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I found BONES!
Ok so anyway, I did. I got out on my bike today, and so first I headed out of South Park and up Brown street towards Univdersity of Dayton. You know, seriously you'd think that in a city known for being bike friendly, that has bicycle paths and bike lanes painted on the roads all over town that people would understand that when I am in a lane it is MY LANE. Especially riding right thoughthe UD Ghetto practically on the campus.
Three rules:
1) Do not honk at me because I'm not going as fast as you want me to. I challenge you to manage to go 10 mph in a stiff headwind up Brown Street any day of the week. Let's see how far you get. And if you're honking at me from your car, I can pretty much guarantee that you can't do it, or you'd know better.
2) WHEN you pass me, and you will, and that's fine, do not pass me half in the other lane and half in mine. This is MY LANE and you need to understand that I am NOT required to ride in the gutter so that you can pass me without changing lanes. In fact, the gutter is not safe as it is full sewer grates designed to capture bicycle tires, and especially this time of year potholes and gravel bound to cause a wipeout. You have no right at all to get angry if I'm riding in the middle of the lane where it is safe, and you are in fact required by law to change lanes to go around me.
3) I am NOT required to ride on the sidewalk even when you shout at me to do so. In fact, it is not only illegal for me to do so, it is very dangerous for me, and for the pedestrians walking there. Please shut up and enjoy the bird I will show you when you do shout at me to get on the sidewalk.
These people may not have even noticed that we were all stopping at the same red lights and that the cars were in fact NOT progressing any faster than I was because I also had to stop at each light. Why are people in such a damn hurry to get to a red light anyway?
Ok so that's the limit of my ranting. Now for my story. With BONES!
Ok so I rode up brown street to Springhouse, at which point I got tired of rude assholes and turned towards Far Hills. The map doesn't show it, but there is actually a driveway there that goes down into the Old River Park. For whatever that's worth. I found it very disappointing given that the entire park is separated from the road by a 10 foot high chain link fence with barbed wire three wire keep out toppers. The only way to get into the park is to turn into a gravelly old beater of a parking lot that is slowly being reclaimed by nature because of it's 100% lack of maintenance. Every other entrance into it is locked, all other exits out of the park are also locked or blocked. if I rode out across the various soccer fields etc, there was the same chain link fence without a break all the way around it even blocking the way onto the bike path that ran along the outside edge of the fence. in fact even if I didn't turn in the road dead ended and there was no way to get to the pathway which would have led me to the River Corridor path which I had hoped to travel back on. WTF? That sucked.
Well, so anyway, I climbed back up and out of there, but first, I looked over to my left out into at barren field recently planted with fresh grass it seems, and I was like "WOAH! That kind of looks like a skull! So I have to go investigate. It was hard work the field was boggy, and that was unexpected as it looked really dry and hard. I was pretty surprised when I stepped off and got my cleats full of mud from that mushy earth. Here's what I saw.
I was like "Woot! I found a fossil!
But it wasn't a fossil.
Only the skull and part of the spine are left.
I originally thought this was a dog.
Even after I turned the skull over to get a look at it's teeth. But now that I look at it, I think it must be a deer or something. I think a carnivore would have the orbits of it's eyes facing more forward. I'm pretty sure now that it's a deer skull. Probably a white tail doe since there is not projection where the antlers would be on a buck. The lower mandible is completely missing, It looks like she might even have some teeny tiny canines sticking out there. Not as big as some I've seen, but still less than common.
Anyway, from there, I rode back up Far Hills/Main street to Dayton proper. Had another honker. Then a guy not paying any attention to what he was doing, apparently ASSUMED that I was going to turn on 5th though I had NOT indicated that I was, nor did I have any intention of doing so, as I don't like riding my bike up a brick road... and he passed me with barely 12 inches to spare, (the asshole) so that he could stop DIRECTLY in front of me at the red light I was already slowing for, and basically force me to practically jump off my bike to keep from wrecking. Thank goodness I was already out of my clips by the time he did that. And did I shout at him? YES. YES I did. I shouted at him to pay attention, and reminded him quite loudly that It was MY lane and that I was here first. He knew I was talking to him, because his windows were down and he was looking right at me while I gave him a piece of my mind. I even said "Yes I'm talking to you. You just RAN ME OUT OF MY LANE." This one at least had the sense to look a little sheepish about it before we went along our way.
