Wait Until Dark..... Almost

Tracking Courtesy of GPS, APRS, and Ham Radio
Over the weekend I was not able to play ride-the-bike, even though I sure wanted to.... I was playing home plumber and installing a new sink, lavatory set, and replacing nasty PVC pipes connecting it all.  Much too busy to stay healthy and all that, you know.
Now, today, I had an early appointment to get my head examined.
More precisely, I got an eye exam... preparatory to my next cataract surgery.  I got a new lens to remove and repair cataracts in my left eye almost a year ago.  My right eye was still mostly functional back in those days so I opted to get the left repaired and leave the right eye alone for the time being.  The last few months have sapped my patience with the deteriorating cataract in the right eye, with increasing blurred spots in my field of view, double and triple vision in the daytime and nothing but blinding stars that are supposed to be oncoming headlights at night.  So I called in 2 weeks ago and asked to be set up for the second eye repair.
The Doc gave me the good news and the bad news:  The bad eye was most certainly very very bad, but he could still find no traces of diabetic retinopathy, the eyes' retinas were in good shape as well as the blood vessels.  So all I had to do is wait for the next appointment, measuring my eyes for surgery, and go home for now half-blind with my eyes dilated from the exam.  The el cheapo shades they gave me worked well and I was able to make it home and get inside out of the near-blinding sunshine and watch a few Veterans Day War Movies until my eyes started working again and I was able to step outside again.  I of course have been hankering for a bike ride, and it being too late to get much productive done, I decided to go ahead and saddle up for at least a short ride before it got completely dark.  I had installed a spanking new deluxe dog carrier on the back of my homebrew 2-wheel recumbent, consisting of a heavy duty black plastic milk crate mounted with stainless steel hose clamps, the universal mounting method for projects large and small.
Tinkerbell, the Primo Princess Doggie, had been on about a 400-yard test ride on Saturday, but she needed to test it again on a REAL ride.
It was just cool enough to ALMOST preclude my having to unbutton the front of my 2 shirt layers to let some air in around my armpits.
We rode east on Frost Road until we got to Mountain Valley, where we normally turn south.  Since we had never tried to ride north on that road before, we did so today... Tink and I.
That pavement was a nice gradual uphill pull until we ran out of pavement at about the 3-mile mark.  As I turned around to park for a water and peanut-butter-cookie break, I was horrified to see a too-large, very healthy looking coyote standing in the bushes right at the edge of the road, looking not at all alarmed at my intrusion.
Upon  a second and third glance, while looking for a large rock or stick I could use for a defensive weapon, I noticed he was wearing a COLLAR.... and realized he was just someone's pet wandering around loose and who LOOKED a lot like a wolf or coyote mix.  Even domestic dogs that size can certainly be dangerous, but he showed no aggression and I slowly calmed down and relaxed, calmly urging Tink to repress her instincts to yap ferociously and stir up the other dog's attack responses.  She was unusually good, for some reason, and didn't even snarl at him.  We sat and shared the 4 cookies I brought for the snack.  Okay, Okay, so "shared" means I ate the cookies and Tink got a small pinch of a bite-crumb from each one.
For the ride back to the house, it got a bit cool.... enough that I had to re-snap all my front shirt buttons back up and re-Velcro my day-glow 
green/yellow tee shirt and still did not get overheated.  The sun had set but there was still plenty of light out and we arrived home with full vision.. and out of breath climbing the unpaved last mile of goat-path to the house.
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0        Ending Voltage: 12.9
Lowest Temp  48 F      Highest Temp:  69 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  11.08
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.2 MPH                                8.3 MPH                    26.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 46 minutes                  1 hour 19 mins          20 mins 31 secs