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
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