Well, I had good intentions, but forgot to put anything on about yesterday's ride :( So I'm doing this as a 2 parter, part 1 being yesterday's, part 2 being today. No I didn't need to add that in there, but sometimes I'm redundant and repeat myself about what I just said, once in a while.
I started off thinking it would be another ~5 mile ride. On the approach of the usual turn around, my legs felt fine, and my wife said not to rush. So I pushed on a little farther, deciding to ride by the cigar shop that was the normal stop last year. The way between the park and the cigar shop is a bunch of residential streets with stop signs every block, or about every 3 houses. The view at each intersection is clear, so it's normal to just look a few times each direction on the approach and keep pedaling. Not saying it's right, but I have passed a few cops and they never said anything about it. Whenever I see a car, I do slow down to at least see what they are going to do. This time, I saw a truck, he paused and kept coming at me, so I just powered right through, knowing it was clear. This is when I catch sight of the driver waving his finger at me, reminding me of the scene from Jurassic Park "Uh uh uh, you didn't say the magic word" I think, okay, I was in the wrong, no big deal. I keep watching in my mirror as he rolled through the next intersection without even tapping the brakes. I <3 hypocrites.
Feeling better still, than when I left, I thought it would be fun to play stalker and see if I can find where one of my old friends just moved to. Thinking I was somewhat close, I started going down some different side streets, not knowing where I was going, I ended up just doing a loop right back to where I was when I started the stalk. D'OH! It's obvious that I was wrong, so I start heading back home. Not wanting to take the same old path, I got adventurous. Elected to go down the busiest road in town. "Eek, that's a lot of traffic," time to play on the sidewalk for a while. Being that this is a slight down hill, I start going for it, end up in my 2nd highest gear before I realize how bumpy the sidewalk is. After getting air time like the bunny hills on Magnum at Cedar Point, I get brave, venture on to the road. My top speed being only about a third of what traffic is doing, this was pretty nerve racking, but almost everyone got over into the next lane, giving me plenty of room. Another +1 for trikes looking like wheelchairs.
All is going well, then red light, no big deal, I'll just dive on to the, oh crap, no sidewalk here. Oh well, make people go around. Yay! sidewalk. Hand signal, cut to the right on to the sidewalk. NO! BRAKES PLEASE WORK! Evidently some people don't know what hand signals mean, nor where to stop when leaving a parking lot. I just about ended up on someone's hood. It's time to go to residential streets again. I've had too much excitement. Get to the residential area, think a drink sounds nice, look down, no water bottle. Hmm, that was there before the bunny hilled sidewalk. Keep pedaling toward home, when I find the street I was originally looking for that my friend had moved to. Take the right and if I wasn't sitting down, I would have kicked myself. It's uphill, so I have to try keeping momentum. Make note of the park, knowing that there's a geocache there. Keep going, find the house, decide he's probably not awake. Turn around, yay, down hill time. See the park again, think about going to hunt for the cache, and find somebody golfing in the park along the railroad tracks. Guess he couldn't afford greens fees this week. Keep pedaling for home, nothing too remarkable.
Thanks for reading about my 10 miles.
Soundtrack, as best as I can remember: Motley Crue, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, The Offspring, Weird Al Yankovic, The Verve.
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