Friday, December 28, 2018

A Tandem Ride - To the Senior Center

It was again a cold (29 Deg), dark, drizzly day today.  However, as usual as of late, the moisture mostly cleared up around midday so we decided to ride our Tandem Terratrike around the block for lunch.  We like the local Senior Center, since we are of legal age, after all, and thus far the fare there has been above reproach.
Today was taco plate day, and what's not to like about that? 
The outside temperature was nothing to be enthused about, hovering close to 29-30 degrees all day, but it wasn't far away and we knew we could survive without bundling up too overly.
I wore only 2 layers:  A sweater inner and a windbreaker outer.  That wasn't too bad, but my insulated gloves were not up to snuff and my pinkies were totally numb by the time we arrived. 
The lunch serving-time was almost over when we walked in but they served us and the food was fine.
Everyone seems to be watching out the doorway when we ride up.  Though no one was outside when we rode up and parked, several of the group inside either commented on our "vehicle" or asked if it was ours and expressing interest.
We didn't stay long, as we had things to do.  We rode round the town square on the way back, safe and unmolested.  Still bitterly cold but dry.

Ride Started:  12:01 PM    Ride Ended:  12:57 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  207     Ending BG: 72  
Lowest Temp  28F      Highest Temp: 30 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  6.17
Distance Walked: .1 
mile
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
5.0 MPH                                   6.2 MPH                    17.4 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
56 
minutes                              30 minutes                  26 minutes

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Six Miles: Somebody Give Me a Medal

Today's Around-Town Tracking


Today started out dark, overcast, foggy, and raining.  No chance for cycling anywhere, unless I was an Arctic Duck.
Howsomever, later in the afternoon the skies had partially cleared and after the large puddles had soaked down into the ground a bit, I decided the time was right to sneak out for a ride.
Since we have had rather few totally dry days here in Missouri, as in none, if I don't ride in narrow windows when possible, I will rarely if ever ride at all.  With my sad state of fitness, that isn't a good modus operandi.
Thus the roads and streets were wet, but my fenders did their work and kept me dry. 
My feet soon began talking to me, so I stopped several times to stand up, walk around a little, and get the blood circulating back down in the feets.  I noticed, again, that one of my tires is starting to show serious wear-marks.
I need to swap out this tire NOW

I'd planned to get in a several-mile ride but, as usual lately, I got started so late that it shortly began to run out of daylight.
I was just past what I hoped for my halfway mark when I realized I didn't have sufficient time left, so I turned the trike toward home.
About this time a few sprinkles began to hit me in the face, and I thought for a while I was going to get a real soaking.... but I only got slightly dampish by the time I got home.
Verdict:  Another short but great ride.

Ride Started:  4:10 PM    Ride Ended:  5:19 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose:  207     Ending BG: 72  
Lowest Temp  46 F      Highest Temp: 50 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  6.17
Distance Walked: .3 miles
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
5.0 MPH                                   6.2 MPH                    17.4 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 14 mins                         59 minutes                  15 minutes

