Each morning this summer I would wake up and ride my bicycle to the gym to work out and then ride it on the return trip back home--ten mile round trip.
I ride the Feeder road on I-45 from the Dickinson Bayou to the gym at the new HEB shopping center at 646. The feeder road ride to the gym is fairly safe BUT coming home can be dangerous!
The area right in front of the Amoco Fed Credit Union all the way to Kroger has been a dangerous place for bicycles. I keep imagining in my mind that any day I am going to get plowed from behind by some angry motorist and my body will be tossed like a broken G.I. Joe toy soldier fifty yards away into the trees.
It seems to me that so many people in cars disregard the people riding their bikes. Bicycle riders frequent the I-45 feeder roads and each feeder road has TWO lanes. It is the people driving the cars 20 MILES an HOUR over the SPEED Limit and refuse to change into the open lane next to the bike rider.
You do not know how many times car's mirrors have barely missed my handle bar by less than a foot. They do it on purpose. Some people think bikes should not be on the road at all.
If there are 2 lanes WHY is it so HARD to get in the lane AWAY from the bicycle rider? These people fly by me in the same lane and barely miss me. The adrenalin rush that goes through me is sick! The other day I shook my fist at some guy in a toyota corolla as he flew by me and then turned into Whataburger. I caught up to him as he was getting out of his car.
I started hollering at him and he thought it was funny and just laughed and smiled and even "WAVED" at me! What a jerk!
The other vehicles that drive about 70 miles an hour right through there are big dump trucks. I wish the Dickinson police would set up a speed trap right in front of Heartbreakers! They could write tickets all morning.
Police? HAH! yesterday I'm riding in the evening through Dickinson. There is no traffic on the roads in any direction. I turn across the road into a parking lot and "WHOOP" I hear a police car cut his siren on for a second and so I turned around. The police car is behind me in the parking lot with his lights on. There are no cars anywhere in sight. It is almost dusk and the cop says to me," Why didn't you signal your turn?"
How many kids riding bikes signal turns? How many other people who don't have cars in the poor parts of town ride their kids bikes to the store, ever signal? This Sheriff Dept guy had one BIG EGO problem if he was so bored he had to stop me on a bicycle and interrogate me about using turn signals. At least I didn't get a ticket.
I think bike riders need paintball guns and when car drivers treat them as if they don't belong on the road and intimidate them with their cars the riders should be able to blast their cars with PAINT!
Tell everybody out there--be careful of the bike riders. They are getting in shape AND saving gas!
I hope nobody finds me lying in a ditch with a broken body just because some guy in a car decided I wasn't allowed on the feeder road.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
SO you want to go to Italy?
Italy sounds glamorous doesn't it? Rome, Florence, Venice...even the cities sound exotic and beautiful, and beautiful they are, to look at. The architechture is amazing, the history is interesting, the people are pretty dang rude, not all of them but a majority that we came in contact with. I guess they get tired of tourists. I also was not expecting it to be so scorching hot and humid. The heat I can take for a few hours but in that country they barely believe in Air Conditioners. It is sweltering in the ristorantes, in the stores, everywhere, even in the lobby of the hotels. The Italian idea of A/C is about 85 degrees.
Okay, so you adapt and walk 8 miles a day sightseeing in soaking wet clothes and you get used to sweating but when you sweat you get thirsty...I would think, "How about a coca cola? WELL...their drinks are smaller cans and smaller bottles and they cost about $5.00 instead of fifty cents or a dollar."
SO plan on bringing extra clothes because you will sweat through most of them and plan on bringing double the money you thought you would need. A McDonalds happy meal is about $12.00.
Once you realize it is going to cost you so much to eat and drink you think you would adapt...well once again they have signs saying,"DO not eat or drink sitting down on the curb or ground , (and there are no becnhes but there are plenty of empty seats of the sidewalk cafes BUT you can't sit there unless you pay to sit down."
Oh yeah, i almost forgot you have to pay to use the toilet---if you can find one anywhere, you might walk 4 miles before you find the toilette and then when you find it it is closed for the night at 8 pm."
There cars and scooters don't have to stop at red lights either, but hey, that's kinda cool. They dodge each other-now i could drive like that, i already do. Italy has zillions of scooters and they don't have any trucks. They have those SMart cars and other cars that are even smaller.
