June 26, 2014
I have mulled this post over on many occasions and today’s as good a day as any to get it out. Unfortunately, the people to whom I’m writing this in my head are not likely to read my blog but take the complimentary parts as my thanks to you.
When I am on the road all day, there are a few things I wish I could impart to motorists as the speed by and on with their life. We may be a nuisance on the road but in the grand scheme of things or even in that particular car trip, only a momentary blip. But you might want to think of the cyclists on the road as triple score opportunities for your karma, heavenly reward, good vibes, or what have you. We spend a lot of time negotiating, promising, pleading with the highway gods so you’d rather have us bless than curse you. It takes very little effort on your part to please us. Give us a few feet of room, maybe ease up on the gas for a moment. It won’t really make a difference to your trip but makes mine a lot less stressful. As cyclists, we love getting encouragements whether a honk or wave. But don’t honk behind or beside us; it scares the living bejesus out of us. Honk and wave once you passed and you’ll see us grinning and waving back in your rearview.
There is realm of eternal car jams waiting for a few motorists. Where the car in front never moves and if you change lanes, it stops too. When there is an empty lane beside you and you hug the white line, smell the never ending exhaust. It’s coming. When you try to pass a car, I count as oncoming traffic. To you it might look like there’s plenty of room but from my seat I only see an accelerating vehicle barreling towards me. You’ll have a lot of time to think about that one. And to those of you who appear to be trying to see if you can make a cyclists jump or swerve into the ditch by honking at their back or getting as close as possible, there’s another layer of car jams where you’ll be fighting off squiggy kids with an endless road heat and a broken AC.
The majority of the time I’m grateful by how generous drivers are on the road. They give me a lot of space, slow down, and seem generally good-willed. Thank you to all of you.
Road Report: ~157km
The road from Espanola into Sudbury is horrendous, atrocious, and I could go on. The shoulder isn’t passable at times. There are ruts that run along the road so you have to be careful not to get your tire stuck, which would wipe you out, and there are cracks across the highways that jolt you every so many yards. Past Sudbury the road improves markedly for about 50km and then the terrors return. Have the road crews simply given up?