Today's Track via APRS and Ham Radio
Jacque and I took the Terratrike tandem for an "early" ride this morning, but did not beat the hot sunshine nor did we anticipate the almost total lack of breeze. As mentioned previously, we have decided we like headwinds - so long as they don't buck against us ureasonably - and as we trundled off on our short but difficult climb to the Post Office we soon got overheated and had to stop for water breaks at least twice before we accomplished the ~1.75 miles of mostly uphill drudgery.
I failed to get a picture of Jazzy with her 'new' baseball-style hat cinched around her ears to help keep the sun out of her eyes. She is much too cute for her own good, and she seems to realize it.
In such heat and sun, many passers-by don't even realize the lump in my belly IS a doggie since she tends to slump way over and hide her head under my elbow to take advantage of even this small shade. When she DOES sit up and make herself known, she and Tinkerbell always draw lots of attention. Jacque has a U.S. Flag pattern draped over Tinkerbell's basket to provide shade and as a result Tink is not visible either unless she is provoked enough to poke her head up out of the shade.
When we finally arrived at the Post Office we paused only a few minutes before huffing and puffing the final third-or-so mile to our favorite watering hole and potty spot... the Shell Station at the intersection of North-14 and Sandia Crest / Frost Road.
A small time paving crew was patching the station's parking lot when we arrived so we parked in the shade of the not-yet-open Lazy Lizard Lounge adjacent to the gas station. One of the helmeted workers blocked my passage as I returned to the station with trash to deposit and wanted to know: "How much do those things cost?" - Referring of course to the Tandem Trike. I chose to tell him my best guess even though it frightens many away from the idea: $5000 base price, brand new from the factory in Michigan. I also advised him that we had found this one, used, on the Internet, for $2000 including spare tires, roof rack for transport, and several normally-pricey accessories. We spent a few hundred more making a johnny-on-the-spot run to Omaha to pick it up from the seller, but that was still slightly less than half the price of buying one new.
Years ago, when I considered Sears and Wal-Mart bikes sufficient for anyone, I would have never considered spending anywhere near a kilobuck for a bike or trike..... but since then I consider it money well spent enjoyment and health wise. A LOT cheaper and healthier than owning an RV..... but I digress.
Speaking of which, I may be able to crank up our dead yard-art RV in a few more days. I have most of the plumbing reinstalled, oil and filter drained and refilled, and now lack only the upper and lower radiator hoses, transmission oil cooler, and a few major and minor brackets and widgets to reinstall. Then, to get the grills and such back in place, and maybe I can reinstall the batteries and see if this dog will hunt.... or even start and keep running for any length of time.
We have considered, intermittenly, a cross country bike ride using the RV as a SAG vehicle. We may be stuck with the idea of doing without the RV..... HAH. Worst case, we will drain more of the retirement fund to buy another used RV so we can still imagine ourselves as travelers.
Ride Started: 9:25 AM Ride Ended: 11:03 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.0 Ending Voltage: 13.2
Lowest Temp 71 F Highest Temp: 84 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 4.37
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
2.9 MPH 5.4 MPH 31.0 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 31 mins 48 mins 23 secs 42 minutes
No comments:
Post a Comment