Now here is a funny observation, "So you want some ice in your drink-wine or cola or tea-well, you have to ask for ice and when they bring you some----IT IS ONLY ONE CUBE!" Ha!
Ice is like a precious gem over there, I think.
Another funny observation is about the Pizza. They invented pizza but WE invented those round bladed pizza cutters! When you order a pizza it is not cut up for you and they hand you a dull knife and fork to cut it. They don't have pizza cutters. I think somebody should open a pizza cutter shop and sell all kinds of them-you could make a lot of money.
The Italian rudeness, I encountered in each city, but the best example is this: Gayln and I were searching for a boat taxi place in Venice and having no luck finding it. It was frustrating and we had walked the entire waterfront twice. I told her i would go in the next big nice hotel and ask for directions. I entered the massive hotel Metropole and asked the man behind the front desk, "Can you tell me how to find the Servizio Boat place?"
He made a face and said, "Let me see..Servizio...hmm...oh, Are you a guest of the hotel?"
I replied, "No, not this hotel."
He folded his arms and said, "I do not know."
And that was that. Since we were staying at a different hotel he all of a sudden didn't know where it was. We later found it about a block away from that hotel.
We discovered alot of things and were amazed with the art and the history. We also found out why alot of people from Europe want to live in America. It was the only place where we were ready to come home early. Learning about Europe was good and it made me appreciate the U. S. even more. We have REAL A/C and full size cars and trucks, big cool drinks for less money, we're friendly, and we have PIZZA CUTTERS!
Okay, so you adapt and walk 8 miles a day sightseeing in soaking wet clothes and you get used to sweating but when you sweat you get thirsty...I would think, "How about a coca cola? WELL...their drinks are smaller cans and smaller bottles and they cost about $5.00 instead of fifty cents or a dollar."
SO plan on bringing extra clothes because you will sweat through most of them and plan on bringing double the money you thought you would need. A McDonalds happy meal is about $12.00.
Once you realize it is going to cost you so much to eat and drink you think you would adapt...well once again they have signs saying,"DO not eat or drink sitting down on the curb or ground , (and there are no becnhes but there are plenty of empty seats of the sidewalk cafes BUT you can't sit there unless you pay to sit down."
Oh yeah, i almost forgot you have to pay to use the toilet---if you can find one anywhere, you might walk 4 miles before you find the toilette and then when you find it it is closed for the night at 8 pm."
There cars and scooters don't have to stop at red lights either, but hey, that's kinda cool. They dodge each other-now i could drive like that, i already do. Italy has zillions of scooters and they don't have any trucks. They have those SMart cars and other cars that are even smaller.
Now here is a funny observation, "So you want some ice in your drink-wine or cola or tea-well, you have to ask for ice and when they bring you some----IT IS ONLY ONE CUBE!" Ha!
Ice is like a precious gem over there, I think.
Another funny observation is about the Pizza. They invented pizza but WE invented those round bladed pizza cutters! When you order a pizza it is not cut up for you and they hand you a dull knife and fork to cut it. They don't have pizza cutters. I think somebody should open a pizza cutter shop and sell all kinds of them-you could make a lot of money.
The Italian rudeness, I encountered in each city, but the best example is this: Gayln and I were searching for a boat taxi place in Venice and having no luck finding it. It was frustrating and we had walked the entire waterfront twice. I told her i would go in the next big nice hotel and ask for directions. I entered the massive hotel Metropole and asked the man behind the front desk, "Can you tell me how to find the Servizio Boat place?"
He made a face and said, "Let me see..Servizio...hmm...oh, Are you a guest of the hotel?"
I replied, "No, not this hotel."
He folded his arms and said, "I do not know."
And that was that. Since we were staying at a different hotel he all of a sudden didn't know where it was. We later found it about a block away from that hotel.
We discovered alot of things and were amazed with the art and the history. We also found out why alot of people from Europe want to live in America. It was the only place where we were ready to come home early. Learning about Europe was good and it made me appreciate the U. S. even more. We have REAL A/C and full size cars and trucks, big cool drinks for less money, we're friendly, and we have PIZZA CUTTERS!
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