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Gotta Ride When You Can

Today's Tracking in the Soup

Today was mostly spent on the road.... in the Exploder.  We went to Springfield for my latest VA appointment for a circulation test.  In relation to suspected circulation problems that might have been associated with my leg and foot pains, the doctor laid me on the gurney, after having me roll up my sleeves and removing my shoes and socks.
She then attached a compression sleeve to all 4 of my limbs, one at a time, and after attaching a sound transducer to the compressed leg, we could clearly hear my blood pulsing and "whooshing" through the closest artery.  She then pumped up the compression sleeve until the whooshing ceased, indicating blood flow had stopped.  She then relieved the pressure in the cuff until suddenly the pulse was clearly heard again, and she recorded the pressure at which this occurred.  Very much like a blood pressure test, only with audible indication instead of 2 meter readings.  This was done to each arm and leg, and when all 4 were completed, she pronounced the test as "Normal", whatever that is.  Evidently this is evidence I actually do not have any circulation problems in my legs.
Which tests took about 15 minutes and we were out and on our way back.  So no additional pills or treatments were prescribed.... at least for now.   After roaming Sams Club and Walmart, my feet were starting to burn but they cleared up again pretty quickly while sitting in the driver's seat on the way home.
The weather, all day, was not much to brag about.  Not that cold, but very breezy and drippy fog, with low visibility.  We had to run wipers for about half the mileage to Springfield but it had slowed down to almost nothing but fog by the time we got home about 1:00 PM.
After resting up a couple hours, I stepped outside to see how wet it was getting to be.  The surroundings were all soggy and wet, but no rain was falling, so I decided to drag the Catrike out of the garage and ride at least a couple miles.
I first rode the 3/10 of a mile to the nearest hardware store/lumber yard and looked around for wood stoves and accessories.  They didn't have any stoves in stock but the counter guy said he could order one for me and get it in by Monday.  So I had him order one, for a very reasonable price, and rode on.
By then it was getting a bit dark so I hurried on around the back streets of town in hopes of accumulating  a few miles before it got too dark.
I turned on all my available lights, including a colored LED blinky-light string mounted on one of my ham antenna poles. 
I rode around the town square, then around back streets, then half a mile or so along Third St./Business 60.  I ran out of the nice shoulder before I got to the east end of town so I turned around and diverted back on to side streets on the North side of the main drag.  As usual, nobody endangered me and it was a fun ride even though it had gotten almost completely dark by the time I got home. 

Ride Started:  4:10 PM    Ride Ended:  5:14 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose:  207     Ending BG: 72  
Lowest Temp  46 F      Highest Temp: 50 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.00
Distance Walked: .25 miles
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.2 MPH                                   6.2 MPH                    17.3 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
57 minutes                              38 minutes                  18
 minutes

Saturday, December 22, 2018

WOW, to WalMart and Back

Finally Got my Tracker Working!

Since we arrived in Mountain Grove, my trike trips have lacked the ability to be tracked on the internet.  Since ham radio is a bit of a fetish for me, I finally took time to investigate to see what the problem with my radio tracking equipment was.
I found that the GPS line going to the Argentdata  TNC device had only noise, no data, coming out.  The entire assembly had  been sitting outside at our friend's house on Sedillo Hill with only a plastic baggie over it to keep moisture out.  I took the package inside the house to disassemble the pieces and repair or replace whatever was not functioning.  When I pulled the connectors apart I noticed a faint dusty coating on the pins and wondered if that was the problem... a bit of corrosion.  I had other new GPS and adapter units for replacing but I carefully reassembled everything as is just to see if it would now work..... and it did.  Hurrah.
I then saddled up for an "Extra Long" ride today:  Clear on the North side of Mountain Grove to Walmart.  The farthest trike trip I've ridden so far.
This involves riding pretty much the entire height of the limits of Mountain Grove... We live almost on the outer edge of the south side and Walmart is almost the northern city limit of the town.
My route took me along the zigzag course of I-95 through town, with the assorted traffic.  This involves semi trucks and cars and pickups..... the lot of common road traffic.  Fortunately, there really isn't that much traffic in spite of the status as a highway, and all vehicles encountered gave me wide berth as they passed by. 
Temperatures were on the cool side, but it was a sunny day again and it had warmed up from the overnight low 30's of late. 
When I arrived at Walmart, I checked the GPS mileage:  Almost exactly 2 whopping miles.  Big Deal.  But what the Hey.  It's progress, and eventually I'll accumulate some more realistic mileages.
By now my feet were really throbbing and I wished I had taken another nerve pill just before taking off.  Walking around Walmart was quite agonizing and when I got a text from my daughter Sherry in Oklahoma I found an unopened carton of paper towels and pulled it off the shelf to use as a stool to sit on while I was texting Sherry back, taking a load off my feet.
On the way home, I encountered some admirers:  A couple of carloads of women and girls shrieking with laughter at the sight of me.  What's so funny about an old geezer cranking along on a laid-back tricycle with long flagpole antennas, funny helmet with a microphone, and a Walmart bag bungeed on the backside?  I don't get it.....

Riding back home was actually easier on the feets than walking around, and when I got back we immediately went out for a bite to eat, which also involved sitting and thus taking a load off.
So I'm Happy Tonight, No Snow in Sight, not Riding in a Winter Wonderland.

