10 Miles of Soggy

Today's spotty tracking

Sappy Alert:  I just had to share this shot of Lilly peering out from behind the RV's front windshield curtain.  She loves to perch up there, even in the hottest sun, so she can oversee all activity outside, and assert the tiny-dog bark alarm when she spots activity of any sort.

No biking over the weekend or Monday, yesterday.  I did get in some non-aerobic exercise chopping up a couple of stumps and dragging various tree limbs etc. during our Mormon Pioneer Day service project for a local bedridden sister.  I got several comments about the amount of work I seem to be able to do "in spite of my age".  I suppose I might even be the oldest guy at the last couple of work parties but I'm certainly not in the best of shape.  Cycling is great aerobic exercise and I love it,  but it doesn't build up or maintain upper body strength.  Saturday I did quite a bit of axe swinging, cutting a couple of stumps down closer to the ground, which seemed to really impress some of the guys for some reason.  I myself definitely notice I'm not as strong as I was 20 years ago, and suffer longer after such labors because my muscles and joints are not bullet-proof any more.  The next day was Sunday, a day of rest from "normal" labors, and a day for pain pills to alleviate my sore arms and elbows.  But all that soreness was pretty much gone by Monday morning, when we went back up to the Sherwood complex on the shores of Watts Bar Lake to spend a day with the Sherwood grandkids.
We don't see enough of these guys and we were a bit apprehensive about being able to "entertain" them for the several hours we'd be alone with them.  It turned out to be a great day with a couple of great youngsters.  Cheerful and friendly, no griping about being bored, smiles and laughter only.  Jacque floated around in the water and swam, immensely enjoying the pain relief with her sore shoulder bouyed in the water, and spent a lot of time bobbing around with the grand daughter.  We both spent a bit of time in the kayaks which are great fun and good "Upper Body" exercise.

The 15-year old grandson is quite self sufficient and requires little attention.  He's a fanatic fisherman and had caught his own breakfast and eaten it before we even arrived.  He spent most of the day showing off his skills at fly fishing, swimming and splashing around in the water like a 6 foot whale.  A fun dude.
We took them out to eat Chinese on the way to their home and were sad to drop them off for the night.  We will do better about arranging time to spend with them and our other neglected grandchildren.
So.  This morning awoke as Tuesday and, even though it rained last night for a half hour or so, I wanted to get in a few miles on the trike to try to keep my "girly figure" in check.
My new front fenders alleviated any fears about slop and mud covering my like the last time I rode on wet roads.  I got sprinkled on just a wee bit but mostly the ride was almost dry, with no puddles encountered with which to test the fender functionality.  The humidity is always high around here, and it was even more humid today, but the temperature was low enough to make it quite livable.
I passed 2 or 3 local county sheriff deputies today.  I keep half expecting one of them to someday pull over and warn me to find somewhere else to ride.  No such thing so far.  They look at me as they pass but no hassles or even comments thus far.
Ride Started: 8:08 AM    Ride Ended:  9:38 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose:  126     Ending BG: 128  
(No breakfast;  insulin pump basal rate cut back to 70% for the ride)
Lowest Temp  71 F      Highest Temp: 71 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.54 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
7.9 MPH                                 9.0 MPH                     21.0 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 27 mins                       1 hour 17 mins            10 minutes

Spring City. Front Fenders!

