A couple of weeks ago this amusing little adventure happened and I thought I would share it...
DH and I were on a long ride and were going down a stretch of highway unfamiliar to us. There was suddenly construction work on the two lane highway we were riding on, a road winding through wooded hills.
It was one of those setups where they stop traffic in one direction to let a bunch of cars go through in the other direction, then switch around via walky talkies and flagmen. Neither end could see each other because of the winding wooded hills in between the two end points. The construction section in question was a long significantly steep hill about a mile long.
Well, our direction was flagged to go through and all the cars went ahead of us in the one lane, squeezing around us one at a time no problem. We waved them all to pass us. After some climbing for a while with no one else around, DH disappeared ahead of me.
I went into my granny gear and just starting grinding along as fast as I could, no end in sight up ahead. It was steep.
No further traffic came from behind me, and none was coming towards me either, so I imagined that they had stopped traffic in both directions just to be safe since there was no shoulder, waiting for us.
I was all alone, me and the hill and the woods....grinding, grinding. breathing deep. I figured DH would tell them I was still coming once he got there to the other flagman. I thanked the higher powers for my ultra low gear.
It took me forever, and I kept imagining all those people sitting in their cars on either end wondering why the hell they were still sitting there and getting mad.
Grind grind breathe breathe.... it was like crawling through the dessert alone, but cold.
Well, finally I came to a guy in his truck with a walkie talkie. He told me to move left through the traffic cones, into the oncoming lane so they could let traffic come through from up ahead of me, coming towards me. This was a creepy move that was so against my instincts- imagine riding in the middle of the oncoming lane of a big highway around blind curves!- but I asked him and he assured me there would be no traffic in that lane.
So I kept pedaling along, breathing deeply, in the oncoming lane, and cars began to whiz by me in the lane to my right, in the opposite direction....weird and scary. :eek:
I knew that every one of those drivers who passed was likely cursing me under their breath at me for holding things up so long. It was a sense of importance I did not care for.
I finally got to the other end point with the flagmen and DH and other construction guys standing around. I think they all wanted to see who it was they were waiting for. They all smiled and waved, and I thanked them and was grateful I was not causing a disturbance anymore. The hill was over and so was the construction section. I could finally stop to rest and drink water, so DH and I sat in the grass and clinked our water bottles together to celebrate the end of our mini-ordeal. :p
Anyone else have stories about causing traffic snafus?