Ride Started:  3:14 PM    Ride Ended:  4:05 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.0 Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  13.0
Beginning Blood Glucose:  187     Ending BG: 76  
Lowest Temp  57 F      Highest Temp: 74 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.98
Distance Walked: .25 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
8.4 MPH                                   8.9 MPH                    25.3 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
30 minutes                              26 minutes                  2
 minutes

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Progress !

I finally got to see a VA doctor.... They never answered any of their MO phone numbers so we drove to Springfield  Wednesday (yesterday) and walked in to the new clinic there without an appointment.  It worked.  Within 20 minutes or so I was referred to a "team" and was prescribed some pills for my  neuropathy foot pain.  They actually seem to help a little, which is great.  I was able to sleep most of the entire night in bed instead of sitting up in the living room.  Wowzers.
We worked on installing a new vanity in our "Master" bathroom today.  Towards the end of the day I started to drive around the corner and across the tracks to pick up some elbow fittings for the pipes.  The weather was getting dodgy but I turned around and parked the SUV and pulled out the Catrike, saddled up and rode IT to the hardware store.  It was so close it hardly even qualifies as a ride, but it was fun to get  out, even with the cold wind and spotty rain trying to bleep out of the foggy weather.
We also rode the Tandem Terratrike to the Senior Center for lunch and a bit of dancing Tuesday, which is almost a mile (Big Whoop) away.  Fun and a bit of exercise, what's not to like?

Ride Started:  4:00 PM    Ride Ended:  4:23 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  122     Ending BG: 76 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  0.8
Distance Walked: 0 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.1 MPH                                   6.8 MPH                    13.5 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 

24 minutes                              7 minutes                    17 minutes

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Another FEW Miles

So yesterday we awoke to pea-soup fog which quickly turned to dripping and then pouring rain...... all day and all night.  The sun never showed its face.
The temperature never got below 45 degrees or so but with 95% humidity it's quite miserable, and unmotivational so far as bike riding is concerned.
Today, however, the sun came out nice and bright.  My legs & feet were still hurting like blazes but most of the pain subsided by about 4 PM and the darkness had not yet encroached so I was able to saddle up and go for another short ride.  My blood glucose has been unusually high with the lack of riding recently so I'm desperate to "get my legs back".
I only made a little over 2 miles again due to increasing cold and dark, but this ride included more uphill and downhill which hopefully helped the circulation a bit.  We'll see.

Ride Started:  4:10 PM    Ride Ended:  4:34 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  220     Ending BG: 130   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  2.55
Distance Walked: 0 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed   

6.4 MPH                                   6.7 MPH                    25.7 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
24 minutes                              23 minutes                 1 minute

Thursday, December 13, 2018

O the Blessed Sunshine

Yesterday Jacque decided it would be a good day to ride the tandem to lunch at the Senior Center.  It was a second day of good sunshine so we rolled the machine out of the garage, loaded ourselves up, and rode our Terratrike Tandem  the 2 miles to the  Senior Center.
We enjoyed a nice chili and baked potato lunch, visited with a couple of our new Missouri friends, and rode back home again.
Thankfully, the streets and roads here are mostly wide and the traffic is of the small town variety and we've encountered no challenges as of yet.
Today, Thursday, we would have loved to ride around again, but the sun did not present itself.  It was dark and thick fog when we awoke, and it turned to rain and mush before noon, and it continued to rain heavily all day.  So today we drove instead.  Obviously we are NOT going to enjoy 300+ days of sunshine out here......
The humidity here so far is difficult to adjust to.  We've been southwest desert rats for so long that it may take us a while.  We spent most of the summer in Tennessee with HOT humidity and now it seems maybe worse here in the early winter.  Everything is so green here:  Part of it in brush and grass and weeds, part of it in fungus.  The ground seems always a bit soggy even after several days of sunshine, unlike NM.
Ride Started:  11:56 AM    Ride Ended:  12:23 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  203     Ending BG: 71   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  2.05
Distance Walked: 0 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.6 MPH                                   5.0 MPH                    14.32 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
36 minutes                             14.4 minutes                  30 minutes

