Jacque bought a fancy 10-needle embroidery machine today, and we spent most of the day on the road between Mountain Grove, Springfield, and Marshfield getting the money out of the bank, picking up the machine, etc, etc. It was windy and cold much of the day's driving, and even snowed for a few minutes while we traversed Springfield.
It was a little after 4:00 PM when we finally got home, and though I was tired of riding around in the vehicle, I was in the mood to ride around on the trike if possible.
The skies had cleared a bit and I figured it wouldn't be that bad to pedal around a while to get the blood warmed up again. Little did I know it was a tad colder than yesterday, which I thought was a bit too cold for much of the ride.
I soon realized, again, that 4:30-ish PM is not necessarily the most wonderful time for riding paved roadways around here: Like most places, it seems to be the "Going Home" time and the vehicular traffic was pretty steady in all directions.
As usual, they all gave me lots of clearance and waited patiently when necessary to pass me when oncoming traffic was present, but I don't like to make cars wait unless absolutely necessary. Oh Well. Such is Life in the Slow Lane.
I was cognizant enough that I wore 2 layers: A sweatshirt jacket outside my warm flannel shirt Jacque made for me, and the thin cycling-yellow-visible windbreaker on top of that.
I was glad to have the layers, even though I had to open up the outer zipper for a few miles climbing hills to keep from getting too sweaty, which only makes the cold worser when things cool off again (i.e., downhill runs).
When I passed the never-active Mountain Grove Airport and approached the entrance to Business 60 on the west end of town, a city cop car passed me slowly and looked me over. I saw him stop just past the intersection of 425 and Business 60, and wondered if he was wanting to quiz me about the triking addiction I suffer from.
Evidently not, since I passed right under his driver side window. I suspect he was hoping to catch speeders zooming off Highway 60's 65 MPH limit onto the 45 MPH limit....
Something rather unusual happened both yesterday and today: I actually made radio contact with other ham operators while riding. Ham radio activity around here seems much less popular than back in NM, and I seldom hear any activity on the radio, much less actually talk to someone.
Yesterday, I was surprised to hear a mobile ham calling me on 146.52 simplex, a very short range frequency, meaning he was within a couple miles of me. He had actually spotted my APRS beacon on 144.39 and switched his radio to 146.52 to call me. He lived up in Kansas City, another 4 hours or so north of Mountain Grove, and we enjoyed yacking for a few minutes. before signing off.
Today, as always, my radio was scanning when I overheard two hams talking on 147.165, a repeater channel I had never heard before. When the first guy signed off, I called the other guy to find out about this previously unknown repeater channel. It turned out to be a close - to - me repeater, located at Norwood, only a few miles away. Two ham radio contacts in 2 consecutive days, wow. Something to help keep me awake on boring rides...
The skies had been faint with lots of cloud cover when I started this ride, but as I turned back toward town the sun had started peeking through and I stopped and switched my goggles from clear to shades. In only a mile or so the sun had again faded and it was difficult to see through the sunglasses so I switched back again, and zipped up the windbreaker as well.
Always happy to get in a few more miles pedaling away. It really helps with my blood glucose control and seems to clear up much of my brain fog as well. Wonderful Stuff.
Ride Started: 4:20 PM Ride Ended: 5:20 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Battery Voltage: 12.9 Lowest Voltage: 12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose: 175 Ending BG: 124
Lowest Temp: 39 F Highest Temp: 39 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 6.59
Distance Walked: .6 mile (Dogs!)
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.6 MPH 7.8 MPH 23.3 MPH
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.6 MPH 7.8 MPH 23.3 MPH
Total Trip Time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 0 mins 51 minutes 9 minutes
1 hour 0 mins 51 minutes 9 minutes
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