On Friday, I decided to take my life in my hands and ride north on 27 to Spring City.  It's only a few miles away but I've previously avoided riding that direction because the wonderfully wide road shoulder going the other way disappears just this side of Spring City.  On a recent drive into Spring City in the Ford Exploder, I noticed in spite of the lack of a wide shoulder, the roadway was still a nice wide divided 4-lane, with a wide median in between the 2 wide lanes on either side.  I also noticed the right lane of the roadway was wide enough to allow a car to pass me on the trike even if sharing the same lane.  Dangerous, but not impossible.
The power cable on my GPS/Radio pod had broken on one of the wires, so I had no radio to provide telemetry data for this ride.  After I got into Spring City, I realized the Garmin 350 had an internal battery, and maybe it would last long enough to record data for the rest of the ride.  So I turned it on for the return trip and indeed it did.
Spring City is a lovely little bitty town, with a surprisingly large Ace Hardware store along with several restaurants, stores of varying success, and a Piggly Wiggly, of all things.
Of course, as with towns large and small all across the country, there are too many boarded up buildings that used to house viable businesses.
After riding around the village exploring (there are at least 6 churches there and the total population is barely 2000), I rode back to the parked transfer vehicle, the Exploder.  My suspicions about the safety of the roadway proved correct:  Many vehicles passed me safely, including several semis and other trucks, and even a couple of logging trucks.  All of whom gave me a wide berth, turning into the other lane long before passing me.
Yesterday, Saturday, I received a set of front fenders for the Catrike I ordered a few days ago from an Ebay seller.  They needed to mount on the kingpins of the front axle, and my early version of this Catrike Road lacked the top bolts and caps necessary to attach them.  A trip to the Ace Hardware resulted in a purchase of 2 expansion plugs to use for mounting inserts in the tubular kingpins.
I had to do a lot of carving and cutting to get them reduced in size sufficiently to fit inside the kingpins, but I'm quite tickled with the final result.  They  even match the sole rear fender:  Shiny black.

Ride Started: 7:20 AM    Ride Ended:  8:19AM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  133     Ending BG: 198 
(No breakfast;  insulin pump basal rate cut back to 60% for the ride)
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.34 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
7.9 MPH                                 8.4 MPH                     13.0 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour  2 mins                        1 hour 2 mins             2 minutes

Just Another Morning Ride

Today's Tracking via James KK4BYX

Just another 12 miles of Tennessee Route 27 today.  Very nice and cool riding this early in the morning.
Nothing interesting to report.  My usual turnaround point just past the 5 mile mark is just past the turnoff road leading to the Rhea County Fairgrounds.  Just to take a peek, I rode the quarter mile across the railroad tracks to see what the fairgrounds look like.  I was quite underwhelmed.
I found only what appeared to be a few acres enclosed for a fairgrounds.  No RV sites were visible anywhere, and the infrastructure appeared to be a single large stock shed and a small arena with bleachers.  A lived-in-looking trailer house sat next to the barn/shed and someone had started mowing ..... a largely full time occupation here in the fertile lands of Tennessee, largely stolen from the Cherokee Nation under the inept administration of President Martin van Buren.
I shouldn't mention it, not wanting to disturb the space/time equilibrium balance, but I haven't experienced a flat tire in several weeks now.  I have topped the tires off with the huff-puff hand pump a couple times, but no flats --- yet.
I'm still fiddling with my  insulin pump settings for trying to lose a couple inches from my belly tire that pooches out when I sit down.  Riding the trike more than a few miles results in various stages of insulin shock the rest of the day and night following so I have to reduce my basal rate both before and after each ride.  There are no hard and fast data for such settings.  Lots of diabetics are active in sports and riding and long term exertions, and all deal with it in varying ways.  My blood glucose seems to maintain better control if I eat something before riding, but my weight tends to stay the same.  Cutting back on insulin levels should help me control my appetite, be less hungry, etc, but so far I haven't noticed much of that.

Ride Started: 7:08 AM    Ride Ended:  8:38AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.8 Ending Voltage: 12.7  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  133     Ending BG: 198 
(No breakfast;  insulin pump basal rate cut back to 60% for the ride)
Lowest Temp  66 F      Highest Temp: 66 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  12.34 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
8.6 MPH                                 9.1 MPH                     19.4 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 26 mins                       1 hour 21 mins            5 minutes

Riding Through the Jungle

Today's Partial Tracking via Ham Radio

Today's morning ride was just a duplication of yesterday, except for starting a bit earlier.
I also failed to encounter any mule-drawn wagons or horseback riders.
Boring rides are good, too.... though it's very difficult to get bored riding under your own steam.
I did get  a short shot of one of the frequent choo-choo trains that run parallel to the highway.

I picked a threatening looking piece of wire off the road shoulder this morning, only to find it was actually an Iphone cigarette lighter charger and cord.  AND, it turned out to be a WORKING unit.  We are always needing another charger for the RV or the car.  Freebies are welcome.
The other stuff I picked off the roadway this morning consisted of large tire chunks and cardboard boxes lying flattened or intact along the way.