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Old Fart Rides Again

It's been a bit of a while since I last rode enough to post anything about it.
A bit of an update here:  We sold our home in New Mexico and full-timed RV-ing since last December.  It was great to be out from under a mortgage and have a bit of money in the bank and be totally out of debt.
Passing through Missouri last year chanced to find us attending church services in Mountain Grove along route 60.  Jacque fell in love with the place and we even spent a couple days looking at homes for sale with the help of Melinda Grider, a realtor out of West Plains.  We didn't find anything we wanted to bid on so we went on our way.  This year, we stopped through again and Jacque's feelings about the town were even stronger.  I had hoped to spend another winter in the RV in SW Arizona where it rarely freezes and usually offers shirt-sleeve weather in the daytime.  By the time we got to Albuquerque, however, the RV transmission was starting to give trouble and we stopped for a few days with our dear friends in the East Mountains.  I thought we could likely make it to Yuma by taking it easy.  One night I awoke in bed with the strong impression "Do NOT take the RV to AZ with that transmission!"  Next day I pulled the fluid pan from the transmission, bought a new filter and a hundred bucks worth of transmission fluid,, and changed the fluid.  I was shocked to find the pan chock full of metal filings that the transmission had shed while it was self destructing.
New fluid and filter improved the transmission not at all, so we took it to Rich Ford with an estimate of $4500 for a new transmission, labor and all.
(I asked them to do the brakes while they had it.  By the time they were done, the bill was $7500 and change and they had only done the REAR brakes.  Thank goodness the new tranny is doing well.  We will no longer patronize Rich Ford even if we break down in NM again.)
It took a couple weeks for them to even begin the work, and a couple more weeks to do the work, so we used the time to hit the road back east toward Mountain Grove, where we bought ourselves a house.  Using the proceeds from the sale of our NM house, we were able to buy an older house in liveable shape and still remain debt free.
Well, with all the packing and moving and traveling back and forth, I have not ridden a pedal-powered machine since October.
The lifting and loading and unloading have been extremely hard on my old joints.  I have largely been crippled up with painful feet and legs, and the onset of winter has been so cold I haven't been able to even repair the flat tire on my  trike, reassemble the stuff we removed in order to haul it all the way to MO, etc.
A few days ago I was able to put a new tube in my rear tire and reinflate it.  The weather was still bitter and my legs/feet get so tired with only short periods of standing and walking.
Today, however, the sun came out nicely and warmed things up considerably, even above the freezing level.  With a couple of long rest breaks I was able to remount the rear wheel, reattach the panniers, etc.
I took it for a short ride down the street and was dismayed to find the front derailleur  cable was frozen up, likely with a bit of rust since it had been parked out in the open in NM while we were waiting for the RV to escape from the shop.
It took quite a bit of WD-40 and spray grease to get the shifter working again, but I was finally able to get it going and out on the road for a few miles.
A VERY few miles, indeed.... a little over 2 to be exact, but it was great to be able to rip around under my own power again and feel the wind in my face.
There is little cycling here - we have only seen a couple of cyclists in the 2 months we've been here - and I'm certain no one locally has ever seen recumbent trikes before.  I certainly received some strange looks riding around town but had no trouble with the traffic I did encounter.
There is also no Ham Radio APRS coverage in this area, so I am unable to post a link to my GPS map of the day's ride.  Hopefully within a short time I can get my own APRS station set up so myself and others can get their positions logged to the Internet.
Since I'm still so hobbled up from moving and out of shape from not riding, today's outing was short indeed.  But it seemed to help the circulation in my legs.
Since returning home my legs are tired, for sure, but they are not as painful as they have been this last couple weeks.  We'll see if I can get some sleep tonight with hopefully better circulation reducing the neuropathic pain in my legs.

