Curious....

Storm clouds....
Just riding along....

It rained most of the day on Saturday, which meant the bicycle stayed in the basement. We had planned to ride down to the farmer's market in Cedar Falls so I got up and got ready but apparently was the only one willing to ride in the drizzle. Ah well. It's all good. Jackal and Moo drove down there with The Queen, and I received some excellent M&M cookies and some asparagus later in the day. Mmmmmm.... Thank you! (along with a new water bottle and a gift card to be used at the shop)

Jackal and I rode to Hudson on the bike path on Sunday afternoon and back on Ho Chi Minh. It was warm and mostly sunny with a fairly stiff breeze out of the SE. I had a tummy full of food from lunch and was a bit less than comfortable, though all in all, it was a good ride.

The conversation we had left me curious....

Why do drivers accept, or at least tolerate, the mail truck, UPS and FEDEX trucks, city busses, slow moving farm machinery, the Amish and their buggies, etc., but seem unable or unwilling to accept bicycles on the roads. Actually, bicycles are less of an impediment to the flow of traffic than the above mentioned conveyances. It just seems strange. I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that bicycles are smaller than cars and trucks and that we Americans want to crush anything smaller or slower than we are. I dunno.

I rode a lot of miles on the roads of Germany when I was stationed over there. I served two tours there, once in the flat area around Friedberg, Hesse and then 3 years in the mountains around Schwaebisch Gmuend. I commuted by bike quite a lot. The majority of those roads are much narrower and twistier (is that a word?) than the roads we ride here. I don't recall ever having the issues with motorized vehicles over there that we have here. Of course, a lot more people use the bicycle as transportation over there. There just seemed to be more respect for your fellow traveler....

It may have been because my time in Germany was pre-cell phone and computer. It was before everyone tried to squeeze 18 hours worth of activities into a 16 hour day.

Slow down a little bit and enjoy life.

Just my thoughts.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!