A Slightly Off Day

Actually it was a nice, sunny breezy day and my class was cancelled, so I went out for a 35-mile ride in the afternoon. Unfortunately there seemed to be an unusually high proportion of bad drivers on the road. I was barely out of downtown Ferndale when two SUV's with British Columbia license plates passed me illegally in an intersection as I was making a left turn from the turn lane. Two cars almost crowded me off the pavement when I was riding near the edge of the lane on a road with no paved shoulder. I moved left, taking the traffic lane to keep following cars from passing too close, but the drivers continued to make dangerous passes, crowding both me and oncoming cars. I even got blocked in by two guys on skateboards on a fast downhill near the university. I was going faster than them and wanted to pass, but they were weaving across each other's paths trying to slow down. My eyeballs went nuts trying to track both of them at once. I finally had to pass them on the right while they zigzagged across two lanes.

Also, it's tent caterpillar season. Bleaggghh.

So it was not a fun day, despite the nice weather and unexpected mid-week day off.

To keep perspective, though, I remind myself of the many magazine stories I've read by or about people who have made solo long-distance bike trips. Almost every one of them admitted to melting down somewhere along the way, sometimes more than once, sometimes because they had crashed, been chased by a dog or harassed by drivers. But often there was no reason, other than fatigue, hunger, thirst, heat or cold, plus loneliness and homesickness.

Several times when I've been out rambling around the county for hours on some back road, I've suddenly been overwhelmed by a feeling of something or other, thinking "Why am I doing this? This is so dumb. What a waste of energy. What a waste of time. I could be back at home . . . "

Doing what? Keeping my cat company. Tidying up. Reading magazines about bicycle travel. Actually, I feel bad about leaving my cat home alone so much and I miss him if I'm gone overnight, but otherwise rambling around on a bike is better.