Ride Started:  3:17 PM    Ride Ended:  3:32 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  187     Ending BG: 51 
(Lowest Blood Glucose for me in a Month) 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  2.17
Distance Walked: 0 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
7.1 MPH                                   7.3 MPH                    17.0 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
18 minutes                             17 minutes                  1/2 minutes



Friday, October 12, 2018

Up Hill, Down Dale

Today's Tijeras Tracking

So it's been 9 days since I rode anywhere under my own steam.  Been too busy to stay healthy, as they say.  Since today there wasn't much else to distract me, I hitched up the dog BOB trailer, saddled myself up, and got in  a few miles.
And paid for it....
9 days is certainly too long between exercise sessions.  Yes, I've tired myself out heaving Air Conditioners and tools up and down the roof of the RV, split a few hundred pounds of firewood for our hosts etc, but unsustained non-aerobic tiredness does not produce the same results as a good bike ride.  Measureable results such as lowered blood glucose for 24 hours or more, for instance.
Today I decided we (the doggies and I) would ride down to the sleepy village of Tijeras and back.
It was  a nice cool but often sunny day, and the weather forecast calls for possible rain or even SNOW over the weekend.  So perhaps I was able to beat the weather.  However, the ride beat ME since I am so out of shape.
It's not all downhill from Sedillo Hill to Tijeras, so I was a bit winded by the time I pulled in to the Tijeras City Hall.  I chose there to stop and rest and walk the dogs and turn around since there is very little traffic there, the parking lot is huge behind the fire station building, and thus lots of room to both park and walk the dogs.  Several local passers-by admired the dogs, of course, and I was able to get some circulation back into my feet by walking around with them.
If I thought the somewhat downhill ride to Tijeras was tiresome, it got rather worser on the way back to Sedillo Hill.  The grades are not terrible, but they do drag on, and I had to stop several times to stand up, get some circulation back in the feet, and even took my shoes off at one point and massaged my feet to get some relief.  My diabetes is slowly catching up to me and no doubt aggravating neuropathy in my feet.  I guess they's just fall off or rot if I didn't exercise them at all..... BAH
I got back to the RV just in time to take the gas-burning Explorer to pick up Jacque from her friend's house where they'd been sewing and hoo-hawing all day, thence to Grandson Jonathan's house where we are currently babysitting him with great gusto.  He went to bed peaceably a half hour or so ago but has not succumbed to the Sand-Man as of yet.  He keeps humming the Star Wars grand entry soundtrack amongst other noises.  This little apple did not fall far from the tree, as his dear Mommy was much the same when she was a wee toddler too.
Ride Started:  12:24 PM    Ride Ended:  3:48 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.4 Ending Voltage: 12.7  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  187     Ending BG: 62  
(Ate before riding;   insulin pump basal rate 50% for this ride)
Lowest Temp  60 F      Highest Temp: 67 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  14.48
Distance Walked: .8 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.2 MPH                                   6.3 MPH                    27.1 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
3 hours 24 mins                     2 hours  17 mins        1 hour 7 minutes

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

RV = Repair Vehicle?

