Back in the saddle: an 117 miler

The ride

Let’s talk about goslings. Adorable, but useless. They’re fluffy, cute, and lacking in survival skills. If you get too close to them, they’ll imprint on you and start following you away from their mother and siblings. Useless. Baby turkeys (called poults¹), on the other hand, are the perfect image of Darwinian fitness. I spotted a hen with her children in the road in front of me, and before I could even finish thinking “baby turkeys!”, the whole lot had lifted off and flown above a telephone pole into the shelter of a tree.

Other fowl sightings: I disturbed a flock of guinea fowl while they crossed a road. They retreated, making disgruntled noises. I also saw a hawk! It soared alongside the road, hugging the tree line. I watched it until the road and cars demanded my attention once again.

Speaking of attention (or lack thereof), late into the ride, on the Southerly approach to Boston, a solitary cyclist (spandex, goofy cycling sunglasses, etc.) zipped past me. From my vantage point in the rear, I watched as he attempted to merge, blind, into a busy lane of 40mph cars. Drivers blared their horns, and he managed a wave that bordered between a greeting and an apology. He finished this gosling-worthy display of disregard for self-preservation by riding in the blissfully empty oncoming lane, before finally turning off onto a quieter street.

I pulled into an intersection next to a car that had been forced to brake by the cyclist. The driver had his window rolled down. He called out, “Do you think that this … what you’re doing is safe?” I responded, “I think that what I’m doing is safe, yeah.” The light changed, he started to drive away, and called out, “Just think about that, okay?” I do, and I did.

If I had had time and my wits about me, I would have apologized for the other cyclist’s behavior and impressed that not all of us are dangers to ourselves and others, much the same way that not all drivers are actively malicious. I wished that I had had more time to talk to him, and his response and delivery struck me as fair. If you were that driver, get in touch! I’d love to continue our conversation.

There was one other human interaction late into the ride as I was sprinting up a hill. I let out a long guttural groan of exertion. From above me came a friendly cry of, “You got this!”. I looked around, searching, and saw a young woman smiling and waving from her balcony. “Oh, thank you!” I called out, “Have a good one!”. She replied, “You too!”, waving goodbye.

One quick closing note: the bike trail in Woonsocket, RI that impressed me on a previous ride was the Blackstone River Bikeway. If you’re in the area, I’d highly recommend giving it a visit.

Off nominal

My hands and knuckles have been hurting me recently. I think that this is due to unrelated weight-lifting stresses, but cycling aggravates it. I’m working on building up hand and wrist strength. We’ll see if that helps.

The route