Tank 332 - That's a Lot of Gas (Plus: A Good Weekend for Bike Riding)

So I refueled yesterday afternoon at the local Fas mart near my home, but the pump I almost always use had a yellow "out of order" bag over it. That was rough, because normally I shut off the motor and coast on in to the pump there, and I didn't notice the yellow "out of order" bag until after I had turned off the car, so I had to turn it back on again and whip around to another pump that was "in order."

So I did and I pumped in 11.369 gallons. After driving 416.7 miles on this tank, that made for a fuel economy of 36.65 miles per gallon.

It's looking like I should begin getting happy with mileages in the mid-36 range from now on, on account of how my shorter commute is on more twisty bendy country roads with hills and fewer areas to coast and draft and maintain steady speeds.

But the weekend was also a great time to ride my bike, not only for fun healthy wellness exercise, but also to help eat away at the deficit that's been growing since January. As you know, my goal (a real New Year's Resolution for 2012) is to ride my bike for more time than I spend commuting to and from work in my car this year.


I had six good bike riding experiences over the last four days. Last Thursday I partook of a healthy wellness ride at the office, and then rode for another 30 minutes while one daughter was at a soccer practice. Friday I had a fun ride with my friend John and we stopped halfway for a great lunch of cheeseburgers and waffle fries at the local brewery/restaurant, and it was delicious but a little expensive.

Then on Saturday I rode foa an hour and fifteen minutes at another daughter's soccer practice, and that ride was notable because the course I ended up taking must have been really really flat, because my average speed was 18.6 miles an hour, which is one of my fastest average speeds. (I just now did a little search and it turns out that of the seven rides with an average speed of 18.6 or greater, six of them happened while this daughter was at soccer practice, so it must be that her soccer practice locations are in flat areas. The other one was while I was visiting my in-laws in the great flatness known as Cary, North Carolina.)

And yeaterday was nice because I had a fun early morning ride, and then after church while two daughters were at youth group, my wife and I rode for about 40 minutes at a local Civil (Civil? CIVIL?! There wasn't anything CIVIL about it!) War battlefield, and also walked a trail there for about two miles, too.

So overall, a really good weekend.

And I am pretty sure I'll be able to go for a ride this afternoon during "healthy wellness time" at work, so the week of fun continues.

On my little pie chart graphic there's a white "31.51" there in the middle- that's the magic number, the deficit I need to make up. I don't know why I haven't been including it all year, because I've been tracking it, and since the only permanent record of this running tally is here on these posts, I've sort of lost the history of it's growth. I remember it was at 44 hours at one point in the last couple of months.

So three months and one week left in the year, 31 hours to make up. I can do it. We got the fall holidays coming up and all the associated time off. I'm optimistic I will accomplish this resolution and am looking forward to the continued fun of bike rides and keeping track of the data.