A Sort of Good Idea

Yesterday was one of those days where you wonder what is going on inside your head.

Here's want I mean. My little Ranger had the transmission rebuilt about 3 weeks ago, along with the cooling system and the timing chain. All was good for the three weeks then the "O/D OFF" signal kept coming on and the transmission would slam into each gear. Not what you really want in an old rebuilt truck. It got especially annoying while running to the store. So I decided to take the truck back in to the shop.

My bride is back in the groove at work, it was her first day, she didn't need me calling and trying to work this out. I'm a pretty resourceful guy, so what do I have at hand that I can use to get this truck to the shop and me home. Hiding in the garage is a bicycle that my bride had bought not long ago. So it seems to me that I could toss the bike in the back of the Ranger, take my Ranger to the shop, and cycle home. I see folks riding around all the time in our corner of the world. How hard could it be?

So I aired up the tires (by the way, how much psi is there in bicycle tires? Apparently 30lbs is too little) loaded the bike in the back of the truck and headed out. At the shop they were assured that it was a minor adjustment and wanted to know if I could leave the truck.
"No problem, I brought my bike and will just cycle home."
A look of amazement mixed with skepticism.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely!" I love surprising folks.
"Well, be careful there are some nutty drivers out there."

So I hopped on the bike only to have the pedals go spinning without providing any forward traction. Hmm. This is interesting, I'm going to have to learn this whole "gear" thing while heading down the road. When I was a kid the "gears" were simply a matter of how fast and hard you could pedal. I didn't have these problems with my old stingray with the banana seat. Steering and balance are no problem, but as I look at the front tire it looks really flat...I needed more than 30lbs pressure.

Here are some observations about riding a bike on the access road to a major freeway.
The sign on the back of gravel trucks is wrong. It says "Stay Back 200 feet. Not responsible for broken windshields." Okay, the truck is responsible for broken windshields, the gravel doesn't just jump from the side of the road on its own and crack the windshield. It falls off the truck and bounces about head-high to a bicyclist, or a windshield. The sign should read, "Stay back 200 feet. We will not take responsibility for broken windshields"
Second observation: there are a lot more hills between my house and the shop than I would have guessed. And apparently my house is a lot higher elevation than the shop. Who knew?
Thirdly, yesterday was the hottest day since summer of 2008. 107 degrees. I didn't decide until after lunch to go. So in my cargo shorts, tee-shirt, and golf hat I managed to get a pretty good work out in the 3.7 miles from the shop to my house. Legs were fine..air intake a problem.

Finally, cars and trucks are mentally set up to cut as close to a cyclist as they can get without actually scratching up their vehicle. I tried not to think how far into the pasture I would be boosted if those nuts blasting off the highway onto the access road had misjudged their distance from me. But they all blew on by and missed me by at 6 inches or so.

So the truck is being fine-tuned. I survived the cycling adventure. The temperature today is only supposed to be 99 or so.

Godspeed out there. Isn't it nice to know that 40 years have not diluted my ability to make the same decisions that came so easily to me as a teenager?
Don