Another Very Short One

Today's Very Short Tracking

I took a couple mile walk yesterday and took the doggies walking with me and we went over that "new" pedestrian/bicycle bridge.  I was surprised at how much it's already starting to deteriorate after only a couple years.  The concrete substructure has sagged and cracked in several places, and crews have obviously patched and repaired it in other spots, and at least a couple orange sawhorse barriers exist to keep people from walking or riding over some of the nastiest spots.  Make you wonder about the workmanship, materials, and engineering that went into this multimillion dollar little-used project.
I have actually been out on the tandem recumbent trike  a couple times this last month, a far cry from my desired goal of daily riding.
I've just been unable to find time to get on the trikes/bikes and ride with our busy volunteer schedule, and I've been telling myself the only possible reliable time I can come up with is to get up at 5 AM and scoot out the door for whatever length of time I can ride before having to come back, shower,  put on decent non-smelly clothes and get to work.  Several days ago I actually set my Iphone alarm for 5 AM but have usually slept through it or fogged off back to sleep after hearing it. This morning I heard it enough to wake up, but lazed around for another 20 minutes before finally staggering out of the sack to go riding.
It was, as usual, GREAT to get out and get rolling again, even if it was just before the sun came up.  It has been too hot lately to get motivated to ride any later in the day!
Well, today went fine, that is, until I hit the third or so "bone-shaker" wood-splinter surfaced bike bridge the city put in so many years ago and now maintains not at all.  When your wheels hit the leading edge of these bridges, it gives a horrible jolt on both ends that knocks things loose from the bike almost every pass, and the chucka-chucka rattle-rattle of the wooden slats as you ride across are just miserable.  Many cyclists brave the vehicle traffic and ride on the auto road instead to preserve their sanity and physical well being.
After I jobbled across maybe the third such bridge on today's run, suddenly the trike bogged down, made strange noises in the rear, and I pulled over, thinking I had a flat.
Nothing doing.  It turned out one of the mounts for the rear fender had vaporized somewhere along the bridge, and the fender was now dragging inside the rear wheel struts, almost totally jamming the wheel action.  I finally found a single nylon ty-wrap in my tool bag and was able to pull the fender out of the way and tie it off sufficiently supported so it no longer rubbed or blocked the wheel.
Of course, this was only at about 1.6 miles into my wonderful ride, and by now the time was far past for me to turn around and get back to the RV and clean up and get to work.
Maybe I'll get lucky, and motivated, and get out for a decent ride tomorrow... EARLY enough to beat the heat and daily showers we're suddenly getting.

Ride Started: 5:32 AM    Ride Ended:  6:16 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.1   Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.9
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp:  72 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.33
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
   4.4 MPH                            6.2 MPH                       13.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
44 minutes                             32 minutes                   13  minutes