We are currently encamped at Sedillo Hill near Edgewood NM.  We would have moved on by now in our travels but the transmission started acting strangely as we entered New Mexico and got worse as we approached the East Mountains just shy of Albuquerque.  When slowing for a stop, the engine would shudder and die, and we soon realized the torque converter was staying locked instead of unlocking at low speeds.  We limped into our wonderful friends' yard and found the Ford shop (our Bounder is built on a Ford F53 truck chassis) would not be able to entertain our problems until almost 2 weeks away.
THEN, while enjoying our friends' hospitality (and driveway), on a warm afternoon several days ago, when we turned the air conditioner on, instead of cold air, all we got was a terrific growling noise.  The A/C had been balky and I had lubed the bearings on the fan motor several times over the last couple years, and apparently now had burned out completely.  Calling around to various suppliers revealed another heavy outlay would be required.  An RV, with its relatively thin walls, cannot survive warm days without Air Conditioning.  Or at least its Occupants cannot, including yours truly.
I was able to man-handle the removal and installation by myself, with the help of tools, of course.
The entire roof mount assembly must weigh over 100 pounds which I could barely lift except one end at a time.  I used one of our stout cargo-straps to lower the dead unit over the side of the RV and down to the ground, very slowly and carefully.  Using  a dolly I was able to maneuver it across the yard.  The Central Trailer Supply where I purchased the replacement had several "exact replacement" units in the warehouse and the worker used an electric forklift to load it into my SUV.  Back at the defunct RV again, I unboxed the expensive gadget.  It was mounted on a small wooden pallet.  I borrowed my friend's extension ladder and extended it as far as possible to lean against the roof of the RV to provide a sloping ramp.  I again used another cargo strap to armstrong the new unit up to the roof:  VERY slowly with a lot of grunting and groaning and hoping not to lose my grip.  It all worked, I finally hoisted it over the edge onto the rooftop, and no cuts or abrasions to either the A/C unit or ME.
I was dismayed, after all this effort, to find this "exact replacement" had no bolts or screws or anything else to facilitate installation, AND the existing hardware from the previous unit did NOT fit.
The electrical hookup and connector were the same, thankfully, and I was able to turn it on and find that it blew HARD and COLD, just like it should.  But bolting it down...... had to wait for morning to go back to the supply house.  BAH
I refuse to disclose the exact amount of damage to my checking account, but this incidence does remind me of the similarities between RV owners and Boat owners:  B.O.A.T. often stands for Break Out Another Thousand.  We await the expense of the transmission repair with great trepidation.
I have already crawled underneath and around the engine and transmission compartments looking for vacuum leaks and loose wires.  I have found and repaired several chewed vacuum hoses, rat-chewed wires, etc, and still the problems persist.  I sure hope the Ford Shoppe can use their analyzer skills to solve the problem, hopefully without a rebuilt or new transmission.
The weather is approaching winter conditions with overnight temperatures dropping to the low 40's and requiring heater usage.  We hope to be able to abscond to southern Arizona before it really deteriorates to dangerous freezing temperatures.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Stretch Them Tired Legs

Today's Tracking via Ham Radio and GPS

It doesn't take too many days off before I lose my mocho, as fellow cyclists well know.
I've failed to motivate myself to ride the last few days, but today I had a birthday card to mail, so I used that for an excuse to saddle up and go.
Since the Edgewood Post Office is over 5 miles away, and right on Old Route 66, it was a fairly obvious choice.
Trouble is, Route 66 rarely gets the maintenance attention since it was deleted off federal maps with the onslaught of the small-town-killing Interstate highway system.  There are parts of 66 through Tijeras Canyon that have really nice wide smooth pavement, but here  close to Edgewood NM, not so much.
The hill going upward toward Edgewood from the Barton Valley is particularly bad, with "new" pavement that seems rougher than the old asphalt that it now covers.  Even driving over it in  a car is rough, but on the trike it was really bad.  Add that to the fact the shoulder completely disappears with leftover asphalt rubble blobs, and it is close to half a mile of bounce and jostle.... I made it both ways, so I should stop whining about it.
It actually rained pretty hard yesterday, Tuesday, and the roads today were a bit water soaked yet.  Which made for a cooler day in spite of the bright sunshine.
My rubbery legs, however, did begin to "speak" to me.  They survived, though, with a couple extra water breaks, and that's the important part of the good news.

Ride Started:  12:01 PM    Ride Ended:  2:19 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.8 Ending Voltage: 12.7  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  134     Ending BG: 116  
(Ate before riding;   insulin pump basal rate 30% for this ride)
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp: 75 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.96
Distance Walked: .7 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
5.2 MPH                                   6.8 MPH                    33.35 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours 18 mins                      1 hour  45 mins          33 minutes