Ride Started: 7:00 AM    Ride Ended:  8:22 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.7  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  142      Ending BG: 104
(No breakfast;  insulin pump basal rate cut back to 50% for the ride)
Lowest Temp  64 F      Highest Temp: 67 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.49 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
8.6 MPH                                 9.1 MPH                     18.3 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 20 mins                       1 hours 15 mins            4 minutes

Smoky Mountains in the Shade

Today's Tracking Thanks to KK4BYX, N4YH, and W4KCO

Last night, Monday, I was tempted to try a trike ride in the lengthy dusk - a nicely lighted sky lasts at least a couple hours after the sun goes down behind the trees on the horizon.  BUT, since it was Monday, and normally time for Family Home Evening, I talked Jacque into letting me massage her feet.  She didn't put up much of a struggle.
So, this morning, Tuesday, I decided to try riding early - before the sun got up above the tree line - and drove the Exploder down to the junction of Highway 68 and 27 and saddled up the trike and rode from there. 
I've mentioned before that Highway 68 is a busy busy road with lots of logging and other large trucks all traveling over the speed limit.... AND there is no shoulder.  Vehicles approaching a cyclist or other SLOW moving vehicle must slow down and wait for oncoming traffic to clear before going around.... or run  over the offending slowpoke.  I prefer not to give them such a horrible choice.... having to slow down is a criminal offence, after all.  So I ride other roads and especially route 27, which has wonderfully wide shoulders all the way to Dayton TN.
On today's ride I hadn't gone more than a couple miles before I spotted a mule-drawn wagon coming the other way.  We had seen this rig a couple days ago and I wanted to hear their story, so I rode on until I found a crossover between the 4 lanes and turned around and chased them down.  One of the few vehicles I have easily outrun.   These mules were in no danger of overheating, just slowly plodding along.  A middle aged Tennessean was driving the contraption and two teenage young men were accompanying him on separate horses.  The teenager in the rear was pleased to see me as I rode up behind them, but his horse was severely spooked by my trike with its waving bike flags and clicking chain and weird driver (me).  The youngster laughed and stayed mounted in spite of his horse rearing and shying from me.  I pulled up alongside the wagon so I could talk to the driver and keep the wagon between me and the skittish horse.  The mules pulling the wagon took no notice of me whatsoever.
The bearded driver was all smiles and answered my questions about his rig and purposes:  "Ah have 7 days off work and we're just ridin' around enjoying life.  We live just back thar a little ways."  We exchanged Howdy's and I sped on around  them after making sure I had a gap in the traffic behind me.  Then I found another crossover and turned back around to complete my 10-mile goal for the morning.  Blast. I shoulda gotten a picture to post.
Very pleasant riding this early... A few friendly beeps from passing cars and no rowdies encountered.  It was cloudy and cooler than usual for this time of day and the sun wasn't up high enough to scorch me anyway.  I noticed a couple of downed trees I hadn't noticed before.  At church on Sunday another attendee who is a local mail carrier mentioned he had encountered several areas with obvious tornado damage from the Friday night storm.  These downed trees were likely just victims of high winds during the storm.

Ride Started: 7:38 AM    Ride Ended:  8:51 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.0 Ending Voltage: 12.2  Lowest:  12.2
Beginning Blood Glucose:  111      Ending BG: 164
(No breakfast;  insulin pump basal rate cut back to 50% for the ride)
Lowest Temp  68 F      Highest Temp: 68 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.08 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
9.2 MPH                                 9.8 MPH                     18.5 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 12 mins                       1 hours 7 mins            4 minutes

