Deep in the Heart of Texas

Saturday's tracking via APRS and Ham Radio in TX

Running the "Barrel Race"

Jacque and I participated in the now-annual Heart of Texas ("HOT") bike/trike/recumbent rally/rodeo in Austin TX this weekend.
It was a long trip but a fun activity and we had a blast even though we were a tad bit tired by the day's end.
The rodeo consisted of barrel races, pole bending races, and dead-speed races, all the back of bucking..... bicycles, recumbents, tandems, and tricycles of all shapes and sizes, both commercial and home-built.
None of it was done in particularly racing fashion, but there were a couple of younger fellows in great shape who took all the timed events.
Here's a FaceBook Link to the event with photos.
For some reason our tracker did not work on Sunday when we rode for a 15+ mile scenic ride.  It was a fun ride but the scenery around Albuquerque, especially on the Bosque Trail, is much more interesting!

Adjusting the Puppy

Trek Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  15.15
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.1 MPH                                6.9 MPH                    19.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
3 hours 43 minutes                1 hours 11 mins          1 hour 31 min

Lovely Warm Spring Day - In FEBRUARY

Today's New Tracking

I got busy earlier than usual today and (1) replaced a fog lamp on the RV and (2) repaired our master bathroom toilet, which has had a noisy slow leaky float valve for quite a while.
Jacque was feeling better but decided to not exert herself yet, to try to build up her strength before resuming her normally very active schedule.  So I again saddled up the 2-wheel recumbent and went for a ride. 
I had earlier in the morning driven all over the East Mountains getting hardware for the RV and the house for necessary repairs.  The warm weather had brought out all the motorcyle and bicycle riders and walkers in droves, they were EVERYWHERE.  I was right anxious to join them.
I get tired of doing the exact same ride every day so I cogitated a bit about which route to ride today.  I decided to first ride east on Frost Road to Vallecitos, then over to Old Route 66, thence west to Zuzax.  Then I'd cross over I-40 and get on the frontage road and catch Gutierrez Canyon Road back North to Frost Road and then east again back to our goat-path 1-mile road to the house.
It was just absolutely a marvelous day for a good ride.  I met all kinds of other cyclists and walkers along the way, and never got on a bike path.  Just a mile east on Frost Road I encountered a little boy riding a tiny bike coming toward me on the opposite side of the road, followed by his Mom pushing twins in a dual carriage while riding a skateboard, followed by a walking Dad-figure.  We exchanged happy waves and greetings.   Then, about 30 minutes later, on Old Route 66 I saw an apparition coming toward me.  It turned out to be a couple on a Tandem Upright Bike, pulling a kiddie trailer with 2 kids happily riding along.  What fun.  Many others were encountered but these were my favorites.
I failed to get any pictures at all of these wonderful fellow road warriors.  Hopefully  I will be able to purchase a decent video camera again soon so I can get pictures of this good stuff and good people.
Jacque and I have ridden Gutierrez Canyon Road  before a couple times, but always southbound and never all the way from end to end.
We have worried about the struggle going the other direction, North, but today as usual I discovered it was a more gradual climb and more enjoyable ride going north from Old 66 up to Frost.  What a transition: Riding along parallel to Old 66 there is a constant roar of nearby traffic both on 66 and the parallel I-40.  Within  100 feet or so after turning north on Gutierrez Canyon, the wonderful trees and rocks so effectively block all that "civilized" noise and it becomes downright relaxing and pleasant.  Almost no traffic as well;   it was great.  Much of that loop is down in a box canyon area so I was surprised the radio link for the GPS and tracker worked so well.
Nothing but smiles and good manners from fellow road users today, and it was still a balmy 58 or so degrees when I got back home.

