Friday seems to usually be the only day Jacque and I can ride together, so today we rode together.
Since the Tandem Terratrike hadn't been ridden for a while, I topped off the air pressure in each tire.
The tires, I noticed, are getting a bit on the worn side, and should soon be replaced.
We started after noon, and since neither of us had eaten lunch, we decided to ride first to Old Town and dine there. We've eaten before at the Quesadilla Grill on the Old Town Plaza, and there are outside tables where they allow our doggies to sit with us, so we again feasted there. They've changed to a buffet dining methodology and we really enjoyed it, though it was a tad pricey. This is entirely understandable since Balloon Fiesta just began, seemingly driving up prices all over town for everything from food to gasoline.
As we exited the Old Town Plaza and rode west on Mountain Road, we were followed closely by a white car hanging right behind us for a half mile or more. Even though this "bicycle boulevard" has a speed limit of 18 MPH favoring bicycles, most cars zoom around us in such situations. This car stayed behind us in spite of several opportunities to pass, and when she finally passed us, this was the result:
The forecast called for high winds, and it was gusting quite heavily by the time we left, but as noted before, riding low and slow and close to the ground on recumbents lessens the effect of wind. It did buffet us a bit and slow us down somewhat at times, but not terribly so.
We have learned the fun of getting off the paved straight-north-and-south multiuse path in favor of the twisting and turning of the backwoods gravel trails between there and the Rio Grande, and most of our ride today was in such pleasant paths:
We rattled around and totally enjoyed ourselves. We were surprised how high the water was in the Rio Grande. A few weeks ago we had parked and walked across a sandbar maybe 100 yards wide to reach the river, and today the sandbar was under water, with a narrow spit of it showing out in the middle of the river.
The heavy shade and foliage of all the trees in this section of the Bosque both provided shade and protection from the howling winds overhead. Very nice riding.
I was a bit more tired than usual today and considered shortening our trike time but was surprised to see we had exceeded 10 miles.
As we approached the last 100 yards before getting back to our parked gas-burning vehicle, the slight grade caused me to downshift so we could pull the grade with tired legs, and POW! The rear chain separated, leaving us unable to pedal the last bit of distance. We had to dismount, unload, and hand-push the trike to its destination.
We were AMAZED the chain "chose" to break so close to the end of our ride. What if it had come unglued out in the middle of the bosque?? God is Good !
Ride Started: 1:29 PM Ride Ended: 4:50 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0 Ending Voltage: 12.9 Lowest: 12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose: 239 Ending BG Reading: 145
Lowest Temp 75F Highest Temp: 78F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 11.29
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.6 MPH 6.2 MPH 13.6 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
2 hours 26 mins 1 hour 48 mins 38 minutes
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