Going Hollywood

This was a good week for exercising, My regular routine of stretches, lifts, and balancing were done all seven days. I’m increasing the number of repetitions for each, gaining strength, flexibility, and balance. For several years, I have noticed when standing only on my left foot, that I didn’t have much strength or balance. Thankfully that seems to be getting better, and more days than not, I can balance on it for at least thirty seconds before I fall over. It’s still not as strong as my right, but I am happy with any improvement. I did get some time on the bike this week. One day was just over six miles, and the other was about two miles. I know they are not big distances, but in my book, they count as exercise.

We went Hollywood... bike rack that is. We bought the model that can hold the weight of two electric bikes and handle the excessive jouncing of a motorhome. Once it got here, we wasted no time getting it put together. The easiest way to do that is to mount it to the hitch piece by piece. Everything was organized into smaller boxes inside the main box, making it easy to identify parts. It included the few tools needed to assemble it, but we opted to use our ratchets and sockets since they are easier and quicker. As more parts went together, we started to worry if the ladder would be in the way and how close the bikes would be to the back of the RV.

It became a small comedy of errors getting it assembled. First, We had to redo the bolts for the tire bars. We put them on and bolted them in place, then read the rest of the instructions that said make sure you put the brace plate on before doing the bolts, so off it came.

We couldn’t slide the tire holder loops past the ladder with it mounted on the motorhome, so we had to take everything back off to get them on the rack. On some parts, it wasn’t clear which holes were for which bolts, so we ended up redoing several of the bolt connections so the pivot functions would work properly. Then we loaded the bikes and the derailers were hitting the rack. We found the extra brackets for 20-inch tires, and mounted them while holding the bikes up and adjusting the positions until the derailer no longer rubbed on the rack. We had to switch around the seat post clamps so they would work with the bike orientation. Finally, the hitch u-bolt support had to be reversed, since the first way we had it pulled the entire carrier up, making the bikes touch the back of the RV when it was tightened. Flipping it pushed the bikes away. The whole install was more exercise than I thought, but would have been less if we didn’t have the redos. This rack should reduce the wear and tear on the bikes, and make it easier to cart them around.

Today we did some exploring in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, managing about 2 miles of walking/hiking while taking delight in our surroundings. The desert is alive with color this spring. Stay tuned as we will save the wildflowers, the tanks, and the ghost town for a future post. We should be hitting the road again sometime next week! Enjoy the weekend!

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