Trip Started: 2:47 PM    Trip Ended:  4:54 PM
Starting Battery Voltage: 13.2    Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  56 F      Highest Temp:  66 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  14.13
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.4 MPH                                8.7 MPH                    30.0 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 5 minutes                  1 hour 32 mins          33 mins 39 secs

Wind is Wonderful - in ONE Direction Only

Today's Tracking - 
(I note this tracking ignores the 4-mile loop at the east end of the trip)

Well, I finished (1) installing the new pressure switch in the water system at the house and (2) installing the last new tire on the Tandem Terratrike .
Trouble is, Jacque came down with what appears to be a Norovirus (requiring frequent trips to the stone throne) and is NOT in condition to take a test ride.  So it got tested solo, so low in fact I only went 100 feet or so in order to make sure the wheels still turn and the brakes work, before parking it out of the weather under the deck.
But it was a beautiful day today and I have not yet succumbed to puking my brains out (which in all likelihood will start in the next 24 hours :?( )
So I saddled up my beat-up 2-wheeler recumbent and did the mail run thing, plus another 8 miles or so just to get the blood warmed up good.
It was sunny and warm today, perfect for cycling and being out-of-doors.  Except for the wind.  When I left the house it was just breezy and a bit gusty.  While I initially rode up the long climb to the Post Office, I fought some mild headwinds, but it wasn't terrible.  Yet.
As I turned around toward home, I wanted to get in at least a 10-miler so I rode on past the house and further east, to do the Frost Road / Mountain Valley Road / Entranosa Road / Tumbleweed Road 4-mile loop.  The wind, at my back, actually began helping me up some of the hills.  When I finally turned north on Mountain Valley I was buffeted by some pretty strong side gusts which worried me a bit, and for good reason.  It got even stronger as I turned west on Entranosa, and when I parked the bike using its dual-fork kickstand for a short call of nature in the bushes, the wind started howling so bad I was sure it would knock the bike over, which has happened several times before, occasionally doing no damage but often shattering handlebar mirror or other nasty stuff.  The bike was still standing when I remounted but when I resumed riding it was a veritable struggle to stay erect and not be blown over or off the road.   Thankfully on this 4-mile loop there is precious little vehicle traffic, but when I finally struggled back to Frost Road for the last leg home, it was almost 4:00 PM with the associated heavy going-home traffic... and the wind continued to get worser and worser.  As I approached the last 2 miles I was fighting to stay on the road and praying fervently to Heavenly Father to help me make it home without being blown off the road or into a passing car.  If Jacque hadn't been in such bad shape when I left, I probably would have called her to come rescue me even though I was less than 2 miles from home.  You know you don't enjoy riding when you have to struggle along in LOW GEAR.... going DOWNHILL where normally coasting approaches 30 MPH.
But, no griping allowed.  I made it to our goat-path turnoff, which is heavy with trees and bushes on both sides of the passage, so the wind was not as bad.  Thankfully.
Still happy to have done the ride, however.  As usual, after cooling down and getting my wind back to normal breathing, I feel supercharged instead of lethargic.  Lethargic is what happens when I miss a day....

Trip Started: 1:58 PM    Trip Ended:  3:50 PM
Starting Battery Voltage: 13.5    Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  60 F      Highest Temp:  65 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  13.7
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.8 MPH                                9.6 MPH                    30.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 45 minutes                  1 hour 25 mins          19 mins 14 secs 

Bike Maintenance Woes

Our Tandem Recumbent Terratrike has been showing signs of wear on the tires.

 This is a close up view of the rear tire.  Astute viewers will note it is bald in the middle of the tread while still having semi-useful tread on the outer edges of the tire.  Meaning:  Overinflation caused this early wear.  I normally top them off at 60-65 PSI when close to the air tank.  When I looked closely at the sidewall for inflation recommendations it read "Inflate to 40 PSI".  These are cheap Wal-Mart tires, about a year old with several hundred miles on them.
We had to visit 3 bike shops in Albuquerque, including 2 separate Wal-Marts, before we could find anyone who had 3 matching 20 X 1.95 street tread tires.  The shop we finally found that had what we needed was Cycle Cave at 5716 Menaul.  I'd never seen this cycle shop before, but it has been around likely longer than most others in the area:  40 + years.  The pricing ($16 each!) was the best we'd seen as well, plus the tires he sold us specify up to 80 PSI, so running them at ~60 should work out OK.
Then, when I got down to swapping out the old tires for new ones, the rear wheel - viewed up close - revealed a nasty surprise:

