Hauling Lumber on a Bike

Today's Tracking

It rained all day yesterday so that discouraged me from riding the bike, even though it WAS my birthday and thus had kitchen passes to do most anything my decrepit heart desired, but the weather didn't care.
So I spent most of the day driving around running errands.  Howsomever, my #3 son Jake treated me to lunch at Twisters and then my sweet wifey treated me to dinner at The Range Restaurant.  So life was good even though the rain kept me off the bike.
Today, however, was another story.  Although it dawned wet, soggy, and foggy, the sun had come out and dried up the air, exposing clear blue sky, by about 10 AM.  Although I have "Other Things To Do", as usual, I thought I better get out and do a bit of riding just to keep the 68-year-old blood circulating, don'tcha know.
I first wanted to again ride up to our East Mountain Bike Path Rest Stop and Shelter, newly constructed Eagle Project by Spencer, and see how it's faring.  This project, perhaps the ONLY true bike/pedestrian shelter in Bernalillo County, was first conceived by Eagle Candidate Spencer.  The permits were obtained from BSA and County officials and the original foundation posts were dug and set in concrete 3 days before the project was scheduled to be finished, so the concrete would be set and hardened and ready to be banged about as the rest of the structure was finished.  A nearby resident immediately complained to the County, which resulted in immediate stoppage of the project.  About a week passed whereupon it was decided to allow the project to resume completion.  A dozen or more volunteer workers showed up very late in the afternoon in hopes of completing the structure before further "complications" could crop up.  Happily it WAS completed, and a very fine structure it was.  As noted in our last post, it was discovered, after all was said and done and set in hardened concrete, that the structure was underneath an overhead power line, meaning it had to be removed and relocated further back.  ANOTHER crew materialized from various sources and somehow the concrete anchors were successfully broken and dug up and the structure moved (by hand) to 4 NEW anchor holes where MORE concrete was mixed and poured.  The park bench inside was also removed and reinserted into new anchor holes and concrete, and the relocated structure has been blocked waiting for the concrete to cure a bit since then.  As I rode up and read the sign on the bench, it said "Please Do Not Sit Here until Friday AM, 22 May".  

Since it was now noonish on 22 May I removed the barrier bar and "tried out the facility". 
A very pleasant  place indeed, with panoramic views of the poor buggers passing by in their steel shelled cars ("Cagers", we snooty cyclists call them).

I first thought to leave the 2 X 3" lumber behind the shelter but worried someone might "liberate" it.  I thought I might rush  back to the car & trailer and come back to get the board but then decided to try lashing it on the bike somehow.  I couldn't bungee it on by standing it vertical, but I found by removing the lower rear water bottle and bungee-ing the front of the board to the mid bike frame, I could carry it.  The 2 X 3 stuck out the back several feet but that was no show-stopper, and I only had to carry it about 4 miles.

It got a bit cloudy and cool and breezy on the ride back home, but the absolute beauty of the day and relative mildness in atmospheric conditions made it a hard day to beat.....

Ride Started: 12:02 PM    Ride Ended:  2:06 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   14.0   Ending Voltage: 13.1  Lowest:  13.1
Lowest Temp  61 F      Highest Temp:  75 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.74
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.6 MPH                              9.0 MPH                  28.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 5 minutes                  1 hour 18 minutes        47  minutes