Country Riding

Miniature Burros and Horses in the Backwoods

We recently found some side roads that have very little, if any, truck traffic.  Which makes it much more enjoyable and less stressful to explore the area on the recumbent Catrike .
Yesterday, while driving around looking for a place to ride, I found a TVA-administered camping/picnic area called Jackson Island.  It's located right on the Tennessee River and a bit crowded with campers rich and mostly poor, but very pretty.
The backwoods around here closely resemble the Estancia and McIntosh areas of New Mexico... lots and lots of abandoned properties with rotted-out and burned-out RV's and mobile homes left to deteriorate in the open weather.  Small towns are like NM as well..... mostly boarded-up and closed businesses.   Very sad to see so many defunct gas stations, collapsing barns, and used-to-be businesses with waist-high weeds choking the parking lots.  Charles Kuralt said it true when he commented that the US Freeway System created long travels "with not a thing to see".  We all miss old route 66 and route 60 and 54, highway 85 running north and south through NM, with small businesses and small towns dotting the landscape all along the way.  On the one hand, we're happy to not be forced to drive through places like Budville with its acres of rusting cars snatched off the highway because some poor family ran out of gas and left their car for more than a few hours, and no one misses having to creep through Albuquerque's Central Avenue going from Amarillo to LA.  On the other, the ONLY businesses that survive freeway conditions are the mega-corporations and Walmarts.  The freeway rules forbid having multiple points of entry where small time businesses could lure motorists off the road.  Changes come with both good and bad consequences, unfortunately.
I got in relatively short rides yesterday and today, but as usual, even a short ride is better than nothing.

Yesterday's Ride:
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.42 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.8 MPH                                 5.3 MPH                     18.6 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
47 minutes                             38 minutes                  4 minutes

Today's Ride:
Ride Started: 9:41 AM    Ride Ended:  10:47 AM
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.34 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.5 MPH                                 6.6 MPH                     26.1 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
57 minutes                              37 minutes                  18 minutes

Tennessee Whiskey

Today's Surprisingly Good Tracking via Ham Radio APRS

Today's title is solely a ringer to attract attention.  My recent activities have nothing to do with whiskey but a lot to do with Tennessee.
We parked for a few enjoyable days at Steve & Jess's lake resort.  Tagging along on a couple of their powerboat rides was more than fun.  Steve is 40-something and does amazing acrobatics with his wakeboard... Stuff that most young punks would  be reluctant to try.  We  then on  and parked more permanently (more than a week is quasi-permanence for us nowadays) at Bitner's RV Park along Route 68 not far from  Spring City.  I've gotten in several good rides in the last week or so but the ham radio coverage is a bit spotty so my tracking has been less than useful.  I was shocked, SHOCKED today to find my entire ride had good tracking points from the system along the way.
Where we're parked now is a lovely area, but TN highway 68 is a two-lane road with no shoulder, populated with heavy traffic and heavy trucks routing around the Tennessee River and Watts Bar lake, including especially the big, noisy, and dangerous logging trucks hauling ratty looking logs back and forth to various processing facilities.  All my life I have heard stories about how dangerous loaded logging trucks are, and how they can unexpectedly dump their loads when a chain or restraint breaks and the load of logs pressed tightly together "explode" onto the roadway, crushing anything within range .  I've never seen it happen, but I've heard about it over and over, and I refuse to ride on a road with no shoulders with those big boys popping up every few minutes.
So, instead of arising early and getting in a shady early morning ride, I've been loading up the trike on the Ford Exploder and hitching a ride with Jacque driving me the 4 miles to nearby Route 27, which is a 4-lane divided highway with wonderful wide shoulders.
I've ridden this highway back and forth for 3 days  now and, though a bit boring since it is mostly flat and straight and not much changes from day to day, at least it's still a nice safer area to ride and get my legs limbered up.
I've had to do a bit of work on the trike recently.  I mentioned before about my front derailleur shifter sleeve not working.  At first I thought the control cable had broken, a most common occurrence with frequent riding and shifting.  I kept riding it with only the largest gear ring engaged, leaving 9 speeds on the rear cassette to get up and down the mild hills around here.  In Illinois I noticed it wasn't the cable at all, but the shifter itself.  The spring return was not working, and I finally realized the spring stop had broken off the Shimano cast aluminum housing.  Non Repairable. 