A Broken Spoke.  No idea how long we've been riding with this nonsupportive spoke.  I've broken many spokes on 26" wheels but this is my first for a 20" wheel.  On the larger wheels a broken spoke produces very recognizable symptoms:  The wheel goes out of true and wobbles noticeably.  We'd never noticed any such symptoms with this wheel in spite of chugging along with lots of load on it for so many miles.  I actually stock new spokes for 26" wheels since I've broken so many, but no such luck for the 20-incher.  The only donor wheel I could find to "borrow" a spoke from was on my lovely but little-used bike trailer, but I decided not to tear one of its wheels apart for a single spoke.  So off to Albuquerque I rushed to pick up a couple.  This time I tried Cycle Cave first and they had exactly what I needed.  At 75 cents a spoke I should have bought a handful but I only purchased 2 and returned home, hoping to get it done before dark.
I had discovered I had a rack that worked nicely for a waist-level workstand for the trike in my metal stash out in the yard.   It worked well for the rear wheel, done first to get the worst one done first:

And the rails were almost perfectly spaced for elevating the two front wheels also:

Alas.  I was feverishly installing the last tire on wheel #3 when Jacque hollered from the front deck:  She had lost all water pressure while taking a shower.  It was getting dangerously close to sundown.  I hated to drop the trike-tire project in mid stream, so to speak, but water failures are definitely higher priority in this country. 
It didn't take long to find a smoked-up, intermittent pressure switch in the pit where the water pressure tank hides underground.  I was able to manually "jiggle" the switch contacts so the pump came to life and re-pressurized the house water lines, but we had to leave for a meeting and leave it also in mid-repair.  Tractor Supply Co. in Edgewood was still open when we left our meeting and, bless their hearts, they had the correct pressure switch in stock for only twenty bucks, a flaming bargain when you're out of water at home.
It was about 8 PM when we finally got back home and we decided to wait for daylight to restore (1) the house water system and (2) the remaining trike tire.  Maybe we'll even get in a ride tomorrow on these sweet new tires!
Manana, Manana......

Back to 100 Percent

Today's Electronical Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio
By 100 Percent we mean that we have thus far ridden all week, so far, this week.  Astute readers may note that means only 1 day, today, unless you count Sunday as the first day of the week, in which case you will force us to admit we are only at the 50% level.
What with snow, wind, and other excuses, we of course have let WAY too much time pass without benefit of aerobic exercise, which we obtain most readily by riding the trike or bikes.  Today Jacque was sewing quilts with buddies until well after noon, so we got off, as usual, a bit late in the afternoon.  Then Jacque worried it was too late.  Then she worried about the gathering dark clouds outside.
I would have put it off until tomorrow but after 10 days of tomorrows I was desperate to get in a ride even if we had to turn around after only going a short ways.  THEN, don't it beat all, it actually spit a couple drops of RAIN on us as we were unloading the trike down at the pavement of Frost Road.  Undaunted, we took off anyway, like a herd of turtles, so to speak.  Thankfully the 2 drops that threatened us turned out to be all there was to be as we rode.  The daily wind had calmed down and we actually had a fairly stress free ride.  At least for the first hundred feet or so.  Just as we were strapping all our gizmos and gear on the trike, ready to take off, an attractive young lady walked past us and entered the bike/pedestrian trail ahead of us.  She was maybe 50 yards ahead of us by the time we got rolling, and within a few dozen seconds we passed her with self satisfied smirks. 
Trouble started for us almost as soon as we passed her:  She began jogging.  Dearest Readers may note our average speeds on the trike run in the neighborhood of 4 to 6 MPH which is not much faster than walking and DEFINITELY not exceeding the speed of the average jogger.  We were struggling up our first minor hill and this twenty-something jogger was right behind us and gaining. 
Our genteel pride being at stake, we put all we had into it and barely stayed ahead of her long enough to top the first hill and then did our usual gravity-aided smoke-speed of maybe 20 MPH down the backside of the hill.  This put a satisfactory distance between us and the merciless joggerbabe and we thought we could safely stay ahead and maintain our foolish pride.  Trouble is, more hills separated us from our destination, and we haven't ridden enough to even have decent stamina, much less speed of any kind, unless coasting downhill of course.  Within a few minutes of climbing the next hill we were creeping along huffing and puffing and watching the runner approach again at a rapid pace in our handlebar rear-view mirrors.
Rather than let her pass us while we were still moving so slow one would need a time-lapse photo session to register movement, I told Jacque we were stopping for a water break, and watched the fair lass trot on into the western horizon, hoping we would not encounter her again for the purpose of embarrasing ourselves. 
She passed us again before we got to the Post Office... she had run almost a mile ahead and passed us on her return run.
Not much fun being outrun by runners.
Of  course, on OUR return ride which is more downhill and we average 20-30 MPH, we encountered no runners fast or slow, although we did encounter several dogs and their human servants, attached to them with leashes and other restraints.
Trip Started: 4:13 PM    Trip Ended:  5:12 PM
Starting Battery Voltage: 13.2    Ending Voltage: 12.6 (Recharge Time!)
Lowest Temp  45 F      Highest Temp:  51 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.27
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.4 MPH                                6.2 MPH                    26.0 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
58 minutes                             41 mins 6 secs           16 mins54 secs

