Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Choice Time: RV or Bike?

Today's Track Courtesy of GPS and Ham Radio

Today's complicated question is not all  that complex.  The RV is almost back together now.  I could have reinstalled the batteries and started it a few days ago but did not want to get things out of order, even though I'm anxious to see how it runs:  I don't want to have to remove the batteries again (right up front next to the grilles) to finish putting the grilles and front facia back on.
I need to ride the bike to stay flexible in my joints and such, and I have a soft goal of riding at least a short ride every day and then use the afternoon hours to labor on the RV.  The trouble is, that when I ride the bike, I often wind up taking a long time to cool off and rest and get to WORK on the crippled RV.
Saturday I chose to spend the available hours on the RV and did not ride at all.   I made progress but of course missed the motivating and energizing activity of taking the proverbial bike ride.  So today I rode my piddly 10-miler.
It hasn't been terrifically hot the last couple weeks temperature-wise, rarely getting more than a few degrees over 90 F but it has FELT quite hot.  I suppose it's due to the increased humidity from our summer monsoon season.  We keep proposing getting out to ride really early in the morning, like before 8 AM or so, but always wind up frittering away the early hours.  Maybe someday good sense will set in... like perhaps the day after they put me in the grave.
I again met our skittish-horse rider ladies and had to pull off the side of the road and stop and allow them to pass so their horses would be less spooked by my horse-eating bike flags flapping in the breeze.
Just past this area, and around much of the East Mountains, we see and smell the sweetness of alfalfa (Lucerne to our British Brethren) growing wild and uncultivated.  In our yard we have several patches of the stuff and it is exceeding difficult to keep under control and of course there's not enough of it to bale and sell at modern day inflated alfalfa hay prices.  Out here there's so much of it overgrowing everything, especially with summer rains, I wonder why folks don't either offer to graze their horses or other livestock to help control the stuff or why landowners don't advertise their acreage for free grazing... or even find someone with a baling machine to pay a visit.
Hay on the Roadside and in the Field

ACRES of Alfalfa as high as the fences
 Oh, I know it's not that simple.  I've allowed neighbors' horses to graze in our 2 1/2 acres a few times and they wind up eating the flowers, ignoring the weeds and even the alfalfa clumps which are harder to get rid of than normal weeds.... they leave piles of horse-poop up close to the house and crowd up close to the radio tower in the back yard for shade and break or bend valuable radio antenna cables..... and accidentally do other mischief.
Now that I'm safely home again and cooled off enough to get back to work on the RV, it's begun drizzling rain outside and we CAN'T complain about RAIN.  We desperately need these showers even though that's why everyone's weeds are too tall to see over....

Ride Started:  10:47 AM    Ride Ended:  12:16 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.9       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  84 F      Highest Temp:  94 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.5
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.2 MPH                               8.8 MPH                    31.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour  27 mins                     1 hour 11 mins            15 minutes


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