Trying to locate one to order online was frightful:  The only replacements I could find anywhere required me to purchase a full gearset, costing a LOT of money.  Having tossed all my spare junkyard donor bikes when we moved into the RV full times, I had no such devices available.  I assumed I would have to find a good bike shop with a good stock of used parts in their back bins, and bike shops are not very plentiful here in the "Smoky Mountains" of Tennessee.  I finally found one via Google with good reviews up in Cleveland, TN, of all places. 
Trailside Bicycle Company has the mojo, people.  Within 5 minutes of taking the Catrike into the shop for examination, the youngish owner/proprietor handed me a brand spanking new shifter, bolt-on replacement for my broke one, in the box, for the whopping price of TWENTY-FIVE dollars and change.  WOW.  A smoking good price, making the more-than-an-hour pilgrimage well worth the trouble.  Add me to his list of admirers and great reviews.
Now I need to deal with my left disc brake, which intermittently starts dragging and squealing, not only irritating but actually slowing me down.  I'm slow enough already, and every day I forget about it until I get riding, and then when I get back to cool off I'm in no mood to work on it immediately, meaning in a few minutes I get sidetracked and forget about it until the next ride.  DUH
We've also been blessed with quite a bit of rain these last couple of weeks.  Today was cloudy and cooler, but the weather forecast was for "slightly cloudy" with no foretelling of rain.  I was doing fine until I got about halfway home and I noticed the clouds building up and getting darker and it began to sprinkle lightly.  This mainly got me slightly wet but cooled down nicely  I was thinking I could just finish the ride with no worries, when suddenly it started to REALLY come down, and I was soaked and looking for shelter.  I spotted a building up the side of the hillside with a small overhang and geared down to Grandma Gear and frantically rode up, hoping there would be room to take shelter for both me and the trike.  It turned out to be a small Lutheran church, with a small covered porch on one end, and YES!  A wheelchair ramp leading up to the porch.  I steered around the wetness and rode up right in front of the entry door and parked, wondering if anyone was inside on a Tuesday.  I noticed a pickup parked in a slot labeled "PASTOR", and within a few minutes the very nice gentleman opened the door and offered me a couple bottles of ice cold bottled water.  I started to explain to him I already had bottled water on board, when my foggy  brain registered "COLD WATER!" and instead of stupidly rejecting the offer, I thanked him profusely and accepted the kind gift.  Lutherans are a definite minority out here in Baptist Country, but this one proved himself a Christian indeed.
The rain finally slowed to a misty drizzle and I rode away from my tiny shelter and soon I was back close to home.  Jacque called me on the cell phone and informed me she was already waiting at the pickup point, and since I was only 3 or 4 miles away, she agreed to sit tight and wait.
Even though I've been riding for years it still surprises me how much my metabolism changes after even one ride of more than a few miles.  I have to lower my insulin pump's basal rate for the rest of at least a 24 hour period - even after eating a bit more than usual to satisfy the hunger pangs after a ride.
I mentioned the nice wide shoulders of Route 27 here.  They ARE wide, but as with most road shoulders of any size, they are dotted with debris of all kinds.  Lumber and wood chunks of various sizes from the logging trucks, bits and pieces of cars, and worst of all, tire debris.
Cyclists everywhere bemoan the regular flats caused by the tiny wires scattered about from worn and bursting tires.
When by themselves they are almost invisible, but they can ruin a tire when they work their way through the tire casing:

This is a small example of a sliver of tire carcass with the fuzzy rusty steel wires protruding.  They are found by the dozens, nay hundreds, every mile of most highways.  I slowed my ride today by slowing down, even occasionally stopping, to pick such junk off the pavement and heave it off the roadway into the weeds.  I often get sidetracked while riding by picking trash off the path as I pass by.  It's not hard to do since I sit so low on the recumbent trike that I don't even have to bend over to reach the pavement alongside me, I just extend my arm and snatch it and fling the offending item.
I did several miles of such one-at-a-time road cleanup but finally had to stop it:  I wanted to do a 20-miler today and if I continued to stop or slow for every piece of junk in the road I'd never get back before dark.  I got to the outer limits of Dayton, home of the infamous Scopes "Monkey Trial".  I turned around at the city limits for the return home and found Jacque waiting for me with a fresh icy mug of Diet Barq's Root Beer.  What a Woman.

3 days ago:
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  9.26 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.2 MPH                                 7.1 MPH                     16.7 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours 13 mins                     1 hour 18 mins            55 minutes

Yesterday:
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  20.21 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.3 MPH                                 7.7 MPH                     28.6 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours   9 mins                     1 hour 27 mins           52 minutes


Today's Ride:
Ride Started: 10:41 AM    Ride Ended:  1:52 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.8  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  250      Ending BG: 72
Lowest Temp  75 F      Highest Temp: 82 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  20.21 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.3 MPH                                 7.7 MPH                     28.6 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
3 hours 11 mins                     2 hours 37 mins           34 minutes

And in Parting...