Mercy, We Thought Yesterday was Cold

Today's Frosted Frigid Tracking
Jacque was in the mood for riding today, and it was sunny and beautiful out, so we rode the Tandem Trike to the Post Office and back.
Sunny though it was, and the house thermometer said it was several degrees warmer than  yesterday, it was certainly windier and felt even colder.  Still, yearning for bragging rights, we struggled onward.
We had to stop for several breaks along this admittedly short ride, mostly because my blood glucose was in the 50-70 range throughout the ride, way below the 150-200 level recommended for fairly heavy exercise for diabetic dunces like myself.  The cold seemed to soak into our bones so deeply it seemed hard to get the legs warmed up and pumping properly as well.
Jacque found a new doggie belly-pack that allows me to carry Jazzy in harness in front of me, keeping her close to me while separated from her arch-enemy Tinkerbell way back in the read seat.  Going east toward the Post Office it was so cold and windy we had to stop and rearrange the belly pack so it was inside my windbreaker, allowing me to zip her up out of the wind with only her head poking out the top.  This made both me and Jazzy happier and warmer.  We will provide photos of this confabulation soon.  Get ready to laugh out loud, but it works.
We were both cold and bushed by the time we got to the Post Office, but it has become ingrained in  our habit to continue onward another quarter-mile or so up to the Shell Station for some liquid refreshment and dietary-incorrect snacks.  Today instead of decaf tea or unleaded soda, it was popcorn and HOT COCOA, which at first was SO hot it burned our tongues..... but it was nice to get some heat into our cores to help us thaw out and beat the chill.  Their snack-bar has become pet-friendly, meaning they allow our puppies inside with us at the snack tables, so it was very nice to rest a while and chill, er, in this case, warm up.  Of course the doggies made several new friends;  this just cannot be prevented.
When we finally got rolling and arrived back at the transporter vehicle, we were approached by a passing motorist with the various "twenty questions" about the trike. 
It was SO nice to get back inside the steel cage and turn up the heater to get out of the wind.  It's supposed to be warmer the next couple of days so we hope to use them to keep the legs pumping while we can before the hard cold weather/snow/ice returns....
Trip Started: 11:02 AM    Trip Ended:  12:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0        Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  41 F      Highest Temp:  56 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.32
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  2.1 MPH                                5.4 MPH                    31.0 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours  1 mins                      48 mins 6 secs           1 hour 12 mins

