Today's Boring-as-Usual Tracking
We've been scuttling around, pulling weeds, working laundry, chasing puppies, etc, the usual too-busy-to-stay-healthy routine. Today was a lovely day, with a bit of gusty windy stuff, but balmy and just cool enough to be great Indian Summer weather.
So it got to be about 5:00 PM and the weather was STILL nice and the sun looked like it would take at least another hour and a half to go below Sandia Crest to put us in the dark. So I challenged Jacque for a trike ride and she was up for it.
By the time we got rolling it was 5:30-ish and still lots of daylight.
The gusty breezes that had been rattling things all day had almost totally calmed down and it was a fine, fine ride. We did the usual struggle uphill going west toward the Post Office on Frost Road, as usual regretting not having more endurance and power since we are not "in shape". When we arrived at the Post Office a nice older fellow (getting rare to bump into people older than I am) had a lot of questions about the trike and seemed very fearful about riding his own bike because of auto traffic. We discussed the additional safety factor available on the off-main-road biking paths in the area but he was still quite worried about actually doing more biking himself.
We too worry about vehicle traffic and the occasional too-close-encounter but fear even more the idea of losing our muscle tone and vigor. I neglected to tell the fellow about my being-run-over-by-an-SUV several years ago, which caused ME to think and rethink the joy of bicycling. I pretty much decided I'd prefer getting killed by a car than dying in front of our TV sitting on my butt doing nothing.
There IS risk involved in riding bikes on the streets, of course, and Bernalillo County manages to kill 2 or 3 cyclists a year in stupid accidents but I often wonder just how many cyclist-miles there are between fatal accidents? We kill a LOT more motorists in New Mexico, and auto accidents have killed more Americans EACH YEAR than armed combat in any year since the Civil War.... and no one ever suggests anyone should stop or avoid driving gas-burners. Every day literally hundreds of cyclists ride up and down the roads here in the East Mountains, many of them riding all the way from their homes in Albuquerque up the winding roads to Sandia Crest and back home again, and it seems to me the percentage of them getting injured or killed is actually pretty low... like I said, 2 or 3 a year.
Anyway, the nice fellow went on his fearful way and we went ours... on up the rest of the hill to our favorite snack/watering hole, the Shell Station at the intersection of North-14, Frost Road, and Sandia Crest Road. When we got there we again - as usual - got into extended conversations with a couple of people we bumped into while snarfing our snacks. Jacque and I commented about it on the way home.... How many times do other motorists stop us, enthused about our dogs, etc, when we're DRIVING a CAR? Very seldom. Yet everywhere we encounter other people while riding pedal-powered machines, we have instant friends though rarely we ever even know each others' names. When you're on a bike it just seems like you're more approachable, more of a curiosity, whatever. We LOVE it, even though most spandex-clad cyclists are much too busy or focused or whatever to exchange greetings when we pass. When stopped for a snack or a snort of water, most cyclists are friendly even if they consider themselves ultimate athletes. So the increased affability between fellow travelers is enjoyable. Although of course maybe one out of a hundred will turn out to be Grumpy Gus complaining about how we should be on the sidewalk (No such thing in most of our area!) instead of slowing the Royal Motorist down by riding in or near the road.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 66 F Highest Temp: 77 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 4.30
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.7 MPH 6.2 MPH 27.8 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 9 minutes 41 mins 32 secs 27 mins 28 secs
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