Today's RV Track across Indiana

I got going on the trike even earlier this morning, though I think I should get up earlier and get going at daybreak or even just before, to take advantage of more cooling.
Even with the sun shining today, there were lots of trees along the way, and of course corn higher than my head almost everywhere as far as the eye can see.  There was also a mild breeze which of course helped a lot.
There seem to be no ham radio digipeaters near Danville so I again was unable to obtain an online GPS track of the 11 mile ride.  The link above reflects much of the RV trip later today from Danville IL to Seymour Indiana.
We dearly love "Mom" Carol Johnston, the sole reason for visiting Danville, and it was sweet sorrow to bid her goodbye as we left with our next destination of Watts-Barr Lake near Kingston TN, where we will stay for several weeks in hopes of getting Jacque into surgery for her bad shoulder.  Her pain has made the last few weeks much less enjoyable than they would otherwise have been without the rotator cuff problem.
I have tried a new diabetic strategy the last couple of days.  Instead of eating breakfast or snacking before taking off on a ride, I've checked the blood glucose and dialed back the basal infusion rate on my insulin pump.  This in hopes of burning off a bit of tummy roll that I'm not crazy about.  When I "carb up" before and after a ride, it seems to maintain my lumpy profile, and maybe even slowly increase the midsection  - the way I eat, anyway.
This may or may not be working - both days I have come home from a ride hot and tired AND with unreasonably high blood glucose, in spite of having eaten nothing before or during the ride.
I theorize this is because I'm indeed burning a bit of fat, which the liver converts back into glucose to provide burnable energy for the saggy muscles.... and since my insulin pump has been dialed back so much, my BG thus increases.  Solution, of course, is to adjust the basal back up somewhat so I can keep the glucose level "level".  I dialed the basal rate back to 25% of normal yesterday and today and next I will try the 40-50% level to see how that works.  Not only do I hope to trim the tummy, but skipping the pre-ride breakfast allows me to get GOING earlier.

Ride Started: 6:56 AM    Ride Ended:  8:54 AM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  126      Ending BG: 206
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  11.13 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.0 MPH                                 7.6 MPH                     22.3 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 51  mins                      1 hour 27 mins             24 minutes

Holiday Riding Danville

Riding for exercise and entertainment needs to be early in the mornings in the midwest's hot and humid climate.  I rode yesterday, on July 4, as well as this morning, and should have gotten rolling an hour or so earlier to catch a few degrees of cooler weather. 
WHATEVER, I'm trying to re-establish a habit of regular riding.  The benefits are immediate and fairly long lasting in lowering my blood glucose and lowering the amount of insulin I have to pump.
On July 4 I rode 9 miles and this morning I got in 6 miles.
While riding yesterday, again with missing gears in the derailleur, and when I took a rest break in the shade of a large tree in front of the LDS church building, I decided to have a closer look at the still-unrepaired front shifter.  I noticed the cable was actually NOT broken at the shifter end, and upon closer examination, the other end at the handlebar lever was not broken either.  It turned out the cable was stiff, so I assumed rashly that the cable had gotten stuck with rust from recent rains.  After liberally squirting both ends with WD-40, and the shifter still barely worked only in one direction, I found a broken spring in the shifter assembly itself.  This turned out to be impossible to "fix" with basic bike tools.  The shifter guide is riveted together and the spring is very hard steel.... and will need to be replaced instead of repaired.  It being the midst of the Fourth of July, it may take a few days or more to find a bike shop with a used shifter that will fit.  I have only been able to find complete gearsets online, and the prices are such that I hope to find a used item instead.
So today I again rode with limited gearing, but these low altitudes and slight grades on the hills make for survivable riding with limited granny gears.  I got going a bit late, but it began raining HARD almost as soon as I got back from the ride.  While I was tooling around, it was sunny and hot, and I had no idea thunderstorms were building up.  Thankfully I accidentally avoided getting soaked.