Anyway, I had a good ride over all, though by the end I was pretty sick of stopping at EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT THERE COULD BE... and of drivers acting like somehow I was holding them up because heaven forfend they get to the red light just a little later than they would have if I hadn't been in the lane in front of them. These people are going to have to get used to me, because as the weather gets warmer, I will be out more and more, and I will ride on the roads where I belong.
So to the rest of you? If you don't know those three rules, please take them to heart. This is now the law in most states as the laws regarding cyclists are becoming more uniform. It is generally very unsafe for us to ride on sidewalks. They are harder on our bikes too, but there are far more obstacles, such as trees with low lying branches and trash cans, doors opening, sidewalk signs and pedestrians who are in fact the only ones supposed to be there. Also, please do not assume that just because there is a dedicated bicycle path nearby that the cyclist should be riding on it. You don't know that the path goes where that cyclist is going. Many many many cyclists use their bikes as their primary means of transportation. Honestly, it's how I prefer to go most of the summer if I am not going somewhere too far to ride in the time allotted. I go grocery shopping on my bike, library, meeting people and various other places weather permitting. The path usually doesn't go where I"m going, and much of my riding is not strictly recreational, or I'd be HAPPY to drive with my bike to the path, ride the path (the boring path that only goes one place, and is usually covered in stinky goose poop btw) and then drive my bike home if all I was after was recreation. Please just be courteous and understand that you are to share the road with cyclists whether they have motors or not. Thanks. Hope you liked my bones!
Three rules:
1) Do not honk at me because I'm not going as fast as you want me to. I challenge you to manage to go 10 mph in a stiff headwind up Brown Street any day of the week. Let's see how far you get. And if you're honking at me from your car, I can pretty much guarantee that you can't do it, or you'd know better.
2) WHEN you pass me, and you will, and that's fine, do not pass me half in the other lane and half in mine. This is MY LANE and you need to understand that I am NOT required to ride in the gutter so that you can pass me without changing lanes. In fact, the gutter is not safe as it is full sewer grates designed to capture bicycle tires, and especially this time of year potholes and gravel bound to cause a wipeout. You have no right at all to get angry if I'm riding in the middle of the lane where it is safe, and you are in fact required by law to change lanes to go around me.
3) I am NOT required to ride on the sidewalk even when you shout at me to do so. In fact, it is not only illegal for me to do so, it is very dangerous for me, and for the pedestrians walking there. Please shut up and enjoy the bird I will show you when you do shout at me to get on the sidewalk.
These people may not have even noticed that we were all stopping at the same red lights and that the cars were in fact NOT progressing any faster than I was because I also had to stop at each light. Why are people in such a damn hurry to get to a red light anyway?
Ok so that's the limit of my ranting. Now for my story. With BONES!
Ok so I rode up brown street to Springhouse, at which point I got tired of rude assholes and turned towards Far Hills. The map doesn't show it, but there is actually a driveway there that goes down into the Old River Park. For whatever that's worth. I found it very disappointing given that the entire park is separated from the road by a 10 foot high chain link fence with barbed wire three wire keep out toppers. The only way to get into the park is to turn into a gravelly old beater of a parking lot that is slowly being reclaimed by nature because of it's 100% lack of maintenance. Every other entrance into it is locked, all other exits out of the park are also locked or blocked. if I rode out across the various soccer fields etc, there was the same chain link fence without a break all the way around it even blocking the way onto the bike path that ran along the outside edge of the fence. in fact even if I didn't turn in the road dead ended and there was no way to get to the pathway which would have led me to the River Corridor path which I had hoped to travel back on. WTF? That sucked.
Well, so anyway, I climbed back up and out of there, but first, I looked over to my left out into at barren field recently planted with fresh grass it seems, and I was like "WOAH! That kind of looks like a skull! So I have to go investigate. It was hard work the field was boggy, and that was unexpected as it looked really dry and hard. I was pretty surprised when I stepped off and got my cleats full of mud from that mushy earth. Here's what I saw.
I was like "Woot! I found a fossil!
But it wasn't a fossil.
Only the skull and part of the spine are left.
I originally thought this was a dog.
Even after I turned the skull over to get a look at it's teeth. But now that I look at it, I think it must be a deer or something. I think a carnivore would have the orbits of it's eyes facing more forward. I'm pretty sure now that it's a deer skull. Probably a white tail doe since there is not projection where the antlers would be on a buck. The lower mandible is completely missing, It looks like she might even have some teeny tiny canines sticking out there. Not as big as some I've seen, but still less than common.
