It's Getting on the Chilly Side to be Riding...

Yesterday, I took Burgertime down to my mom's for a piano lesson. It was 38° when I left, about 54° when I arrived. It is a 150 mile round trip ride, mostly on interstates.

Those in the Chicago area will be familiar with I-294; it is the saddest excuse for a tollway ever. It costs four $0.40 tolls each way to use it, yet it is still very bumpy and poorly paved in some areas. Every other state I've ridden toll roads in (Indiana, for example) at least has the decency to make sure the roads are good if they're going to charge you extra to ride on them. This road is under construction every single year. They never finish. I think the people in charge of maintaining it have kickbacks from certain road crews. The road crews then use crappy materials to ensure that they have constant work.

The FJR hasn't been ridden for weeks now. It's got the new rear tire mounted and the wheel's back on and everything. The front wheel is still an old one with only probably about 10% of its tread left. I haven't decided if I'm going to ride on that one some more, just to get some more riding in this season or go ahead & change it.

Kate says snow is forecast for this coming week. We will have to insure the old Civic again, as I may not have the option of riding. Bummer. How will I keep from getting depressed when there is nothing to do outside? I hope the piano lessons will do it.

Fuel economy on BurgerTime is dropping. Partly because this last tank was nearly all interstate at 70+ mph and partly because of the temperature drop, with most of that last tank being in the 40° range. Fuel economy on my last tank was the worst yet - 57 mpg. My running average is still 64 mpg. BurgerTime now has about 2000 miles on him.