Wednesday: 
Ride Started: 7:24 AM    Ride Ended:  9:19 AM
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  9.45 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
4.9 MPH                                 7.2 MPH                     30.1 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
1 hour 55  mins                      1 hour  18 mins           36 minutes

Today:
Ride Started: 7:44 AM    Ride Ended:  8:27 AM
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.98 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
7.7 MPH                                 8.0 MPH                      28.0 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
47  minutes                             44 minutes                  2 minutes

Missing Gears

DATELINE: Danville, Illinois
We went shopping in Shipshewana early Monday, yesterday, didn't find what we wanted.  So I decided to order it from Amazon and hope a local brick-and-mortar store will stock something we want or need next time we shop "offline".
We returned to our pricey ($36-PLUS) RV park and packed up the RV and SUV and got ready to roll.
We took back roads south through Indiana - enjoyed the relatively smooth pavement most of the way and the marvelous views of fabulous US farmland - and crossed into Illinois late in the day. $2.86 was the cheapest gas we found on this leg of our wandering.. Out here in the Midwest gas seems to be cheaper in the small towns than it is in the larger metro areas.  Very strange.  Prices seemed to jump 20 cents everywhere a few days ago, obviously in anticipation of the 4th of July holiday coming up.  The official excuse is the scarcity of oil from Iran and wherever, but we suspect prices will sag a xbit after the holiday highway rush. slows down.
I determined to do a few miles on the trike this morning, regardless of the heat and humidity, before it got later in the day and even hotter and humider.  It took me a while to get the trike, radios, and panniers all unloaded and hooked up, and each passing minute seemed even warmer and more uncomfortable.  Finally  I was able to get going and got in a 5-miler.  Again I seem to be in a weak radio zone so I did not get any mapping recorded of the ride.
I rode away, fully cognizant of a slight problem:  My 3-speed front derailleur shifter cable has been broken for the last 3 rides.  Each time I promise myself to replace the bad cable, but invariably I ride away and only realize I'm stuck with the 7 "rear gears" after getting underway.  Out in these relatively flat  areas the mild hills are climbable even without my "Grandma Gears", so I've gotten away with it.
Today I remembered the missing 14 speeds but rode anyway, again promising myself to fix it later today after it hopefully cools off a bit.
Where we're driveway surfing is sorta on the outskirts of Danville and I stuck to the perimeter back roads among the cornstalks and enjoyed myself.
I rode fairly comfortably, as cycling produces its own mild breeze which helps keep the heat down.  It's always a treat to rid under the welcome shade of trees since the temperature seems to drop almost 10 degrees cooler or better, definitely noticeable cooling courtesy of God.
Several hours now have passed since the ride and I'm almost feeling human again after shaving, showering, and eating.  Current temp is 87 and the sky is now a bit clouded, unlike the full sunshine I was blessed with while riding.

Ride Started: 8:41 AM    Ride Ended:  9:31 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   ? No remote recording  Ending Voltage: ?  Lowest:  ?
Beginning Blood Glucose:  220      Ending BG: 107
Lowest Temp  85 F      Highest Temp: 88 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.04 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.5 MPH                                 7.5 MPH                     16.9 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
47  minutes                             40 minutes                  6 minutes

Sunday Rider... Pumpkinvine Trail

Sunday's Tracking via GPS, APRS, and Ham Radio

I must offer many thanks to K9DEW, Dewey Thrash, for operating a Ham Radio Digipeater station that works, and works WELL.  We've stayed in several "radio dead zones" recently, and thanks to Dewey, this is NOT a dead zone.

We drove to Sturgis, MI, this Sunday morning for LDS church services.  I'd never heard of Sturgis except for the famous one in SD where the world famous motorcycle rally is held yearly.  Sturgis, Michigan version, has various factories providing employment for quite a few.  The current boom in RV demand and sales keeps most people employed and busy all over this area.