Anyway, from there, I rode back up Far Hills/Main street to Dayton proper. Had another honker. Then a guy not paying any attention to what he was doing, apparently ASSUMED that I was going to turn on 5th though I had NOT indicated that I was, nor did I have any intention of doing so, as I don't like riding my bike up a brick road... and he passed me with barely 12 inches to spare, (the asshole) so that he could stop DIRECTLY in front of me at the red light I was already slowing for, and basically force me to practically jump off my bike to keep from wrecking. Thank goodness I was already out of my clips by the time he did that. And did I shout at him? YES. YES I did. I shouted at him to pay attention, and reminded him quite loudly that It was MY lane and that I was here first. He knew I was talking to him, because his windows were down and he was looking right at me while I gave him a piece of my mind. I even said "Yes I'm talking to you. You just RAN ME OUT OF MY LANE." This one at least had the sense to look a little sheepish about it before we went along our way.
Anyway, I had a good ride over all, though by the end I was pretty sick of stopping at EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT THERE COULD BE... and of drivers acting like somehow I was holding them up because heaven forfend they get to the red light just a little later than they would have if I hadn't been in the lane in front of them. These people are going to have to get used to me, because as the weather gets warmer, I will be out more and more, and I will ride on the roads where I belong.
So to the rest of you? If you don't know those three rules, please take them to heart. This is now the law in most states as the laws regarding cyclists are becoming more uniform. It is generally very unsafe for us to ride on sidewalks. They are harder on our bikes too, but there are far more obstacles, such as trees with low lying branches and trash cans, doors opening, sidewalk signs and pedestrians who are in fact the only ones supposed to be there. Also, please do not assume that just because there is a dedicated bicycle path nearby that the cyclist should be riding on it. You don't know that the path goes where that cyclist is going. Many many many cyclists use their bikes as their primary means of transportation. Honestly, it's how I prefer to go most of the summer if I am not going somewhere too far to ride in the time allotted. I go grocery shopping on my bike, library, meeting people and various other places weather permitting. The path usually doesn't go where I"m going, and much of my riding is not strictly recreational, or I'd be HAPPY to drive with my bike to the path, ride the path (the boring path that only goes one place, and is usually covered in stinky goose poop btw) and then drive my bike home if all I was after was recreation. Please just be courteous and understand that you are to share the road with cyclists whether they have motors or not. Thanks. Hope you liked my bones!
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Year before that, I actually advertised on Craig's list for someone to ride with regularly. All I got were males for one thing, and though everyone I talked to seemed nice, I have to wonder if they were thinking of riding as a way to get a date. The one guy I did ride with could keep up with me, but he had all this stupid gear like he wanted me to think he was hardcore. We rode about 10 miles almost all road and much of it into unexplored territory "Hmm where does this road go? I think it might hook in with Brown School Rd, and come back over to Valley St. Wanna go up it and see?" and I'm not sure he was the Explorer type. We only rode one time, and he never suggested it again. I'm thinking it's more because I made it super clear right at the start that I was so not looking for someone to date.
I got to a point where I realized that if I wanted to ride that I'd better just buck up and learn to enjoy riding alone. I'd still rather have company, but company that doesn't need to show off, wants to cruise at a decent rate, and just enjoy ourselves. Now that I'm in Dayton at least I have more options of where to go. A wider selection of paths if I want paths, and a wider variety of roads and neighborhoods, destinations and sight seeing stops.
My only real gripe is too many places have absolutely NO PLACE to lock up a bike if you want to stop and go inside. No bike rack, no horse rings, no fence rails, nothing. Personally I think old style horse rings would look quite nice in front of establishments. This isn't New York City, so it's not like someone will take off with both your tires if you don't use some intricate locking mechanism to make sure both wheels are also locked to the bike and the bike locked to the post. But we need things that we CAN lock our bikes to. I had to lock mine to a trash can lid to go into the Dollar General to get a drink. O_o There were posts, but they were two feet in diameter and only waist high. IF I could get my cable AROUND that post and my bike, then all someone has to do is lift the bike up in the air until the cable comes off the top. WTF? Why not embed a few nice solid rings into that post? Dayton is a very bike friendly city, but some of the businesses are just clueless.
I don't know what to tell Gerry. If he can find someone to ride with me regularly I'll be glad to have company. Otherwise, I'm on my own.
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