Monday, April 21, 2014

Jacque's On the Prowl Again

Today's APRS/GPS/Ham Radio Tracking

When Jacque's in the mood to ride, she's great for getting us going early in the day and not waiting until the last minute as I'm prone to do.  This usually means she is not buried in her sewing room, where she usually loses track of time and circumstance altogether.  Today was such a day.
Even though we got out and going just after 12:00 noon, the weather was starting to look a bit spotty.  Instead of mostly sunshine and light clouds, there were several large black threatening clouds starting to accumulate.  I thought they were far enough away for us to get in at least a few miles before any danger of getting wet.....
I suggested we ride east, the less stressful direction.  So we did.  There are of course still hills going east of our place but they are more gradual, less lengthy, and less stressful.  I don't think we made it a mile or two, however, before the raindrops started splatting us in the face.  So we made a U-turn across Frost Road and went back the other direction, assuming we'd do our old standard Post Office Run.  We were amazed that we were able to turn completely around in only one turn, without having to run off into the gravel shoulder of the road.  Our Tandem Recumbent Terratrike is about 11 feet long tail-light to front crank-pedal and to turn it around in a complete tight-as-possible circler requires....... about 40 acres.
Anyway, the trip to the Post Office was uneventful until we crested a slight rise in the cycling/pedestrian path just across from the Sandia Park Fire Station.  We noticed a fellow crossing the street from the station toward us and he called out just as we started to complete the last leg to the P.O., asking if he could take our picture.  Since this is by no means an unusual request we said "Sure, No Problem" and took a short break.  He asked if our ride was a Terratrike and then told us he had just purchased a Terratrike, a single, for his Mom.  Then he noticed we had TWO doggies on board and had to take some more pictures from our other side to get them both in the frame.  A minivan pulled up next to him and the passengers called out to us and asked us where might be a good place to take a walk "around here".  Must be from out of town.... We pointed to the admittedly deteriorating paved path WE were on and told them where they could park in order to get out on foot and take a stroll.  After they left, we resumed pedaling and wondered between us why we hadn't casually mentioned it was great walking areas almost ANYWHERE here in the East Mountains, not only here on the civilized populated side of North-14 but just a few miles up the road towards Sandia Crest there are several Forest Service rest and picnic areas, most with walking trails in the surrounding forest.
We got our mail and started again up the trail to the Shell Station, after the doggies made some more new friends in the P.O. parking lot.  Maybe a hundred yards up that hill it again began to sprinkle on us, not enough to get us wet, but enough to worry us about getting soaked from the darkening clouds overhead.  So again we turned around, waiting for several cars to pass, since this turn was too tight to make without intruding on the vehicular roadway for several yards.  It still dribbled a bit of sprinkles as we rode back but we didn't get soaked..... and, as usual, when we got to the safety of the Exploder the rain stopped entirely.  We should have sucked it up and continued to ride to entice the rain to continue falling, since we need the moisture so badly.

Trip Started:  11:36 AM    Trip Ended:  1:02  PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.5        Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  62 F      Highest Temp:  72 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  6.10
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.7 MPH                                7.2 MPH                    26.2 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour  3 mins                       50 mins 48 secs          13 mins 11 secs

No comments:

Post a Comment