Anyway, the congregation in Sturgis was about the most friendly bunch of folks we've ever encountered, except maybe in Grants NM where I attended school from 3rd grade through High School and where so many old timers have known me since I was a pup.  All kinds of nice folks in the Sturgis Ward shook our hands, asked our stories,  visited with us, and generally made us feel very welcome.  Food for thought when we grow up and finally decide to settle somewhere....
We had sorta planned to do an afternoon cycle ride after church, but Jacque caught my chest cold several days ago, and today her congestion was really bad.  We should have stayed home and tucked her into bed for the day.  We left after Sacrament meeting and came back "home" to the RV and she immediately went down for an afternoon recovery nap, but encouraged me to go ahead and ride around.  We spotted a funny notation on an  area map  yesterday that turned out to be the "Pumpkinvine Nature Trail", where no motors are allowed, no horses allowed, but cyclists and pedestrians are welcomed. The trailhead originates in Shipshewana and goes west through Middlebury, around to Goshen, and thence on to Elkhart, usually  following the route of the defunct "Pumpkinvine Railway".  Where we're parked is about 3 miles from Shipshewana so I rode all the way from the RV to the trailhead and then the almost 6 miles along the trail into Middlebury.
I was getting pooped by the time I arrived in Middlebury so I turned around and headed back 'home'.
Now I see from looking at the trail map, I was a quarter mile or so shy of crossing through both a tunnel and a wooden trestle bridge.  Rats.  No problem though; it was a  fun enough ride without those additional thrills.
It was plenty hot today but noticeably cooler than the last few days.  A bit of a breeze encouraged me to think I could survive a few miles of riding.  For the most part this turned out to be true.  This is the kind of weather where I'm grateful for winds and breezes, even though they may slow me down a bit.  The additional cooling effect is much more appreciated than a few more MPH in speed.
One thing so far that is nice about these midwest bike trails is the shady trees along much of the route.  They contribute quite a mess down below on the trail pavement but running over branches, seeds, and clumps of leaves is a small price to pay for blessed SHADE; what I call "God's Air Conditioning".
In Amish Plain People Country such as this, few stores are open on Sundays.  Few horse-drawn carts and carriages are downtown going between any businesses, but today there were all sorts of groups, bicycle and horse-drawn, passing me along the roads and bike trails.  The adults and families appeared to be heading home from worship services.  I passed the back yard of a Plain Family just west of Shipshewana where there was a large group of Amish youth playing volleyball.  Evidently such recreation on Sunday wasn't frowned upon by that particular group.  Another largish group of Plain Kids, male and female,  riding bikes, passed me coming and going as I neared Middlebury:

You may have to squint to spot them ahead of me on the trail.  I feared trying to photograph them any closer, as they do not like to be photographed "Except from a distance".
I have noted previously that the "plain" (solid colors, no patterns) dresses worn by the women fail to conceal the good looks of most of them.  No burquas or veils amongst these people.
I must confess I was fairly bushed by the time I got to Middlebury.  Right at the entrance of the trail into town is quite a temptation for a Christian who hates to buy anything on Sunday:

A chocolate Sundae would have been mighty delectable on this Sunday, even though Jacque fed me a good homemade version right after Church.  I was hot, tired  and thirsty/hungry, but I turned around and rode home, settling for lukewarm water and breakfast bars I had in my panniers.
As I got to the village limits of Shipshewana, I noticed a sign indicating "Memorial to Chief Shipshewana - 800 Feet" on a street crossing, so I took a short detour to take a look at it.

Evidently the Pottawattamie tribe were a peaceful and helpful bunch, but land salesmen of the time worried their nearby presence degraded the sale-ability of lots and lands, so the nearby soldiers were mustered to herd these wonderful natives off to a reservation in Kansas to free up more Indiana sales.
Whether the greedy Anglos' consciences finally woke them up or not, the Chief was allowed to return to his native soil, where he died in short order.
Don't get me started on the genocide and grief the so called "White Man" has visited upon the native peoples already living here in the Americas.  I read one history some years ago that opined that the U.S. Army NEVER won a fair fight against "Indian warriors".  Many of the acclaimed victories the Army claimed were attacks on peaceful villages that were under peace treaties, such as the infamous attack on the sleeping villages  of Chief Black Kettle (Cheyenne) more than once, by Chivington and later Custer.
Like I said, don't get me started.  It wasn't pretty.

Ride Started: 1:45 PM    Ride Ended:  4:45 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   12.9 Ending Voltage: 12.9  Lowest:  12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose:  116      Ending BG: 60
Lowest Temp  82 F      Highest Temp: 84 F   
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  20.39 
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed  
6.8 MPH                                 8.5 MPH                     30.8 MPH 
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time 
2 hours 59 mins                     2 hours 24 mins           35 minutes