Llama Road Kill (Almost)

It has been a long hard 3 days since I returned from Georgia. I have pushed myself hard and had a lot of fun with it. After doing 7 miles worth of errands on Tuesday, I went out that evening for a quick 3 mile ride to make 10 for the day.

Yesterday, I left for the Wednesday night service at church early and asked my wife to pick me up on the way whenever she caught up to me. I went down a fairly busy stretch of road that I had never ridden before. I should have known it would be more difficult when I had to cross the interstate (I-95). That was an adventure, but it was funny watching the reaction from teh driver behind me.

We were stopped at a traffic light immediately before the interstate. I was looking around, and I could see that he didn't like having a cyclist in front of him. Fortunately, we were on a slight downgrade, and I was able to get myself up to about 22 mph or so, and slingshot myself up the overpass. He was visibly impressed when he passed me half-way up the hill. He even gave me a "thumbs up."

That was all fine and dandy. The bad part came when I was on the rightmost of the four lane divided highway (two lanes in each direction). Most of the vehicles were passing in the left hand lane, which is greatly appreciated. (As a sidenote, if you see a cyclist, give him plenty of room on the road!!)

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a semi came past me with about 6 inches to spare!! It scared the ever living crap out of me!! Years ago, I drove buses, and I learned that 6 inches it more than enough room, but it still scared me when I wans't expecting it. Now, in all fairness, the trucker had cars in the next lane and could not move over, and I understand that he didn't/couldn't clow down just for a cyclist. But whoa.... that was something.

I had to stop for a few moments to collect my thoughts... which, now that I think about it, is better than stopping to collect body parts. Still it shook me up and I ended up going slower for the rest of the evening. That was why I only managed to do 10 miles. Nonetheless, I made it to the county line, which was definitely an accomplishment.

Speaking of accomplishments, with today's ride, I have managed 26 miles in 3 days! (I would have gone further today, but the rain was eminent, and I didn't want to get wet.) Tomorrow I will step on the scale and see if there is any progress.