Saturday, September 29, 2018

It's Saturday, Must be New Mexico

We arrived back in NM Thursday afternoon, after departing Amarillo about 9 AM the same day.
The weather has been nice & dry here.  The Tennessee Daughter Jess tells us it has rained buckets there since we left, so the relative aridity has been nice.
And here it is Saturday and I'm itching to ride so I finally saddled up to take a bit of a ride.  Aren't you proud of me, dear reader?  Never Mind......
It was 44 degrees this morning, and it felt COLD, especially as compared to sub tropical Tennessee.
I slathered up with sun-block since the atmosphere is clearer and at 6500+ feet altitude the insolation is higher than we've experienced in the last few months.
But, by the time I finally got saddled up to ride away, it was already in the 60's and I did not have to layer up with the windbreaker I carry in the big pannier next to the LiFePO4 electronics battery and a bunch of other stuff I dare not leave home without.
I decided to ride over and see my closest grandson Jonathan, which is only a few miles from where our RV is currently parked.  Route 66 is the linking passage between us and has a fairly wide shoulder most of the way.  From our perch on Sedillo Hill to the Barton Valley where young Jon resides with his parents is mostly downhill so that direction was a fairly easy ride and even required some mild braking action to maintain stability.  I thought to myself "We'll see how much fun it's going to be coming UP that hill on the way back."
Had a great visit with Jonathan and parents, even being fed a tasty Orange Cinnamon Roll.  Jon is only 3+ years old but is a big talker now.  He used to be a very strict Mama's Boy but today he came outside - ALONE with Grandpa - to look at Grandpa's Trike He  Rode In On.  He even sat in Grandpa's lap in the trike seat but decided he DIDN'T want to actually go for a ride.  Fun Guy.
After a few more howdy-doos, I saddled up and rode back up hill to "home".... the parked RV.
The uphill ride was less of a struggle than I had anticipated.  Guess I haven't 'lost my legs' yet.

Ride Started:  8:32 AM    Ride Ended:  10:29 AM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  146     Ending BG: 77 (Orange Roll Consumed at Grandson's)  
(Ate Breakfast before riding;   insulin pump basal rate 50% for this ride)
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  7.94
Distance Walked: .7 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
3.5 MPH                                  6.0 MPH                     31.8 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hours 57 mins                     1 hour  8 mins             48 minutes

Friday, September 14, 2018

Going to the Dawgs

Today's Tracking Courtesy of McMinn County Radio Club

We took the day off yesterday.  At least I did.  Jacque busted her chops, or at least her right arm and shoulder, at her therapy clinic yesterday while I ran some errands, like trash, stamps, birthday cards, gas, ice, and such-like RV essentials.
Today we were back in  the saddles again.  Jacque normally takes both doggies in her dual rear baskets, but today I wanted to share in the glory.  Thus I hitched up my trike trailer and took the noisy one (Lilly) with me.


Actually, both dogs have recently been noisy on trike rides.  Even though they love to come with us and throw squall-eyed fits when we leave them behind,  they get restless and grumpy being restricted to passenger status on the trikes.  But they're fun anyway, and we don't find "accidents" on the floor when they're riding with us instead of stuck at home in the RV.
Today we retraced our ride from last time:  5 miles to the Eureka Rail-Trail entry.   BUT, this time we did not actually ride the entirety of the trail.  Jacque got there before I did (she left 20 minutes before I did) and rode the half-mile triangular loop around the entry park.  I merely used the public facility (i.e., OutHouse) before turning around for the ride home.  On the way, we were forced to stop for a yard sale (Because there was a sign for a yard sale) where we enjoyed a short visit with strangers and spent a few bucks.
I finally encountered a roadneck, er, redneck, this trip.  I was headed slowly up a short hill on a stretch of road with no shoulders and this black primered pickup came up behind me just as a car in the oncoming lane was fast approaching.  Never touching his brake, primo-pickup roared around me, barely missing a head-on collision with the oncoming car.  My so called Christian Attitude was strained during this episode, but thankfully he didn't endanger me  as much as he did himself and the  oncoming car.
Tennessee weather is slowly cooling, though the humidity index remains high even when it's "low".
Today wasn't too bad, even though it was a couple degrees warmer than the last 2 days.
One red truck turned out on the roadway, heading toward me, slowing down as though to talk to me.
NOPE.  All he was doing was filming Lilly and me with his cell phone.  HAH

Ride Started:  10:46 AM    Ride Ended:  1:17 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.0 Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  12.5
Beginning Blood Glucose:  188     Ending BG: 132 (Cookies Consumed along the Way)  
(Ate Breakfast before riding;   insulin pump basal rate 50% for this ride)
Lowest Temp  75 F      Highest Temp: 82 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.84
Distance Walked: .3 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.3 MPH                                  6.9 MPH                     29.7 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours 31 mins                    1 hour  33 mins            57 minutes

