Sunday, May 19, 2013

We think a little bit differently about Walmart here in Arkansas because Walmart's from here. Apologizing to anyone who thinks Walmart's monopolizing the World; but it's where we shop. Anyway it's been a goal of mine to some day ride to it and buy groceries. Before I left I called the store to arrange for a plug where I could charge my battery and after a bit of checking the assistant manager said he could accommodate me. Finally; after so much anticipation, I headed out in the afternoon on the ezebike and rode there. It took only half an hour to ride the 11 miles. The hard part on a bicycle is getting up the half mile hill from where we live; up to Highland but now it's not hard. From there it's rolling hills with some traffic but it's no problem, because the cars were careful and I was going pretty fast. I plugged in to an outside plug at the store and went shopping. When I was done I came out, stowed my groceries in the side bags and disconnected the charger. The bike got a lot of attention and at one point there were about 9 mechanics around the bike asking me questions. It was heavier with about 15 lb of groceries but I was still able to ride the 11 miles home in half an hour for an average speed of 22 mph. The technique I use to make it more effecient is to use only as much power as I need to pedal fast and not use more power than I need to get up hills with moderate effort. I'm confident that if I use this technique I can probably go 25 - 40 miles on one fully charged battery but I'll have to devise a test to check that. My kids came over for supper and we rode the bike afterwards. They had a lot of fun and now my son wants to take it out and ride it today. PS: Do you think it was a coincidence that Joel saw the most incredable Shooting Star of his life, last night when he was out back on the deck; or was it a sign? He's out on my ezebike at this very moment. PPS: There was a big hiatus in my bike riding from when I turned 16 until I was 40 in 1989. Then for some reason I got back into it with a passion! (Not from peer pressure in Arkansas; that's for sure!) I bought a bike for myself and then traded that one for a better Mongoose (before they became a department store bike) and then ones for my Wife and all my kids. I built a rack for a trailer so we could haul 6 bikes on vacations. By now; I guess I've bought about two dozen bikes and given them to various family members. Four of my kids still ride and me and my She ride. My real goal is to get rid of my car but something always seems to get in the way of that. I've done lots of experiments with the goal of practical cycling and doing my Tree Business with a bike as far back as 1995. I got back into that aspect of it and now with an ebike. It's really encouraging that there's such a resurgance in bikes for transportation and I know now that I wasn't wierd; I was just ahead of my time. Charley

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