Ten Miles of Bliss

Today's Ten Miles via GPS/APRS

Yesterday Jacque and I "took the day off" and traveled over to Big Spring, MO, where one of the largest springs in the USA and the World, according to Wikipedia.  The main road into the area was closed due to bridge renovation so we took the marked detour to the springs, which turned out to be shorter than taking the "main" road.
The Springs were quite breath-taking, with huge swirls of crystal blue water gushing forth from the rocks.

This morning had started out soggy and rainy but settled into shady clouds and cooler weather until the sun came out and everything got warm again.

Jacque had suggested this outing as a break from bending and twisting and getting sore backs and bones from working on the house.  It WAS a nice diversion, and we found a nice set of hot fudge sundaes only a couple miles away before we headed back home.
Saturday, today, had no threats of rain, but just some light clouds overhead.  Great day for a ride.
As I started to pull the trike out of the garage, I recalled that I have been suffering an intermittent squealing somewhere along the chain circuit.  Instead of just riding away and putting up with it, I laid it over on its side and worked on the lowermost idler pulley under the seat.
Of course, instead of a few minutes work it tyook at least half an hour to get it all undone.  The plastic idler pulley turned out to have 2 parallel roller bearings inside the hub.These bearings weren't dry, as I'd expected, but there was evidence they had been turning on their mounting spindle bolt, perhaps causing the intermittent squealie noises.  I oiled them a bit, reinstalled them and tightened the main bolt, and took a few more minutes to wash all the chain grease off so I could ride comfortably.
I first rode a route I've done several times before, along Harker, next door, over to Wall, then yo to Clouse and over to the local airport.  The airport is a nice place for a passing cyclist since there seems to seldom be any car traffic and there are large shade trees at the entrance, affording a great place to take a cool-off break.  After a few pleasant minutes with my bare feet out of the sandals and in the breeze, I was ready to go again.  I turned toward the "Business Route 60" but instead of taking that, I turned left and rode the short ramp down on to the divided highway of Route 60, with its nice wide paved shoulders.  This is actually a safer route, though slightly longer, than the "Business 60", with its lack of decent shoulders.
Arriving at the middle exit for Mountain Grove, I turned left at the Taco Bell entrance to the frontage road leading to Hovis Street, which was the reverse of the route I normally have taken here.
It didn't turn out to be an exact reverse path - since going the opposite direction caused several areas to look different to me.  It was mostly like a totally new area to me.  Of course, as I get older and older, I likely can soon ride any route or direction and bask in the wonder of "new views", what with fading memory and all.
Speaking of faltering brain power, after one rest break I was toiling along and realized I was not wearing my cutoff cycling gloves, and they were nowhere to be found on the trike.  I gave up trying to find them on the trike and turned around to retrace the route back to the last "rest area", hoping against hope I could find the worn, raggedy things again.  One promising spot turned out to be only a clump of colorful leaves, but I did indeed find them again just south of the resting place.  I again resumed the ride with gloves in place, a happy rider.  The gloves keep my sweaty palms from sticking to the handles and brake levers, a wonderful thing.
Finally arrived home safe and sound and ready for some more tedious home renovation.

Ride Started:  9:50 AM      Ride Ended:  11:48 AM

Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8  Ending Battery Voltage:  13.0 Lowest Voltage:  13.0

Beginning Blood Glucose:  182      Ending BG: 76

Lowest Temp:  75 F    Highest Temp:  78 F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:  10.82
Distance Walked: 1/2 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.4   MPH                           7.4  MPH              26.5 MPH

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 2 hours                              1 hour 27 mins      34 minutes