from the saddle: earth day, 2008

it was a wonderful spring day: sunny, warm, light northerly wind. great day for two-wheeled travel, right? put it in this context:

1--as i roll out on my scooter to motorpace a few teammates, we are accosted and nearly run over [less than 3 inches, maybe] by a pudge in a small pickup [license plate "snowdog"] who says "i didn't do anything!"

2--as a very large group rolls out of town from bike world, and a natural split twice happens, none-the-less, too many people whose riding strength exceeds their bike-handling skills allows a re-groupment and the inevitable and yet totally avoidable takes place: idiots overlapping the wheels of folks who have no business mixing it up with those around them, sudden braking, and--boom--ass over handlebars, and a bloody and broken face results. kelli goes to hospital after the 3 stooges medical team initially clears her for private transport. 3--the resident of the home at the scene of the crash, when asked for a bag of ice, said, "you guys oughta be on a bike trail," and then sits on the porch, watching in what appeared to be disgust as the events unfolded.

4--later that evening, as i was picking up a couple of badly needed donations to the bike kollective [two highly desired schwinn town and country tricycles], i learned that some anonymous motorist called bike world to complain that "those bikers were going too fast."

.....

lesson learned: stupidity comes in all forms on earth day.