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Eureka! Overdid it Today

Today's Extensive Tracking courtesy of Tennessee Ham Radio

I ALMOST took a day off riding today, but Jacque decided to ride and I can't let her go do her own thing, right?  So we both rode.  Rode hard and put away wet, to coin a phrase....
The Athens Eureka Trail is a project in process, with about 4 miles of completed rail-to-trail accomplished with a fine gravel surface.  A few years ago when I first rode it solo, the trail was very rough, with weeds growing high straight through the 2-3" rock gravel surface.  I rode a couple miles of it then and gave up.
A week ago I rode a few miles of it again, long enough to lose my cell phone, and happily recovered it when Jacque and I returned to look for it and encountered a lovely couple who had it in hand and were frantically calling every number in it trying to track us down.
Where we are now encamped with our RV it is only a few miles of country road to the Eureka trailhead so we decided to ride all the way instead of trucking the trikes and then riding them.
The ensuing mileage turned out to be a bit more than we  had bargained for, and we wound up wishing we HAD trucked the trikes  so we could end the ride, cool off, and replenish our consumed carbs.  But we had ridden out  thus far and thus..... had to ride all the way back again.
We started out innocently enough, along a low traffic road, but then we encountered TN 307, which turned out to have a LOT of fairly high speed traffic on it, with no shoulders or bike lane.  Howsomever, the drivers we encountered coming up behind us were unfailingly courteous, several times creeping along behind us while we chugged up hills with no room for them to pass.  In New Mexico I have encountered several near-disasters where impatient drivers passed us at high speed with ONCOMING traffic and nowhere to dodge each other, but here in backwoods TN drivers seem to be able to tolerate mild delays and they bunched up behind us, never honking or giving any one-finger salutes, and passing only when sufficient room was encountered.  I pulled off at all possible places where I had a solid surface to stop the trike off the road, but still blocked traffic for quite a ways.  When we finally arrived at the trailhead, we had gone almost 5 miles up hill and down dale and likely should have just turned around and called it a good 10 mile ride.  But we wanted to ride on the Real Eureka Trail, so we did.
Now, as noted before, it has been lengthened and upgraded, with a crusher-fine sandy road surface, few weeds, lots of big tree leaves, but quite level and shaded much of the route.  It runs from Athens TN toward Englewood TN along an old rail line.  The only remaining traces of railway are a few rotted railroad ties strewn among the trees along the path, a few concrete rail mile markers, and a sign or two:
Here at "Mashburn Station", the only evidence of a rail station I could see was the sign itself.  There's a home here next to an old falling-down barn familiar to much of backwoods Tennessee, but nothing resembling railroad stuff.  Whatever, at this point the end of the trail is only a bit over a mile away.  Eventually the trail is to be extended "Clear to Englewood", but that is only a couple more miles of trail.  Hopefully more of the abandoned railway will eventually be converted to TTT (Tennessee Triking Trail).
One of the nicest things about this trail - and many of the midwest trail projects - is the number of God's Air Conditioners (Tall trees providing wonderful shade) along the way.
Jacque turned around about 2 miles short of the end of the trail, but I wanted to finally actually ride the entire length, though short.    So I kept going and, as a result, Jacque got miles ahead of me on the return ride "home".
There's a few rather steep hills just as you get close to the Sherwood Estate, and we both had to stop a few extra times for breathers even though we were very close to the "finish line".
Almost 20 miles today, with Jacque making at least 16.  She's getting stronger already and isn't as easy to catch up to and pass any more.  Hopefully her newly repaired shoulder will get just as strong soon.

Ride Started:  9:19 AM    Ride Ended:  1:23 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.2
Beginning Blood Glucose:  140     Ending BG: 48  
(No Breakfast before riding;   insulin pump basal rate 50% for this ride)
Lowest Temp  71 F      Highest Temp: 84 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  19.56
Distance Walked: .8 miles 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.8 MPH                                  6.3 MPH                     26.6 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
4 hours 5 mins                      3 hours 5 mins            59 minutes