What's Your Record?
Yesterday I embarked upon the 80 miler from Rasmussen's out to Winterset and back with a small group from the Death Squad and PRC.
After returning home from church I geared up and headed towards Rassy's. I went through the condo's to the east of my house to get to Grand Ave. Going left on Grand I cut a guy off that was 200 yards back coming up the road. He was an older guy that decided to lay on the horn from 100 yards away till he passed me. I shook him off and waved him on, give me a break old man, I was completely in control of the maneuver. Although it made me mad I conceded that I was probably to one to blame this time and accepted my own criticism.
Now on Railroad Ave I decided to take a left on 4th street through Valley Junction to cut over to the shop. 4th Street is a "one-way" street with lots of shops and parking spots. I was doing less then the speed limit when a car came through the intersection to my left. I quickly swerved to the right to miss it thinking he was going to turn left onto the one way. It was just then he turned right???? What the???? I grabbed a handful of brakes pushing the bike into a power slide while maintaining a 4" barrier from this guys brand new Audi. (I have respect for Audi's otherwise I would've probably not tried as hard to miss it). Now he and I were parked in the same spot so I politely knocked on the window. The passenger was startled to see me, (after all neither of them had looked right before entering the one way). She rolled the window down and in the calmest voice I could muster up I said, "you may want to look in the direction of the traffic flow before blowing through a stop sign, you almost killed me". The lady started to tell me that I should...as I immediately interrupted her..."Lady, I was going straight on a one way and you blew the stop sign, I'm clearly in the right here and you are in the wrong".
What made me the most angry, was they didn't even apologize for almost killing me. Being as though the message at church was still running through my mind I decided to leave well enough alone and continue my travels to the shop.
Made to the shop and started the ride to Winterset. Lou, Tony, Jason, (Jane Riessen's new squeeze), and I broke off the front and made it to Hwy 169 first. We decided to double back and ride to Jane, Kelli, Jason, Rich and the others. As we met up with them we did a 180 and started back to Winterset. I was the last to do a U-turn, I looked up the street and saw a small SUV coming but was far enough away that making the turn would be no problem. As I made the turn I heard this guys horn on full push!! As I looked back he was heading right for me, so I decided to kind of move to the middle of the lane to antagonize him more. As he came around me I stopped and yelled, "We have just as much right on this road as you". He stopped and rolled down his passenger window and started yelling, "you can't just turn around when traffic is coming, that was stupid, I ride bikes too and you can't do that" The passenger started to yell using a bunch of F-Bombs which immediately tips me off that he lacks intelligence and uses these words to vocally mask his lower IQ. We exchanged heated words when I finally decided that I had enough and said, "thank you for your concern, I'll consider that next time I turn in the road, now move on" I think the passenger was ready to get out till he looked up the road and saw 6 bikers coming at him. Lou then rode up the car and offered an apology and told the guy to move on cause he was now blocking traffic.
How many times in one ride have you been yelled at like this? I just set my new record at 3 times in one ride. I'm not sure if the long winter has caused most people to become pent up with anger, but I've never experienced a spring like this one before. Lots of very angry people out there. I can only hope that people calm down a bit and realize that bike riders have rights to the roads too.
After returning home from church I geared up and headed towards Rassy's. I went through the condo's to the east of my house to get to Grand Ave. Going left on Grand I cut a guy off that was 200 yards back coming up the road. He was an older guy that decided to lay on the horn from 100 yards away till he passed me. I shook him off and waved him on, give me a break old man, I was completely in control of the maneuver. Although it made me mad I conceded that I was probably to one to blame this time and accepted my own criticism.
Now on Railroad Ave I decided to take a left on 4th street through Valley Junction to cut over to the shop. 4th Street is a "one-way" street with lots of shops and parking spots. I was doing less then the speed limit when a car came through the intersection to my left. I quickly swerved to the right to miss it thinking he was going to turn left onto the one way. It was just then he turned right???? What the???? I grabbed a handful of brakes pushing the bike into a power slide while maintaining a 4" barrier from this guys brand new Audi. (I have respect for Audi's otherwise I would've probably not tried as hard to miss it). Now he and I were parked in the same spot so I politely knocked on the window. The passenger was startled to see me, (after all neither of them had looked right before entering the one way). She rolled the window down and in the calmest voice I could muster up I said, "you may want to look in the direction of the traffic flow before blowing through a stop sign, you almost killed me". The lady started to tell me that I should...as I immediately interrupted her..."Lady, I was going straight on a one way and you blew the stop sign, I'm clearly in the right here and you are in the wrong".
What made me the most angry, was they didn't even apologize for almost killing me. Being as though the message at church was still running through my mind I decided to leave well enough alone and continue my travels to the shop.
Made to the shop and started the ride to Winterset. Lou, Tony, Jason, (Jane Riessen's new squeeze), and I broke off the front and made it to Hwy 169 first. We decided to double back and ride to Jane, Kelli, Jason, Rich and the others. As we met up with them we did a 180 and started back to Winterset. I was the last to do a U-turn, I looked up the street and saw a small SUV coming but was far enough away that making the turn would be no problem. As I made the turn I heard this guys horn on full push!! As I looked back he was heading right for me, so I decided to kind of move to the middle of the lane to antagonize him more. As he came around me I stopped and yelled, "We have just as much right on this road as you". He stopped and rolled down his passenger window and started yelling, "you can't just turn around when traffic is coming, that was stupid, I ride bikes too and you can't do that" The passenger started to yell using a bunch of F-Bombs which immediately tips me off that he lacks intelligence and uses these words to vocally mask his lower IQ. We exchanged heated words when I finally decided that I had enough and said, "thank you for your concern, I'll consider that next time I turn in the road, now move on" I think the passenger was ready to get out till he looked up the road and saw 6 bikers coming at him. Lou then rode up the car and offered an apology and told the guy to move on cause he was now blocking traffic.
How many times in one ride have you been yelled at like this? I just set my new record at 3 times in one ride. I'm not sure if the long winter has caused most people to become pent up with anger, but I've never experienced a spring like this one before. Lots of very angry people out there. I can only hope that people calm down a bit and realize that bike riders have rights to the roads too.



Death Squad Represenatives: