After a weekend with no pedaling, I got the trike reloaded and went on my usual merry way this morning.
And, as is my wont, I continue to be mildly surprised by the odds and ends found lying upon the roadside from day to day. Today I passed 2 separate bath towels and tupperware containers lying out in the open. They all looked pristine but I'm not into using bath materials found alongside the road, so I went on without them.
I am also still tired of trying to pick up all the unusable trash encountered. Now, unless it is totally blocking the path or a serious danger to other passers-by, I steer around it and continue on my way.... with fewer delays.
I have been experiencing increasing foot numbness and pain recently. It occurred to me a couple days ago that it might well be due to diabetic neuropathy, or nerve damage. Googling the subject reveals a few believable partial treatments: Tylenol, Vitamin D, WALKING, and believe it or not, Capsaicin ~ the active ingredient in Chili Peppers that provides the HEAT. Supposedly rubbing the stuff on my feet can help..... I don't have any in rubbable form or I might have already tried it.
I just started a Vitamin D pill this morning (I'd think I'd be generating enough D from exposure to sunshine?!) and have also begun walking more than just leading the dogs around the neighborhood waiting for them to pee and poop. Of course I'm re-realizing the entirely different muscles involved in walking versus cycling. Walking a mile or slightly less has resulted in very sore muscles and joints - here and I thought I'd be in nominally decent shape from cycling several times a week. SIGH. It stinks that all the warnings and horror stories the old timers used too tell me turn out to be mostly true.
I also find it more difficult to motivate myself to walk around somewhere as compared to hopping on the trike. Today I tried the ingenious idea of riding out to a certain point, then walking a mile or so, then walking back and riding the trike back to my starting point.
Hesitant to just park my trike out in the open in full view of passing cars, I watched for possible hidey-holes at various points along the highway, and spotted a likely spot right about the 5 mile halfway mark, in a dead end turnout that ended downhill in a patch of weeds and tall grass. Almost half a mile farther down the road was a 7-11 gas station, which I walked to from the parked trike. Finding shade there, I took a short break and a drink of water, then walked back to the trike. This short walking jaunt was much more tiring than the entire 10 miles of pedaling I did before and after.
A bit more tired than usual pedaling on the way back, I stopped a few more times than usual.
At one point I pulled over and stopped, and found some more "tossed stuff" along the roadway. I did a double take.... it was OUR junk, that I had unloaded Friday (2 days ago) when I picked up Jacque and loaded her trike on board. I distinctly NOW recall when I put the 2 plastic carry-baskets alongside the Exploder, I forgot all about them - just loaded Jacque's trike and drove away. Had I not accidentally spotted it this morning, I likely would have eventually realized I no longer had the stuff, assumed someone must have stolen it, and never seen it again.
As it was, it was in full view of the roadway, a very busy TN hiway 27, and no one had molested it.
It actually contained several hundred dollars' worth of stuff:
-2 ham radio transceivers worth around $400
-A GPS unit
-A brand new set of towing signal lights I just got from Amazon that have not even been used yet
-And various other unknown-value smaller items like umbrella, brackets, bits and pieces of hardware...
When I grabbed the stuff to see if I could strap it on the back of the trike, I realized it was too bulky and heavy. So I figured if it had lasted all weekend with no one bothering it, it might make another half hour or so if I abandoned it again - long enough to ride back to the Exploder and drive it over to the treasure site. Sure enough, it was still there a while later when I got back. This time when I picked it up to load it, water sloshed out of both stacked containers. I then realized/remembered we had rain over the weekend..... close to an inch in each one. So I more carefully tipped out the rainwater and am now hope a few weeks of sunshine will dry it up enough to use again. Stay tuned, we will eventually see how it went.
Ride Started: 10:20 AM Ride Ended: 12:01 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0 Ending Voltage: 12.7 Lowest: 12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose: 126 Ending BG: 148
(Ate before riding; insulin pump basal rate 60% for the ride)
Lowest Temp 71 F Highest Temp: 82 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 11.87
Distance Walked: .8 mileOverall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.8 MPH 8.4 MPH 17.1 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 43 mins 1 hour 24 mins 19 minutes
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