Jacque and I did NOT get a ride in last week because I was Sick, Sick, SICK with the crud: Don't know if it was the flu, but it started out as a nasty sore throat and progressed to a full blown weepy-eyes runny-nose misery. I laid in bed for SIX days with this stuff. Not fun. Not nearly so much fun as riding a people powered vehicle with my sexy wife on a cool but sunny afternoon, such as TODAY.
We certainly aren't riding enough recently, since the last few times we HAVE ridden, I've left behind important things that enhance my riding pleasure:
Today I left BOTH our fiberglass bike flag / radio antennas home. I made do with a couple of short "rubber duck" antennas that worked, but not wonderfully.
Last time we rode on a Friday, I left my GPS/ham radio cluster home. So I was unable to listen to ham conversations along the way nor talk to anyone other than my sweet wifey in the back seat - and she likes to read her Kindle while pedaling and doesn't always hear me when I make comments to her, wrapped up in her literary pursuits. We pass a cute kid or an ugly adult along the bike trail and she never notices them, and doesn't get it if I try to explain why I thought they were interesting.
You can hardly blame her. She enjoys riding and the fresh air and all that but while I see all the scenery and oncoming cyclists, pedestrians, bums, beasts, eye candy, etc, all she can see is my back - unless she turns her head sideways to view stuff at that angle. She has handles to hold to, but no steering or brakes or shifter, so all she can do is lean back and provide pedal power.... so she reads. She would also knit or crochet along the way but she worries about the yarn and thread fluttering into the chain or the wheels, which IS a concern when you're knitting something special, like a pair of custom warm BigFoot socks for me, and don't enjoy pulling out missed and ruined spots and doing it over again.
We started riding from UNM again today and did our normal 20-something loop across Old Town to the Bosque Trail, up to Paseo Del Norte, east to the North Diversion Trail, then south again all the way back to UNM. The weather was a bit cool but not too much so. As usual I got overheated and chilled at the same time as we went along, and had to peel off a layer and button and unbutton my shirt front to allow cool air to vent my armpits and then try to cover up and get warmer again without generating too much perspiration to start the cooling/heating problem all over again. The fellow travelers we met along the way were about 50/50 today: Half were friendly and commented on the pretty pup and/or the trike and about half were too busy or important to exchange greetings with us lesser mortals.
When you ride underneath I-40 near the end of our loop here, it's always sort of a treat to view all the hustling and bustling traffic from the safety of the bike trail: It's a great view of all the cagers (people trapped inside steel cages, i.e. cars) with the benefit that the trail is at least several hundred yards away up a VERY steep embankment, making it highly unlikely any of the 70-MPH behemoths could reach us intentionally or accidentally.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7 Ending Voltage: 12.1
Lowest Temp 49 F Highest Temp: 63 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 19.19
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.0 MPH 7.4 MPH 18.8 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
3 hours 11 mins 2 hours 35 mins 36 minutes 1 second
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