Well, my front tire on my homemade recumbent 2-wheeler was still holding great pressure this morning, so, since Jacque was working again, I decided to ride the solo bike solo today. The days recently have been sunny but cold and today was no exception. We were also blessed with a few more cool breezes.
I remembered to change into my "solid" street shoes, which block the wind from freezing my feet, unlike my sneakers I wore the last few rides. I was very glad I did.
I decided to ride east today out to Mountain Valley, go north to Entranosa, and west on Entranosa to Tumbleweed and then back north to Frost Road, making a loop ride we've done once before and found enjoyable due to a few miles on the inside of the loop with very sparse traffic, unlike Frost Road which is heavily traveled almost day and night.
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| Jim and Jazzie squinting selfie into the sun |
As I rode eastward on the first leg of the ride, I fought a fairly stiff cold headwind, and thought to myself "At least this wind will be a tailwind on the way back home." WRONG. Bah. Humbug.
Jazzy was her usual noisy "yappy pappy" self today. I was able to reach behind and swat her nose at one point well after we'd passed the excitement of barking dogs on their side of their fences, and I warned her I'd do it again if she started breaking my eardrums again. It worked, at least for a while, until she realized I could not always reach her for reinforcement swats. But she quieted down much quicker for the rest of the ride and the ensuing outcry of dogs we passed by.
Since we were riding the 2-wheeler which does much better on nasty roads than the tandem trike, we had ridden all the way from the house down to the pavement of Frost Road and back. At least half the way back up the goat-path on the last mile homeward I have to dismount and push the bike, pannier, dog, and all. Coming DOWN the last little hill to our drive turn-out, I hit a patch of loose dirt as I made the 90 degree turn and, though not rolling very fast at all, the wheels slid out from under me and I unwillingly laid the bike down. I landed hard on my left leg and as the bike twisted to a stop, it forced my legs to do a split between both knees as they dug, hard, into the roadway. The same soft dirt that caused me to go down evidently saved my legs as well. I at first thought something surely must be broken - but, after a few minutes of huffing and puffing and trying to get my left leg out from under the bike (which seemed surprisingly heavy just laying there on top of my thigh), I was able to partially lift the bike enough to relieve the weight on my leg and I was able to extricate myself. I was surprised that all systems seemed to still be working. I was able to stand up and then stand the bike up, puppy-in-the-basket and all. I checked Jazzy over for cuts, bruises, or painful spots and she seemed only a bit dismayed with me for putting her through all the excitement of a tumble. She is always strapped into the basket so she cannot jump out when offending dogs, rabbits, squirrels, or errant pieces of paper are spotted. This arrangement evidently prevented her from being launched into the middle of next week.
This did not lessen my irritation when I noticed she had chewed almost completely through one of the RG-58 antenna cables feeding the twin bike flagpole antennas. I will have to find ways to armorize these cables, as she has proven immune to any threats or punishment for previous totally-destructive chewing adventures.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0 Ending Voltage: 12.9 (time to put the battery back on the charger!)
Lowest Temp 48 F Highest Temp: 59 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.92
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.0 MPH 7.7 MPH 27.6 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
2 hours 12 mins 1 hour 25 mins 46 mins 45 secs
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