This effluvium relates to yesterday - Thursday Oct 15 - Hopefully I'll get another ride sometime today.
I haven't been faithfully recording all my trips, and many of them are for a mile or less and thus unmentionable.
I used a Wally World shopping trip for an excuse for a ride. I planned on replenishing our sagging stock of diet soda, so I hitched up the B.O.B. trailer behind the recumbent trike.
All went well for the downhill leg of the trip across town until I got to the busy intersection between
McDonalds and Country Mart.
This is always a high traffic area, since it also includes on/off ramps for the busy Route 60 highway, and I had to wait several minutes to snatch an opening big enough to ride through. As I pedaled furiously across the street and turned left to go across the overpass, I dodged around a large crack in the pavement, but wound up straddling it between my front wheels and barely missing it with my rear wheel, BUT as the towed trailer wheel hit the crack I heard a loud CRASH and the uncomfortable sound of metal scraping on pavement. I pedaled a bit further to get clear of the entry to McDonalds, and when I got off the trike to see what had happened I was a tad shocked to see the rear wheel of the trailer lying in the entry of the fast food burger joint and the sound of metal hitting pavement had been just that.... the rear of the trailer dragging wheel-less on the pavement.
There was a line of cars waiting impatiently to get out of the parking lot, as usual, but gave me enough time to retrieve my "lost wheel". As I reattached it to the trailer frame, tightening extra tight to hopefully avoid further such incidents, I noticed the rear tail light flasher was also missing. With trailer reassembled, I looked more closely to see if I could spot the missing hardware, and sure enough it was lying in the exit/entry, forlorn but still flashing. Several cars drove out while I waited for an opening, and somehow they all missed it. The next cars stopped and didn't proceed. When I looked at the driver, she was waving at me to go ahead and retrieve my blinky tail-light. She rolled her window down and told me she didn't want to chance running over my light. I pranced across the entry, thanking her profusely, and blew her a kiss of appreciation as I returned safely to my contraption. Thankfully the light wasn't broken, but snapped smartly back into it's socket, and I was again on my way.
The remaining 1/8 mile leg to Wally World was relatively uneventful.
I had a shopping list by now and spent a lot more time in the store than I usually do. I received a text on my phone informing me that our Church's assistance truck was at the Church building ready for me to pick up an order for one of our church families. Being on the trike might have made this a bit difficult, but since it was only about a quarter of a mile away, I was able to saddle up and trike over there to pick it up.
When I got back to the Big Box store, who should I see but the fellow for whom the order was intended, so all I had to do was hand it over to him, saving us both any further trips.
Leaving the store, I checked my blood sugar before pedaling away, and it was low enough to require nourishment. As I munched on my treat, a fellow walked past with his big friendly dog. As he passed, he commented "You have a Flat Tire!"
Unwelcome news, true or false. Finished the treat and checked all my tires. All had air in them, but my rear trike tire was sagging quite a bit.... I had so much weight in the trailer that it was making the tire squat. I dug around and found my CO2 tire inflator. It took me a bit since it had been so long since I last used it, but it worked and I was soon on my way.
I texted Jacque that I was on my way and nothing was wrong in spite of having been gone so long.
She claimed to appreciate it...
Even with all that weight, it's amazing how easy it is to pull such a load with the trailer. It DOES require a bit more down-shifting going up hills, but even as an old geezer it didn't seem to be too difficult to get it all home.
Ride Started: 10:31 AM Ride Ended: 1:00 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0 Ending Battery Voltage: 12.7
Lowest Temp: 57 F Highest Temp: 61 F
Beginning Blood Glucose: 125 Ending BG: 82
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 6.31
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.3 MPH 6.4 MPH 16.9 MPH
Total Trip Time Moving Time Stopped Time
2 hours 28 mins 59 minutes 1 hour 29 mins
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