Thursday, August 31, 2017

Huff Puff, What Happened to my Legs?

Today's Tiresome Tracking

The last 2 days I've spent several hours in the VA Hospital getting processed into the system as a new patient.  They've weighed, poked, prodded, and measured me.  My blood pressure and low pulse rate always elicit favorable comments, and a couple of my examiners claimed I "didn't look old enough to be 70".
I casually mentioned to them that, well, ya know, I'm a cyclist and do a lot of riding, which keeps my blood pressure and pulse rate and blood sugar lower. (Too bad it doesn't seem to do much to elevate my sagging "Good Cholesterol" levels)
This mild massaging of the fact I have been on the bike maybe 3 or 4 hours in the last 2 months....
Well, I enjoy cycling or I wouldn't mess with it, and to try to shore up my whoppers I've actually ridden the bike BOTH yesterday and today.  Yesterday was only a few miles and a lot of rock-picking but today I actually did my normal nominal 10-mile loop around the East Mountains, just to warm up so to speak.
Unfortunately, while pulling the trike out from under its parking spot under the deck, I found my brand newly installed right front tire was  flat, flat, FLAT.  I finally found a tiny pinhole in the tube, though I could not find whatever accomplished the puncture.  It may have been an unseen cactus spine.  At any rate, it didn't take long to put in a new tube.  I rarely patch tubes any more, though if the tire and tube prices keep multiplying, I'll eventually have to return to patching them instead of replacing them.
THEN I saddled up and got busy with the riding.
It just goes to show aging and loafing are not very copasetic methods of maintaining fitness.  It was a real struggle today on what normally is an easy ride.  I had to stop repeatedly to catch my breath and stand up to get the numbness out of my feet.  You woulda thought this was my first rodeo instead of just trying to renew a near-daily activity.  Of course it didn't help that the ride was during the early afternoon, likely the hottest part of today.
I ran low on water and ate up all my cookies since I forgot to lower my insulin pump's  basal level before starting the ride (My endocrinologist's instructions are to set basal to 25 or 30% of normal durning a ride).
The worst part, of course, was the last part climbing the steep last mile of rocky goat-path up to the house.
I think I've convinced myself that from now on I'm going to stick to pavement and skip the killer climb up this hill:  I'll trailer the trike down to the main road and ride from there..  Yeah, it's wimpy, but it will be much easier on my trike tires AND my weary bones.

Ride Started: 12:11 PM    Ride Ended:  2:46 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.6  Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  12.5 
Beginning Blood Glucose:  138   Ending BG Reading: 85 
Lowest Temp  75F      Highest Temp:  84F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.61 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.1 MPH                                    6.1 MPH                        29.1 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours 35 mins                       1 hour  14 mins          50 minutes

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Road Maintenance With a Trike

Today's Short and Tedious Tracking

We returned home from our Mega-RV Roundabout trip last Friday.  Every day since then I've quasi-planned to saddle up the trike and ride a few miles.  Between unloading junk, afternoon monsoon rain squalls, visits to the VA, and generally waiting until it's too late in the day, today was the first ride since the RV trip.
Of course, I couldn't just jump on the trike and ride.  All the boondocking and bouncing through the rocks I've put this Catrike through have finally resulted in some visible wear and tear on the tires, especially the front two.  The right tire was worn down to the fabric and the left tire was showing some visible fabric separation on the sidewalls.  The rear tire, though also worn smooth, seems solid enough for a few hundred more miles, so I left it alone.
I have a few spare tires in the storage shed so I was able to replace the nasty looking tires with solid new ones.
THEN I was able to hook up everything and take a ride.
As I bounced down the goat-path mile of dirt/rock/gravel road I again noticed all the new rocks large and small that had recently been graded up to the surface of the road.
Since I foolishly sold my tractor last year in order to buy new tires for the RV, I am no longer able to grade the road myself.  Two neighbors now have their own tractors, however, and while we were on vacation one of them graded the road, which of course stirred up some objectionable rocks.  It seems no one has time to pick them up and throw them into the bar ditch, thus I usually wind up doing it my dernself.  Riding the trike on this road not only increases my awareness of the rocks, but being so close to the ground makes it rather easy to lean over and hand-pick them out of the road and heave them out of the way.  There were so many today that I wound up spending most of my desired riding time creeping along and chucking rocks.
All for a good cause, of course.   I finally got down to the pavement of Frost Road and rode a few miles before turning around early so I could get back and get cleaned up in time for my latest appointment at the VA in Albuquerque.
During this short ride I was again aghast at how much strength I've lost by not riding for several weeks, other than a few miles for a very few days.  Wimpy though I was, it was still good to get going again.

