128th ride - 10/10/2015

Well, today's ride ended with an incident that was more than even this admitted adrenalin junkie enjoyed. This one, however, can be blamed on neither TerraTrike nor Jack's Bicycle.

I went out a little past 8:00 a.m., and it was very cold—we got the season's first frost last night, and I should have worn gloves, but didn't. I had planned to do a longer ride, but the conditions and my lack of appropriate apparel made me pretty quickly decide to just "settle" for a single round trip to Marsh Park.

I got there fine and was headed back, just having crossed State, when I stopped for a moment, and while I was sitting there, a man came by walking, grinned, and said, "You sure put a lot of miles on that thing! I see you out here a lot." I told him (with my fingers), "1800 miles this year." He laughed, "You do really well!" I said, "I try," and he replied, "No—you do it!"

I showed my card explaining why I can't speak clearly, and we visited for just a minute; when I asked him his name, he told me, "Carl." Then before I rode away, he asked, "How old are you?" I told him, "Fifty-eight," and asked, "And you?" He told me he was 56, so I said, "Close!"

Anyway, I left him behind as I continued on toward our condo, and when I reached Ellsworth Rd., just less than a mile before home, I was waiting to cross the road, when a navy blue SUV came whipping around the corner at a high rate of speed and clipped my pedal. Thankfully, I was untouched and uninjured, but the force was sufficient to snap my chain. I was glad to be that close to home, and so locked the bike up to a nearby pole, walked home, told Michelle I was going to Dearborn (she looked up from her pillow and sleepily told me, "I'm sorry"), got the car, went back down there, disassembled the trike, loaded it into the car, and then headed for Jack's Bicycle in Dearborn, my home-away-from-home. I didn't have to be at Jack's too long today, and when I went to leave, I asked, "What do I owe you?" Richard just waved it off—I think they must be starting to feel sorry for me.