August 22nd rides

[withm]

Rode to work this morning. Stopped to help a woman with a flat tire - clearly she did not have a clue. She was with her 10 yr old son. No spare tube, but the tire looked so rotten that I wouldn't be surprised if the tube was ok, but the tire broken. LOL. My tubes are the wrong size for her so I was spared the decision of giving her one of them. She decided to walk it back down to the "bike shop" next to the antiques, and asked me to ride her son back to their beach rental house - it was only a couple miles so I did. Nice boy, very polite but his favorite subjects in school were PE and lunch. I had a good laugh. I can't believe she gave her son to a total stranger like that... But I saw him home, and he was to get an adult there to ride back with the car to fetch her. Sounds like a very complicated move since the bike shop ought to have been able to change the tube and tire while she waited, but maybe she
didn't have any money on her? Who knows.

Well they say no good deed goes unpunished... I then encountered 2 wrong-way cyclists on the bridge. I said "You are on the WRONG side of the road!" They yelled back, in either a foreign language, or gibberish. In any case they yelled louder than me so I guess they won. It was like "la la la la I can't hear you." Somehow we've got to get better enforcement on wrong way cyclists.

The bridge is our only hill here and it's not really that high but the approaches have a 5' marked path, narrowing to 3' on the actual bridge itself. Coming down the hill at 30mph, headed straight for wrong way cyclists coming UP on the wrong side of the road forces a giant game of chicken and sends someone out into the traffic lane, where the cars are going, yes, 50-60mph. This is not my idea of fun. We have a lot of summer workers here for seasonal jobs, mostly from eastern Europe, and it seems like most of them persist in riding on the left....

And if that wasn't enough excitement for one ride, I had to stop at a light about 2 miles from my office. I unclipped left side as usual, and must have been distracted cause I promtply went down on the right. Got my foot out, but not in time to stop the fall. There is a small breakfast spot there where people eat out on the deck. About 5 people from the restaurant came running to my aid, including most of that town's police force. Breakfast meeting? I insisted I was fine (albeit an idiot), but took the opportunity to express my disgust at wrong way cyclists and the danger they present to the other cyclists, and cars. Then I was on my way.

Thankfully my ride home was uneventful if you don't count the 13 miles of headwinds.

Martha

[DDH]

Well, I set out this morning about 10:45 (way to late, for TX) to take my sons game back to Blockbuster. Decided I was going to ride my bike to town. Got to blockbuster and dropped the game off and it was only about 5 miles there and I wanted to ride longer today, so I called my dad and asked him if I rode over there would he bring me home cause that would make about 12 miles and I didn't think I could go another 12 miles to ride home in this heat. He said he would, so I headed through town to my dad's taking what I thought would be the safest route. Had no problems. I got there about noonish. I sat around for a while cause he was on the phone with the satelite folks cause his was messed up. I filled my water bottle back up with ice and water and stuck it in the freezer so it would stay cold and stuck my gaotrade that I had left in there too.
I got cooled off and decided that I thought I could go ahead and ride my bike back home. So about 1 o'clcok I set off for home. It's another 12 miles from my dads to my house. I headed back a different route so I wouldn't have to go through the main part of town. I went the back way, now mind you it is still heavily traveled and the speed is higher but the roads are wider and it's easier for cars to get around me. Plus many parts of it have large shoulders. Anyway, I made it. There was a couple of times I wasn't sure if I was going to, but you know, once you start, who wants to wimp out and call somebody. LOL
All in all I rode 23.1 miles today at an average speed of 11.8 mph. I had the about an hour break in between which is the only reason I was able to do it in the heat. When I left my dad's at 1 it was 97 degrees and getting hotter quickly.
We have had 3 weeks straight of over 100 degree weather. I am so ready for it to start cooling off.

[KSH]

Well, I set out this morning about 10:45 (way to late, for TX) to take my sons game back to Blockbuster. Decided I was going to ride my bike to town. Got to blockbuster and dropped the game off and it was only about 5 miles there and I wanted to ride longer today, so I called my dad and asked him if I rode over there would he bring me home cause that would make about 12 miles and I didn't think I could go another 12 miles to ride home in this heat. He said he would, so I headed through town to my dad's taking what I thought would be the safest route. Had no problems. I got there about noonish. I sat around for a while cause he was on the phone with the satelite folks cause his was messed up. I filled my water bottle back up with ice and water and stuck it in the freezer so it would stay cold and stuck my gaotrade that I had left in there too.
I got cooled off and decided that I thought I could go ahead and ride my bike back home. So about 1 o'clcok I set off for home. It's another 12 miles from my dads to my house. I headed back a different route so I wouldn't have to go through the main part of town. I went the back way, now mind you it is still heavily traveled and the speed is higher but the roads are wider and it's easier for cars to get around me. Plus many parts of it have large shoulders. Anyway, I made it. There was a couple of times I wasn't sure if I was going to, but you know, once you start, who wants to wimp out and call somebody. LOL
All in all I rode 23.1 miles today at an average speed of 11.8 mph. I had the about an hour break in between which is the only reason I was able to do it in the heat. When I left my dad's at 1 it was 97 degrees and getting hotter quickly.
We have had 3 weeks straight of over 100 degree weather. I am so ready for it to start cooling off.

I ride in Texas. It's barely tolerable to hit the bike around 11-12! Congrats for getting out in it! Doing that many miles in the heat we have here... is impressive.