Ride Started: 9:38 AM    Ride Ended:  11:04 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.9  Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  12.9 
Beginning Blood Glucose:  164   Ending BG Reading: 64 
Lowest Temp  67F      Highest Temp:  82F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.27 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
3.0 MPH                                    4.0 MPH                        27.6  MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 25 mins                       1 hour  4 mins              21 minutes

Friday, August 11, 2017

Tennessee Backwoods

Today's Spotty Tracking


Today was a  rainy humid day, with intermittent showers most of the day long.
I needed both a bike ride and a few WalMart items to replenish the RV supplies (AA batteries and a couple small propane bottles) - so after a while I noted the rain was slacking off.  I stepped outside several times to judge the clearness of the overhead clouds and skies, and decided to risk it and take a ride. Several times.
Each time I'd change into my puke-yellow biking shirt and get set up to ride, the rain would start again.  I'd go back inside, change into a presentable shirt so I could DRIVE (Yuck) into Niota, only to find, once again, the sun was out and brightly shining. 
About the third cycle of such nonsense, I finally decided to risk it and ride instead of drive, and I was miraculously able to make the run without getting soaked.
The route into Niota from the Sherwood homestead is only about 3 miles, but there are lots of fairly steep hills 'twixt here and there.  Thus it involved a lot of huffing and puffing to accomplish this mighty trek in spite of the shortness of the distance.  The altitude here is only around 700-900 feet, so one would think the additional oxygen would make it easy for an old mountain goat.  It is always a bit tougher than I think it should be.  It has nothing to do with my lack of exercise during this trip, with maybe a few hours of riding during a month of driving, har har.
The big city of Niota Tennessee (pop. 718) for some reason does not have a Walmart, the RV'ers favorite venue.  It does, however, have a rather well stocked Dollar General which was my destination for the day.
The roads are paved and not too bad to ride on, until I topped the last small hill approaching the Niota metropolitan city limits.  As I smoked down the hill at 30 MPH, I encountered a fair sized pot hole that thankfully wasn't deep enough to destroy my trike, but at speed it was enough to jar everything and make my teeth rattle.  No wheels bent or blew out, and as far as I know nothing deployed into the shrubbery next to the road, so all was well.
I arrived downtown to the stares of several folks who may well have never before seen such an odd contraption patrolling their streets.  2 or 3 cars with drivers stopped and watched me as I parked the trike and bumped it up onto the sidewalk near the store so I could cable-lock it to the shopping cart rack.  It took me several minutes to get situated, take my helmet off, put on my boonie floppy hat, take a drink of water, and start to enter the store, and only then did several cars finally back out and leave the parking lot.
The store was packed like an old fashioned drug store, with odds and ends clogging every aisle, and I enjoyed my search for my intended and unintended purchases.  Unfortunately they did not stock small propane bottles for camp stoves, so I had to ride farther up the busy street to find a gas station that DID sell such things, and the price made me gasp: $10 for ONE tiny propane bottle.
I did indeed miss my normal $3 or so WalMart pricing.  But pricey or not, it was a successful shopping expedition, and I returned to the RV safe and sound and tired and sweaty.  Humidity is normally high in these parts, and after all the rain it is downright soggy in the air.  Thank goodness for a good shower in the RV.

