80 miles on one wheel, crashing, dog party, Sunday dinner, Colin
This was a very heavy Ninebot One riding weekend. It started off at lunch on Friday when I rode from Naples Medical Center after picking up the DVD of my brain MRI results. I rode all over the coastal Naples area. It was definitely more challenging having to keep a close eye on so many potential obstacles. All in all I did a good job and logged 6-7 miles in the process.
I took some time and looked briefly at my MRI brain images but it didn’t take long until I lost interest. To be honest it sort of grosses me out seeing slices of my skull/brain and everything contained within. I didn’t see any huge obvious flaws so I guess that is a good thing.
On Saturday morning I was out in the yard early weeding and tending to the property. It was incredibly warm and humid. I can hardly wait for winter to arrive so I can work outside without such a misery tariff. We took Sadie out for a DD and Rural King ride which she of course found very exciting. She slides so easily into Cindy and my daily existence. Just having her around makes both of us feel better.
Later in the day we headed over to Cindy’s daughters place. Cindy was tending to her two dogs for the weekend. Of course we brought Sadie with. Sadie was already very familiar with Tank, whom we dog sitted for around two weeks. She had not met Bowser, who is a much bigger, high energy dog. Sadie had to set Bowser straight with a ferocious sounding snarl when he tried to mount her from behind. Once that was over all three dogs had fun. It was the first time I saw Sadie running around and playing with other dogs since my dad and step mom were at the house with their dogs a couple years ago.
Later in the afternoon Saturday the skies were looking ominous but I was getting the urge to go out on the Ninebot One. I told Cindy I was heading out although I wasn’t quite sure what my destination was going to be. I headed out onto Immokalee Road and decided I would make a right and head toward Bird Rookery Swamp. At first I thought I would just go part of the way down the road to the point where it turns to limestone. Then I decided to just go to the entrance of the swamp. When it was all said and done I went onto the boardwalk to the end.
The ride had a lot of challenges. I never rode on limestone road, compressed stone parking lot, grass path or boardwalk before. I had some shaky moments but stayed upright. The Ninebot One is remarkably good at handling off road conditions. I was surprised to see a notice at the end of the boardwalk that the actual trail was closed to the public. The sign said something like it was due to wildlife concerns. I was curious how long it had been closed. I did notice the water levels at the swamp were VERY high.
So once I turned around it started to rain. When I got off the boardwalk I texted Cindy that I was at the swamp and it might be a good idea she came and picked me up. By the time I got onto the limestone road it was a downpour. I knew the Ninebot was pretty water resistant so I kept trucking along, hoping to meet Cindy coming down the road to pick me up. Once I hit the asphalt part of the road the rain had pretty much stopped. I heard texts coming in on my phone but I didn’t feel like stopping to answer them, I just wanted to get back at that point. It turns out that Cindy did not get the text saying I was at the swamp. She only got the one asking for a pick up. She assumed I was at the school so she drove there. When I got back to Immokalee Road I stopped and texted her again where I was but that I was just going to ride back as I was almost home. I cut across Immokalee Road and was less than a mile from the house.
So the EUC was very wet from riding through a rain storm. I never had ridden it while it was this wet before. In the video you will notice I mention something about how the pedals felt extra slippery when wet. So after I got on the right side of the road the Ninebot started beeping which is an indicator it wants you to slow down, either due to a low battery condition or excessive speed. The wheel also has a “safety” feature which will start tilting the pedals backward to force you to slow down. This tilt normally is subtle at first but I have had previous rides where it became quite severe very quickly, causing me to have to lean forward awkwardly to stay on it.
Well shortly after crossing I heard a few beeps followed almost immediately with sudden, severe tilt back. Due to the slippery pedals I was not able to stay on. My feet slipped off and I went barrel rolling onto the road shoulder at somewhere around 13 mph. I just happened to be filming with my GoPro when it happened. The last thing you hear is the sound of my boots sliding off the pedals before I accidentally turned the camera off when I fell.
Of course my first reaction was anger. The Ninebot went rolling down the grassy ditch, ejecting one of it’s LED rings in the process. I did a brief survey and saw my right knee was bloody. For whatever reason I decided to not wear knee pads for the first time in a month. Of course they would have prevented the road rash. The EUC appeared to be fine which was a close second in concern to my own injuries. A couple minutes after my fall Cindy pulled up. She was freaking out that she didn’t know where I was. I told her I just fell so I just wanted to get home.
When we got back we did a more extensive examination of my injuries. In addition to my dirty and bloody knee I had banged up my right shoulder, hip and even my face which had a bloody scratch and a feeling like I was punched in the jaw. Of course this all freaked out Cindy further. I assured I was ok and the only reason I fell was because I never rode in wet conditions before. It was definitely a good lesson.
I had already made up my mind before the crash Saturday that I was going to run on Sunday. Having a battered and bruised right side created a hurdle to that goal but I still pulled myself out of bed and went to the track solo. I knew it was not going to be fun. It took nearly a mile until I was running without a mild limp. I decided to cut myself a small break and only ran a little more than 5K in distance instead of the four miles I logged last weekend.