Red Sky at Morning, Cyclists Take Warning

Today's spotty tracking via APRS and Ham Radio
We awoke this morning with a bright red sunrise, which we normally think portends a stormy day, as per the old saying "Red Sky at Morning, Sailor Take Warning;  Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight".  It was a tad cold also just as the sun was arising:  7 degrees F....  Talk about shivering a sailor's timbers.
Then the breeze began swaying the treetops so we figured it was going to be another cold & windy & blustery & miserable day.
Believe it or not, it didn't turn out to be a bad day at all.  I had determined I was going to ride at least a few miles no matter HOW nasty the weather was (discounting blizzards, gale force winds, and heavy rains).
I had a good excuse to ride:  I had a ham radio I'd repaired along with several radio magazines I wanted to deliver to a teenage ham friend about 10 miles away, so why not use that delivery for a compelling reason to ride the bike?
I'd hoped, as usual, to get going around 10:00 AM so it would be warmed up a bit and I could get back in time to do something besides flop on the couch after riding the bike.  Trouble is, I had a priority need that had to be addressed first:  We were out of homemade cookies.  Jacque is busily trying to put the Chinese out of business with her new supercomplicated knitting machine, and I like making cookies, and make most of them most of the time anyway, so I whomped up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.  Then I had to bag them into ZipLock sandwich baggies, 3 in each bag.  The reason for 3 to a bag?  It's simple.  However many I put in a bag or other container I will eat, usually within a few minutes.  Put 'em all in a cookie jar and I will eat all of them in short order or until my tummy explodes.  Put the cookies in some kind of container and I can easily pick one container and eat whatever is inside.  If there's 6 in a bag I will eat 6.  I cannot stop at 2 or 3.  Same thing if there's 20 in the "container".  I used to put 4 in each baggie but they last another day or 2 if I only put 3 in each bag.  Go ahead, call me weird.  It's been done before....
Now, with the psychological disorder discussion out of the way, back to the bike ride.  I got the cookies properly assembled and containerized right after noon, so by the time I got the bike loaded up with water, cargo, radios, and specialized emergency bike food rations (Chocolate Chip Cookies, What ELSE?) it was 1:30 PM-ish.
Bouncing down our goat-path private road to the pavement of Frost Road, I was happy to note it wasn't terribly windy or extra cold.
However, when I huffed and puffed up on the pavement, I discovered and unusual west-bound breeze blowing me in the face (since, obviously, being a cyclist, I was headed east thus forcing the wind to blow to the west).  I stopped within a few hundred feet and dug out my windbreaker layer and also my polar fleece skull-cap Jacque made for me several years ago.  I also switched from fingered gloves to my shooter's mittens, which are warmer since my fingers can associate with each other, but have fold-back flaps so I can work the radio buttons (or a firearm mechanism if I was a shooter instead of a cyclist).
With this combination it took me a while to get overheated, and that wasn't until I was halfway up the second long hill on this direction.
I have recently re-realized that "cotton kills" when exercising in cold weather.  Cotton tee shirts get sweaty and then they get COLD.  I have a few fairly expensive turtleneck "wick-action" polyfiber undershirts that I have begun wearing again for riding in cold weather and they really are worth the money:  They still get sweaty but they do a decent job of wicking the sweat away from my torso and not getting too hot or too cold.
I dropped off my precious cargo and turned around for home.  I had sorta wanted to do a larger and longer loop ride around these East Mountains but the cold breeze was motivating me to buzz it back home and not dilly-dally.  Even then, it was almost 5:00 when I arrived back home, and that's not far from being DARK.... and here in this kind of weather it gets COLDER when the sun don't shine.
Within the last 4 miles of home, I saw a school bus coming up in my rear view mirror.  Thankfully I was on the newer stretch of Frost Road where there is a nice wide shoulder so I was able to give the bus plenty of room to get around.  Not all bus drivers around here are too careful of such low forms of life as cyclists, but this one did not crowd me at all.  Thus I was shocked to hear a scream of epithets from the bus as it passed.  Silly me, it was a teenage student with his window pulled down venting his newly discovered hormonal displacements at me.  I hope he thought it was worth it:  He surely suffered some discomfort from opening his window to the bitter outside air.
I could easily have taken real offense at such behavior except for the fact that, even at my advanced age, I still remember being teenaged, bullet-proof, and stupid.  Now, of course, I'm just stupid.  Grew out of the rest....
Trip Started: 1:36 PM    Trip Ended:  4:37 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0        Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  37 F      Highest Temp:  42 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  19.56
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.6 MPH                                8.6 MPH                    25.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours  59 mins                    2 hours 16 mins         42 mins 49 secs