Ride Started: 1:44 PM    Ride Ended:  3:37 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.0  Ending Voltage: 12.8  Lowest:  12.8
Beginning Blood Glucose:  289   Ending BG Reading: 93
Lowest Temp  71F      Highest Temp:  82F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.4
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
3.1 MPH                                  5.2 MPH                    28.5  MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 30 mins                       1 hour                        20 minutes


Wednesday, August 9, 2017

RV Grandkid Tour 2017 Day 35

Today's Tracking

DATELINE:  Niota, Tennessee (Jessica & Steve's Place)

We're currently visiting our Grandkids Tyler and Katrien.  Beautiful country here in TN, and the air is a bit.... humid.
But that's no big deal when you want to try out a  Rails-to-Trails route not far away.  The Eureka Trail is short but scenic.  It's gravel and mostly flat but other than nature there's not much to look at.  I found the colorful signs along the trail interesting:
"Eat Less Salt in Your Diet"
"Find Exercise"
"Find a Babbling Brook" (Wasn't babbling, but there was a small trickle)
"Tips for Exercise"
"Eat More Vegetables"
All of which seem a bit off the beaten trail, literally speaking.  The only people who can see these signs are already out in  the boonies WALKING or riding the trail and are thus most likely already interested in all the above.  My thought ws these signs of admonition might be better situated in local doughnut shops, 7-11 stores, bars, etc, where people who really need such signs can ignore them.
Only 6 miles of trail here, and every tenth of each mile has a helpful sign along the trail.
Actually this is much improved from when I rode it 2 years ago, when the trail was mostly large rocky gravel and tough to ride, and overgrown to the point of discomfort with bounteous weeds and tree branches.
This happens to be an area smack in the middle of the upcoming Solar Eclipse.  We have already experienced a couple of these in our lifetimes but may linger long enough to see this one too rather than rushing home after 2 months absence.
Grandson Tyler was my guide from here to there and back, me on my Catrike and he on a "normal" upright mountain bike.

Ride Started: 10:55 AM    Ride Ended:  2:44 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.0  Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  13.0 
Beginning Blood Glucose:  120   Ending BG Reading: 57
Lowest Temp  75F      Highest Temp:  82F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.83 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
3.7 MPH                                  6.5 MPH                    27.7  MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
3 hours  45 mins                     2 hours 9 mins          1 hour 36  minutes

Thursday, August 3, 2017

RV Grandkid Tour 2017 Day 29

Most Recent Moving Track for the RV

Well, I haven't kept up this travelogue very well recently.  We are currently parked in the kids' driveway in Wheaton IL where we will be at least for a few more days before departing for other grandkids' residences.
We spent the week previous enjoying the Marshall MI Bluegrass Festival.  For those not in the know, bluegrass festivals involve arriving several days early (Sunday in this case) and just knocking around sorta dry camping (there is usually electric and water available) until the music groups start officially playing onstage on Thursday.  The days leading up to the fest are not totally wasted, as all sorts of "parking lot pickers"  tend to find each other and jam, with the inevitable standup bass fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and one or more guitarists rounding things out.  The occasional dobro player appears, and that is always an enjoyable addition to the riffs run off at unbelievable speed.  Enjoyable, high stepping music, with several of us dancing in the weeds, dirt, or concrete both inside the festival shelter and between RV's as the ad hoc groups start lighting up the sky with their hot licks and lyrics.  Lots of old time songs, many unrecognizable songs written by its performer, and even old country and rock 'n roll songs sung to a lively bluegrass beat.  Great stuff.
Just a couple samples, all the groups were great:




The only slight negative to this week of music enjoyment ws ME.  I started feeling a bit off about the second day, and absolutely miserable by the third day, and then things got UGLY.  After a visit to the local Urgent Care, I was reassured that all I had was a raging UTI, or Urinary Tract Infection.  I have seen others with this infection but until now it had never bothered me.  For those unaware, it means it HURTS and BURNS to PEE !!  And for an old man having to pee a lot, it was indeed an eye opener.  Jacque fed me some Cranberry Juice Extract.  It tasted like cesspool slime and the only benefit I can think of is that after drinking a taste of THAT in the morning, nothing worse can happen to you the rest of the day!
A little research, after the fact as always, discloses there is little to no evidence cranberry juice helps such situations.  The doctor's prescribed horse pills, however, DID work, and I am much better though I have another several days of pills to take morning and night.  Things are flowing normally again, so I am once more a happy camper.
I've been riding the trike on and off around various neighborhoods, but here in IL the tracker does not seem to have contact.