Hiway 60 Trike Cleanup

Today's Travels via GPS and Ham Radio

I decided that today for my Monday morning ride I would use the excuse to ride out to Cabool MO to visit one of my new friends we met at Church a few months ago.  According to my GPS map app on the Iphone it would be about a 7.7 mile ride one-way or a bit over 15 miles both ways.  Easy Peasy, says I, and I told Jacque my itinerary and saddled up and took off. 
I got off much later than planned.  Earlier rides mean cooler temperatures, and a couple hours earlier start would have helped a lot.  Such is life.
A mild detour confronted me before I achieved my first mile:  Wall Street was blocked with a train sitting still in the crossway with no evident intent to move any time soon.  I turned back west along South Street which parallels the tracks and at the next train crossing the intersection was clear, thank goodness.
The route North to the middle entrance for Mountain Grove to US-60  adds maybe half a mile or more to the trip than the more direct route of "Business 60" east, but the narrow ramp with no shoulder for more than a mile dictated the safer alternative.  Radio coverage isn't great more than a few miles from home as I don't yet have a tower erected to hold my base station antennas higher in the sky, so the tracked dots peter out about halfway to Cabool.
Again, as usual, I encountered all sorts of detritus along the roadway, both biological  and otherwise.
Rather than bore viewers with more guts & gore, I photographed only a few of the items I spotted today. 

Steel Tire Belts

Chunks of truck tires like this are found scattered along all road shoulders and are tough on cyclist tires.  The thin wires embedded in the torn treads eventually penetrate cyclist tires and cause either fast or slow leaks, with injury holes so small they are hard to spot and patch.  Thus I prefer being slow and low to the ground already, to grab as many of these as I can and throw them off the road shoulder for a safer ride the next time I or any other shoulder-rider comes by.
A couple other items attracted my iphone camera....
If I took pictures of everything spotted along the road I'd be even slower than I already am:

Shattered Smartphone

Quarter-Inch Steel Plate:  This had to go home with me in the saddlebag

I stopped under an overpass along 60 for a shade break and took several jolts of warm water to slake my dry throat.  It was extra warm today and the humidity was a tad higher than normal as well.
The ham radio I have on the trike (Kenwood TH-F6A) also picks up FM radio music stations and I've taken a liking on longer rides like this to listening to vintage country music along with ham chatter as I ride along, often singing along with the music since there's no one around to be alarmed at the noise.
It helps shorten the miles and takes my mind off my aches and pains - at least a little bit.
I finally arrived at the exit just before Cabool and I didn't see my friend's vehicle in front of his house.  So I called him on the cell phone, with no answer.  I was just turning around to return home when I saw his vehicle pull up in his driveway:  He had pulled right past me while I was trying to call.
I rode on  up next to his vehicle and knocked on his door and spent almost an hour visiting and then took my leave.  I was feeling a bit overheated and woozy as I left but made it the 5 miles to Walmart where I planned to take an extended snack, drink, and shade break.
After chilling there for a half hour or so, I resumed the homeward bound leg of the trip.
Even with the hilly streets, riding here is not bad with all the shade trees helping shield me from direct sunshine.

Ride Started: 10:09 AM      Ride Ended:  2:07 PM

Beginning Battery Voltage:  12.9   Ending Battery Voltage:  12.7 Lowest Voltage:  12.7

Beginning Blood Glucose:   140   Ending BG: 78

Lowest Temp:  75 F    Highest Temp:  84 F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:  17.74
Distance Walked: 1/2 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
   4.9   MPH                           6.9  MPH            27.4 MPH

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped Time
 3 hours 35  mins              2 hours 34  mins   1 hour 1 minute