Thursday, March 13, 2014

Flat Tires and New Furniture

Tucson is back in the weather pattern of heavy wind from the east.  This is something we don't remember from past years.  Generally April is windy, but it's from convection heating and starts up around noon.  Winds from the east continue all through the night and into the morning.  It's dying off today, but there is so much dust in the air we decided against riding or hiking.  When the dust is up, so are the Valley Fever spores, so we're slacking today.
Monday we set out to find the new Julian Wash greenway.  It's a poorly marked urban trail, which involves riding on sidewalks, and eventually down a paved section of the wash itself.  We were following another cyclist who knew the route, so I took no pictures.  I disliked the route enough that I won't be back to photograph it, either.  The web site for the trail does mention that during monsoon the path will be under water and covered in debris.
Anyway, here is Jim fixing flat number 5 for the winter season.  One of the things about Tucson that just irritates the living snot out of me is the broken glass.  In the southern end of town, there is a culture of throwing unwanted items out of the car window.  It's a flipping miracle that we ever make it through a ride without flatting.   I think we're going to shift to Gatorskins to try to decrease the amount of time we spend changing tubes.


This is another thing that I find incomprehensible.  The red things in the curb lane (aka the bike lane) are Whip-its.  They're filled with nitrous oxide.  In addition to making whipped cream, they're also used to get high.  Apparently the getting high occurs in a car, while driving, and the empties are thrown on to the street.  This is disturbing on so many fronts.  Between the impaired drivers and running your bike over these things, there is much hazard available.

OK, enough rant.
We've had these recliners since the 5th wheel (6 years).  They haven't worked well in the current RV because the television is over the driver's chair.  I more or less broke my chair sitting in it sideways so I wouldn't have to turn my head so much.  Even with it pulled out and angled, it was not good.


Ta-da!  A new chair that looks pretty much exactly like the old chairs.  This one swivels, so I can face the TV, or people on the couch across from me, or Jim sitting at the dinette.  It's way more comfortable than the old chair.  The neck bolster on the old one was too big and pushed my head forward.  I am a happy camper.  Not having that wall of brown leather there makes the RV seem bigger as well.  When we're in Oregon we're going to have a small cabinet built under the window, so that our storage paradigm will be more attractive than cardboard boxes.


Tuesday we did have a successful ride involving climbing and suffering.  There were no flats.  Now, I must arise and go now because I have a massage scheduled.

5 comments:

  1. Oh yeah...flats! I got a couple of them in Tucson and one in Patagonia, so far. A couple were even after replacing my rear tire with a gatorskin -- in both cases it was a piece of metal staple or from a steel-belted radial tire, not even glass or goatheads, which gave us big trouble during the summer in Albuquerque. Hate flats! And the wind has been bad. Yesterday we were riding a few miles in an easterly direction, and I thought I was not going to make it. Going about 7 mph on the flat and getting blown every which way. Of course, when we turned around and went in the other direction, woo-hooooo, that was fun!

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  2. There was quite a bit of glass as I remember the bike lane in Tucson. Luckily, we never had a flat. We saw those containers smashed on the road. Never knew what they were.

    Getting comfortable furniture is such a must. So glad you are happy with your new chair:)

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  3. We noticed the dust when we left Cave Creek this morning. Glad to be up in Cottonwood where it's cooler and no dust. Though I do miss the pretty Sonoran desert...it's quite brown up here yet. No wind up here.

    Good to see you got a swivel chair. I know how rotten it is to try to watch tv in an inappropriate chair!

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  4. Gee, never heard of Whip-its. Now we'll be on the lookout.

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  5. Dang if I didn't get another flat today! This one was a pinch flat in the front. My soft "race" tire (haha, I'm such a racer!) has now been replaced with a Conti Gatorskin. Hope that will help. WIND was ferocious today, but I managed 30 miles despite everything. Really wishing for a lighter wind day, but does not look like that is in the cards for awhile.

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