Range Finder

 

After my 20-mile ride yesterday, I didn't bother to recharge the battery on the e-bike. The digital display on the bike still showed a nearly full charge and I wanted to get a feeling for how far it will go on a charge.

I got my answer today. 

I had to go to the Vehicle Licensing Store to renew the tabs for my truck, $133.00! I also needed to go up to the Cat Vet office and retrieve a bag of food, some treats and a small bottle of cat pills.

I determined that this is the perfect sort of errand to complete on the bike.

So, I headed out at about 10:30 into the bright sun-lit day. I made it to the Vehicle Licensing Store in about 15 minutes, waited about 10 for my turn to come up and was out of there $173.00 later. I purchased a Discovery Pass, which added $45.00 to the bill. I also renewed my Handicap Placard for another year.

Once done there, I continued my journey on up the South Hill. It did not occur to me to check the charge level on the battery, I mean, it's right there. I could have just looked. But I didn't.

I made it to the Vet and got the needed cat supplies. At that point, I checked the charge level. It was way down. I had two yellow bars on top of one red one. All the green bars were gone.

I had no idea what this meant for range, but I knew I was a good three miles from home. I reduced the assist level from 3 to 2 and I turned off the headlight.

My ride home was uneventful, and I got here with a charge still on the battery. The yellow bars were gone and all I had was the red one. I made it, but just barely.

So, 27 miles was the range I got out of this charge. That doesn't seem very good. As I expected, the battery indicator showed a full charge for a long time and then it fell off quickly as it ran oudown.

The charge time has typically been eight hours, so it looks like I'm done biking for today.

Or I could go for a ride on a partial charge and see how that works.

After two days of vigorous rides, I think I'll take the rest.

Twenty

I have just completed my longest rideyet on my new ebike. Twenty miles. 20.1 to be exact. When I reached the house, I ended up riding once around the park to get the total mileage up to 20.

My butt is sore and my legs are tired. But I’m happy! 

I explored a brand-new route. I wanted to get out to the Bowl & Pitcher suspension bridge at Riverside State Park.

When I got out to the George Wright Cemetery, I kept going out. I followed the trail for a couple of miles, maybe more, until I came upon a sign pointing to the right indicating that the Bowl & Pitcher was a mile and half down the trail.

This trail was unpaved and pretty rocky in a couple of spots. But it eventually led me to the bridge.

Unfortunately, there is quite a staircase on that side of the river leading down to the bridge. I got off the bike and bounced it down to my river crossing. Once there, I started riding across the bridge but not before snapping a couple of pictures.

It’s really beautiful out there.

I made it through the park and back up to the main road. I started riding back towards town on what I would call the Downriver Road. It’s a narrow two-lane road with no shoulder and no room for a bike path. It’s not a terribly busy road so I wasn’t too concerned. I just had to stay vigilant.  This road would eventually lead me to Doomsday Hill and back to the Centennial Trail.

I was out for two hours. It’s an absolutely fabulous day with the temperature in the low 70’s. Nothing of any consequence happened while I was out. It was just a damn fine ride. I hope I recover quickly so I can go out again tomorrow.

April 2026 BP

 

I would like to make note that I lost over 8 pounds over the course of this month and I'm try to get to 200 pounds bt mid-July. Average Blood Pressure for the month is 127/79.

200 Miles

As stated in this Blog previously, I have set a goal to have 1,000 miles on the odometer by Labor Day. 

I am happy to announce I am one fifth of the way there. And it's not even Memorial Day yet!

I hit it today while on a ride to the Winco Grocery Mart in North Spokane. It's 5.5 miles each way and took about half  an hour to get there.

The 200 mile milestone occurred at Standard Avenue and Addison Court. I was pretty wiped out after my little 11-mile jaunt. My legs get a little shaky by the end of the ride.

I'm thinking that I should be able to easily make my goal. I guess I'll have to reevaluate as we get closer to the date and/or goal.

I have made it through my first week of Tai Chi for Seniors. I have not lost much weight nor have I improved my stamina. I have discovered that my balance is quite horrible.

Tai Chi Day One

On a wild hair, because it showed up in my email feed, I signed up for an exercise program called "Tai Chi for Seniors". It's costing me about 20 bucks for three months. After that it goes to $70.00 for three months. I don't plan on renewing unless I get some truly amazing results.

So, there is an App on my phone now and I'll be checking in on it each day at 8:00 AM. It will then lead me through about 20 minutes of low impact Tai Chi moves. They are all pretty basic and doable for me. A couple were really difficult. That's good. I need the challenge.

I'm weighing in at 219 today and this program is promising to get me to 200 pounds by mid-July.

I must say that I feel taxed by the first workout. It wore me out.

It's a nice day out so I think I'm off on a bike ride.

3:35 PM: I had a quite a nice bike ride. I logged 14.2 miles in about 2 hours and I'm 30 miles away from reaching 200 miles on the odometer.

Going Bald

 We have just completed a 10 week course through our church entitled, "Gospel Basics". It was a good course, reminding me of a bunch of stuff I've forgotten or taken for granted, as well as some new info.

The course was video recorded each week. I checked out the video a couple of times.

Since Susan and I sat at a table up front, the back of my head was prominently displayed. 

I discovered to my displeasure that the hair on the crown of my head is getting sparce. Here is a picture for the record.

It actually doesn't look too bad in this picture. Perhaps I need a picture from a higher elevation.

I will be checking this sparsity issue from time to time, leading to the day when I just give up and shave my head.

Ride in the Rain…Almost

The weather hasn’t been very conducive to bike riding for the last few days so when I got what seemed like a little opening in the bad weather system, I decided to jump on the bike a go for a ride.

I barely got down the block before deciding I needed to put on a hat and my heavier gloves. I’ve turned into such a wimp about colder weather. It’s amazing I even get out to ski.

I stuck it out and had a nice ride down to the park. I decided to try taking the Centennial Trail eastbound. I took a little detour to the bridge to nowhere. It’s a footbridge they built a few years ago that seemed like a boondoggle at the time. It cost a lot of money and went to a part of town frequented by unsavory women. 

It turns out that I’m pretty glad it’s there. I think it gets used a lot by students at the nearby extension campus for WSU and EWU. I like to use it to get up to the South Hill. I also like to cross half way, stop above the railroad tracks and see how long it takes for a train to pass by. Today it took five minutes.

Just before the train came, the rain came. Just a drop or two at first. But it was enough to prompt me to head for home. The sky didn’t look that promising, kind of dark and gray and laden with moisture.

So I retraced my ride back through the park and headed for home. With about a mile to go, the rain started falling and I decided today would be a good day to take advantage of the “E” portion of the bike.

Besides, it’s been a few rides since I charged it and I would rather charge it when it’s running down. I have found the best way to run it down is to hit the throttle and ride. And it’s fun!!

I made it home in plenty of time to beat the rain, but just barely. It really started falling about ten minutes after I got to the house.

I logged about 5.7 miles on the odometer. Tomorrow is looking like a day to go for a ride.