road Excitement

Hello,

I have joined a yoga group in town that meets at the state park about four miles from the house. I drove out two times and decided that I really should ride the bike because that would be a nice ride except for the short stretch on the highway.

It was a good ride and there were almost no vehicles out there at 7:30 in the morning so I set off with confidence this morning. When I reached the highway I waited for a car to pass, but started when I saw something quite a distance away. Before I could get the fourth mile down the road I could see and hear that it was a semi coming quite rapidly. Although I did not like to do it I pulled between and a little over the rumble strip on the side of the pavement. There is still a narrow foot wide swath of pavement before the drop off to the unpaved shoulder. I felt ok there, but realized that the truck seemed to be picking up speed as we were meeting a car so there was no hope of any extra room. I gave my self a little pep talk, “Hang on Paula. Be prepared for wind.” I managed to remain upright, but the force of the wind was great enough to blow my review mirror out of place.

When I told Leroy about it at noon he said, “You were lucky. A guy at the last baptism told me that he was blown over by a semi before he even knew what had happened. His hands were still on the handlebars. He got bruises some scratches and cracked his helmet.”

My plan is if I see a semi coming behind me to get off the road and walk far to the edge. Hopefully I will see them in enough time that I can get off without falling over from the drop off. Trick riding might be a good skill to have.

I am enjoying the yoga with the sun sparkling on the lake. It is beautiful and peaceful. We are under a shelter that has been swept of any fecal matter from birds or bats. We also use mats.

Paula