Today, on my ride home, on one of the shaded streets I tend to favor when it is over 100F, I encountered a salmon. Actually, it was somewhat lucky I didn't run into a salmon. Ho, hum, some of you may be thinking, salmon are all over the place. I've even posted about salmon on bikes. Well, this was no "bicyclis vulgaris gutteria." This was a full blooded Texas Proud salmon. I didn't get a whole lot of details other than it was blue, 90's Japanese hatchback, and all of a sudden I was headed straight toward her grille.
I was just coming up on the ET mailbox which marks a right turn on my route. From the other direction came the blue car, driven by an older lady. As she completed her left and then kept coming until she straightened in a good lane position had she been in the UK. This is not a situation I practice for. If she were going off the road, swerving right would do me little good. If she realized she wasn't still back in England, swerving left would be even worse. I was too startled to yell. All I did was slow down and hope that it wouldn't hurt too much. For anyone reading this that likes riding the wrong way because it'll give you a chance to jump off your bike, all I can say is cycle a block in my shoes before you say such again. Actually, 50 feet is plenty.
As my pulse and blood pressure dropped after she suddenly realized she was about to encounter a cyclist head on and swerved back to the RIGHT side of the road, related thoughts passed through my head. We had a news feature this morning about "Hot Car Death." It hadn't crossed my mind that the milder form of "Hot Car Fuzzy" might represent a danger to me. Still, my favorite theory is that motorist salmon have formed a breeding population of Texas Salmon. These have been appearing frequently (like a couple of times a week) where they drive the wrong way down a freeway or toll road until the odds catch up with them. Great graphics.
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8 comments:
That is not the only thing Texas has going for it. My spouse and I drove every state in the union professionally and Texas is the only state where we regularly encountered people cruising at highway speed on the shoulder.
I want to emphasize "regularly" as meaning everyday. Other states, maybe once a year if they had a flat.
I had someone swerving in front of me last night. Then this person stopped at the stop sign for a good 3 minutes. I waited for a minute to see if this person was okay, but then I saw them fumbling around on the passenger seat for something (probably the darn phone), all the while merrily parked right smack in the middle of the street. I eventually had to pass (overtake) this person....
Anyways, be safe out there; as safe as you can be!
Peace :)
We are in sync now. I stopped for a head-scratcher on Friday morning with a salmon parking job straight through the bike lane. Car empty, engine running. Glad yours saw you in time.
Even the salmon are bigger in Texas
That's the way life is isn't it. It's just all mundane hum-drum and the next moment, your hurtling into the void for the final appointment. Fortunately, yours was rescheduled.
I don't know about "hurtling into the void for the final appointment," but it would have certainly been a real owie. Now those guys on the freeway, that's a whole 'nother level of energy involved at impact.
"Hurtling into the void for the final appointment" is pretty good imagery. Steve, be careful out there. You encounter stuff I never see.
I was nearly squashed by a driver rounding the curve in my neighborhood. I was as far to the right as I could get, and yet he kept coming. He finally looked up at the last minute and saw my bright yellow shirt and jerked back into his lane... just before I had to figure out how to unclip and abandon the bike in one move.
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No Need for Non-Robot proof here!