Wood-chuck

#126

Tuesday, November 15th
About 10 miles or so

Today I had a physical therapy appointment (complete strangers mashing on my poor right shoulder) so, since it is very close to my house and it is a beautiful sunny day, I rode my bike.

I had also planned to pick up 15lbs of dogfood at the pet store, so I loaded all the usual top-bag stuff into my panniers to clear the top of the rack for dog food toting, and threw in a random assortment of bungie cords and cargo nets.

Physical therapy out of the way, I made an exciting left turn to continue on past the airport to the shopping center.

The orange plane is in the middle of 'touch and goes'

I saw some signs indicating construction ahead. Then I got to sit in traffic just like a real vehicle!
Yes, there is a shoulder there, but I make it a practice to take the lane when traffic speeds allow me to do so. That way, I'm right in front of the guy behind me and I won't suddenly 'appear' out of nowhere.

There was a crew trimming trees and turning them into wood chips. The guys on the crew cheered me on when the line of traffic got moving and I was cruising along trying not to hold up the truck behind me.

It turned out the pet store did not have the right dogfood. I could have ridden 3 miles more and gone to the feed store in the next town, but that would have meant two trips through a horrible intersection.

So I left my bungie cords in the bag, stopped at Subway for a sandwich, chatted to a fellow about tadpole trikes for a minute, then pedaled back to the house. I'll pick up dog food tomorrow with the car. Then I can get the 30# bag instead of the 15.

El Dorado has gutter pans intruding into the few bike lanes in the county. One might think that it would be reasonable to ride on the concrete section of the bike 'lane' but that would be a Bad Thing.

It is impossible to see in this photo, but the outlined green triangle is a sudden drop-off to direct water into the sewer system. If you dropped a wheel anywhere in that area you'd probably go down. I suspect that it would be quite easy to flip a trike on one of those.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day to ride, wood chippers, SUVs, and gutter pans notwithstanding.