had to do without kitchen sink facilities all day Friday and most of Saturday.  We purchased a new set, goodbye $100 or so, and got it installed late Saturday evening.  Very nice new kitchen sink facilities now, well worth the money and effort, though we wound up chiseling the locknut on the old unit to get it to release and come free so the old could come out and the new one get installed.  Then the long-fading evaporative (Swamp) cooler got intolerable with all the recent heat wave.  I checked out the mess on the roof and decided it needed new aspen pads and a good belt-tightening, as the ole one was starting to slip and make noise.
Then the side-by-side freezer stopped freezing Sunday.  Had to force myself to finish a half a box of rapidly melting Moose Tracks ice cream - Jacque helped a bit in this crushing effort but I did most of it myself... got it (the cardboard ice cream container) cleaned out just in the nick of time.  We pulled out the fridge combo and this morning (Monday) vacuumed out a wad of fuzz, animal hair, cobwebs and lint from the cooling coils underneath the freezer.  That seemed to make it start freezing again..... hopefully this fix will last a while, knock on wood (Ouch).  While I had the kitchen in a mess with the fridge out in the middle of the floor we decided it was best to swap out the over-one-year-old water filter in the back feeding the ice maker and cold water dispenser.  So Jacque got to tolerate a totally disarrayed kitchen for another day.  I've been slack with my bike riding so I decided I would ride down to Davis Hardware on the bike to pick up the necessary hardware (Water filter and swamp cooler pads) and get some needed exercise whilst I was at it.
Now, since the swamp cooler pads might be a bit awkward to lash onto my handlebars and much too large for the rear pannier, I decided today would be a great day to tow the bike trailer on its maiden run and use it to haul the bulky stuff, AND see if I had the stones to pull it over a few miles.  Since the trailer was basically a stripped aluminum frame with no supports between the wheels, I hacksawed up some scrap aluminum tubing (that in a previous life was a commercial ham radio beam antenna) an - after a few busted knuckles I was ready to roll. 

Unfortunately my main radio battery was low so I only got a few positions recorded out of the 20-something mile round trip.
The results?  Trailer worked fine, hardly noticed it climbing hills even loaded with almost 20 extra pounds I'm not used to carrying.   HOWSOMEVER - When I finally ran out of steam and had to walk the bike/trailer combo up our horrible last-mile rocky hill road.... I REALLY noticed it. No fun pushing that combination at all.  So, short story is:  Straight and level or bikable hills, no problem.  If I have to dismount and push, OUCH... Bah
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.4                         Ending Voltage: 12.1
Ride's Lowest Temperature: 75 degrees F -- Highest Temperature: 83 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:     22.03
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
04.0 MPH                                7.7 MPH                   35.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
5 hours 30 mins                       2 hours 52 mins        2 hours 38 mins