Thursday, May 8, 2008

34k Steps

Whew! Today was my highest step count for this round of the Startwalking program thanks to a longish walk at lunchtime and a fairly long walk after dinner. I now don't really feel like going for another walk. Like most of my walking loops, this was pretty nice for the first half then returns along the main road. Maybe I should just backtrack to avoid having to walk along the main road. It would make for a much more pleasant walk. This evenings walk was a variation of my 7 mile loop and climbs up a ridge overlooking Fairbanks. That is by far my favorite part of the walk. I changed the route due to a lot of runoff on one dirt road behind Pearl Creek School. When I took it a couple of days ago, I ended up walking along Ballaine Road due to all the standing water covering the bike path in a couple of places.

No side trips with the bike today. I'm wondering how long I should wait before filling the gas tank. Like many other older bikes, there is no gas gauge. When it starts to sputter, you move a couple of valves to a reserve setting and start looking for a gas station. I still have no idea what kind of gas mileage I'm getting but I suspect it is better than 17 (that's what I get with the truck). I'm not thinking that I can justify the bike just on gas savings but it doesn't hurt. According to the Internet, it should get something like 48 mpg. That would be nice and we all know that the Internet is always right.

Friday Afternoon - Well, I found out how far you can go before you run out of gas. 203 miles. The bike sputtered and died just after pulling out of the parking lot. Of course, when it happened, I didn't have a clue what the problem was. It took about a minute before it dawned on me what the problem was. Gas mileage ended up being about 45 mpg. Not bad considering all of the stop and go.

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