Somehow my overall pace was around 15 seconds per mile faster than the week before which seemed ridiculous. When I tried to analyze why the only thing I could come up with was my stride was shorter because of the injury but my foot cadence was faster. Maybe that is the way to go. I always assumed using a longer, slower stride was more efficient overall but maybe that isn’t the case. The sprinklers at the track were on again giving me moving wet obstacles to steer around.
When I got back I changed my shirt and hopped in the truck with Cindy to go back to her daughters place to check on the dogs. Sadie was excited to have another play session with her buddies. Having three dogs is fun to experience in short bursts. Dealing with it day in and day out would be a real chore.
When we got back I had another Ninebot One goal in mind, despite my bloody crash the day before. I wanted to ride it all the way to Dunkin Donuts, some 10 miles away. The plan was for me to leave on the wheel and then have Cindy leave about 45 minutes later which in theory should have us arriving at DD at around the same time. At first we talked about then riding the Minipros around DD but Cindy said she didn’t feel up to riding. I pushed off for what I knew was going to be a long, potentially boring and somewhat painful ride. Being on an EUC for that amount of time and distance is rough on your lower body. Doing it with a banged up right side makes it even more so.
I was about three miles into the ride, approaching Wilson Blvd when I heard the Prius beeping. Cindy had left already and was trying to flag me down. I wasn’t sure why she would be coming already and was worried something was wrong at first although I heard nothing from my phone prior that would indicate there was a problem. I pulled over, confused, as she spun around to my side of the road. She said she changed her mind and had the Minipros in the back of the car.
I didn’t react well to the abrupt change of heart. I had my mind in goal accomplishment mode, I wanted to conquer the ride on the EUC. I felt like I was getting pulled from the game and put on the bench. In retrospect it was less of a big deal than I made it. I threw the wheel in the Prius and we drove to DD. After we picked up coffee we came up with the idea of me riding back to the house which would actually be an even further ride since I already logged three miles.
As I soon as I headed east on Immokalee I realized I might not be able to complete the ride back due to serious head wind I was now traveling into. It was pushing against my body continually, making the bot work hard to keep me moving at 10+ mph. So despite the wind, things were going ok. My biggest issue was foot discomfort which I would address by stopping periodically to shift my weight around a bit.
About 5 miles from the house I started getting my first warning beeps and mild tilt back of the pedals, something that happens increasingly more often as the battery gets depleted. When I felt the tilt I would immediately lean back to drop some speed. Well about a half mile from Wilson Blvd I heard a few beeps and then almost immediately got thrown into sudden, severe tilt back, much like what happened the day before. Despite the pedals being dry, it once again was severe enough that I fell off the back of the bot, sending me and bot rolling down the grass embankment. I just happened to have the camera on again when it happened and this time it kept rolling, capturing the crash in it’s entirety.
Beside getting dirty, I didn’t have any additional injury from this spill. The Ninebot escaped unharmed as well, simply rolling down the hill. I was pissed. This “safety” feature is treacherous, it should not go zero to 60 in the span of a couple seconds. I got back on the bot and continued forward at a greatly reduced speed. Despite this, the low battery level caused a couple more bad tilt backs that had me hop off. Once I had to wildly scramble to grab the wheel as it headed toward the road.
I realized there was no way I was going to make it all the way back to the house. I texted Cindy and had her meet me at Orange Tree, some two and a half miles from the house. By the time I got to her I was only able to putter along at maybe 6 mph. I learned my second valuable EUC lesson of the weekend. The Ninebot One is not designed to be taken for double digit mile rides when most of it is into a stiff headwind. Riding it in low battery conditions was annoying and downright dangerous. I now have just under 80 miles on the Ninebot One odometer which seems sort of crazy considering how things started out.
We decided to make unusual plans to do a Sunday dinner out at Carrabas. We hadn’t been there for a while. I was shocked just how empty it was, about 2/3 of the tables were unoccupied. We were not impressed with the cleanliness of the place. Despite being slow, we were at first directed to table that hadn’t been cleaned. When we went to another high top table the area around it was sort of a mess as well.
The waiter reminded us it was happy hour meaning 2-1 drinks. There was one problem, they had no draft beer which is what qualifies for the special. WTF? I wound up drinking two Miller Lite bottles at $5 a pop, lame. The food itself was good and our waiter was green but nice so it wasn’t a total negative experience. It certainly did not give either of us an urge to repeat our patronage soon.
So the internet is up in arms about Colin Kapernick making a conscious decision to not stand during the playing of the national anthem before the 49ers preseason game this weekend. Colin said it was his way of protesting the way black people are treated in our country. To me it was Colin’s way of showing he isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack.
Of course I feel it is disrespectful to not observe the anthem. Despite your social views, somehow your team was stupid enough to throw a 100 million dollar plus contract in your lap. It’s going to be hard to garner much sympathy for your oppression when you live in such “difficult” conditions which is something he should have given thought to prior to creating this circus.
Sure this is America and you have the freedom to not acknowledge the anthem, just like others have the freedom to think you are a huge a-hole for choosing to do so. It was just a poor decision by him. I think there are much more effective ways to make a point without alienating yourself from the populace. I do have to admit that I sort of enjoy this being Chip Kelly’s mess to deal with. It is certainly laying the groundwork for this to be a disastrous first year in 49er coaching career.