Last night’s trip around North Atlanta was one of the most frustrating and nerve-wracking that I have experienced in a long time; it made me yearn for the country roads of Rutledge.
I started out by getting stuck waiting for the the first four traffic lights I encountered. At two of the lights the only reason I didn’t make the green was because the cars ahead of me were not paying attention and didn’t move when they should have.
Things got not better from there as I was ambushed by traffic from every possible direction. In addition to the numerous fat, expensive SUVs that litter this part of the city I had to deal with:
- Construction which closed the intersection of Mount Vernon Highway at Sandy Springs Circle, which is part of my route. Of course this made traffic on the surrounding roads worse as people didn’t know where they were driving.
- CO2 canisters which must have been jettisoned from a truck and were strewn about on the side of the road on two sections of my ride. Luckily these were painted green so they were easy to see.
- A driver who sped around me (crossing double yellow lines) only to have to stop at the newly installed stop sign on Mount Paran Road, which of course meant that I had to also come to a complete stop at this useless three-way-stop intersection.
- Shortly after that another driver tailgating me as we both made our way to the next three-way-stop intersection.
- Construction trucks parked on the shoulder (a de facto bike lane on this section of the route), causing me to have to take the entire lane of a busy, two lane road.
- A car pulled into the bike lane as it was trying to get out of a parking lot.
- A dog barking and running toward me as I started my final, steepest ascent. This turned out to be a bit of a red herring however because the owners were in the front yard too and quickly called the dog off; though my heart still beat a little faster because of the situation.
- And the worst of all, some shithead who came to a complete stop in the middle of the road with no stop sign, in the middle of a long, sloping downhill! I had to pump the brakes and, because there were no oncoming cars, pull around them as I came to a stop; as I did this they started driving again! What the fuck?!?! I nearly lost my shit. In disgust I waived the driver on and coasted down the remainder of the downhill in an effort to rid myself of this ass. There was no reason that this driver should have not known that I was following him/her, because he/she passed me at the top of the downhill.
I felt aggravated, but fortunate to end my 25 miles in one piece and without damage.
By the time I arrived home and unloaded the M6 it was nearly 8:45pm. I had time enough to shower, prepare a quick dinner of frozen biscuits with summer sausage and cheese, and talk to my mother on the phone, before falling asleep.
No Riding Today
Even if I didn’t have the valid excuse of having German class tonight, for which I am still unprepared, I would be taking the day off from riding in an effort to give my legs and nether regions a day of recovery after four days of riding.
Of course I won’t have this luxury whilst riding in Germany in June, or Iowa in July, or Vermont in August, so I better learn to put in some tough, long stretches of multi-day riding before then.
D’Oh
Lately I’ve been entering every travel contest that comes across my inbox. I know, I’ll probably never win, but normally the only thing that results from these entries is the inclusion on other websites email lists.
Yesterday I should have read the terms and conditions, or checked all the boxes on the page, because I accidentally signed up for a subscription to Town & Country magazine. Of course, once I realized this I looked up how to cancel this subscription, they have no credit card of mine to bill, but it’s an addition hassle that I should have identified prior to clicking the submit button.
Enterer beware! (or Boarders cave! in Latin per Google Translate)
Of course if I happen to actually win one of these travel contests you’ll read, and perhaps see, how it all unfolds in this space.
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Don’t you just love riding in the city? No wonder so many people ride along Roberts Drive and the river.
There was a little lumberjacking last night, in addition to delivering some wood to the neighbor across the street, who has a little fire pit in his front yard and likes to have fires. I saw him Sunday and warned him the firewood fairy was going to stop by, but I explained the wood was pretty green. He didn’t care and said he’d burn it.
The mower is loaded and waiting to head to EP later today. yippee.
-FP
Normally this route is not so harrowing. I guess it was just a bad time for me to be on those roads.
Curious, do you rent the EP house? It seems as if this would be a good time to sell it if no one is living there, then you’d only have one plot to mow.
Oh, and I registered for the Challenge of the Centuries this morning.
And I just paid my quarterly auto insurance bill, that was a little less fun than registering for the ride.
Sounds like a fun ride……….. hahahahaha.
If we can ever make the time – we want to go ride up at Sosabee one day soon.
Arabia Mountain Path trail has NO cars – for when you are just over the city streets.
Allan decided to till up the garden, even though I’m not planting a garden this year. We are going to throw out some grass seed & see what happens. Last year the rabbits & whatever just made for an awful year of gardening, so I”m taking the year off.
Hey, *someone’s* gotta win those contests. It may as well be you! I don’t know if you know Judy in the hash (Pot Licker) but daaaang she is one of the luckiest people out there with contests. She enters and wins things ALL THE TIME. I never do.
The EP house is not rented and will hopefully be on the market someday. As Debbie pointed out, I’m just enabling my sister to keep stalling by continuing to cut the grass. If she was suddenly responsible, she’d pick up the pace.
Steve – tell your sister your mower is broken…….. she needs to take over htat job……..
Or – you are hiring EM to fix it up & get it rented out to some Delta people.
(which really, would be the best idea – make some money off the place)
Stacy, that’s who I was thinking about as I wrote that segment this morning. I remember talking to her at the Roadfood dinner that we were at a handful of months ago.
I am generally not a lucky person, which reminds me that I was wearing my Ireland jersey on my ride last night — to prove my point. 🙂
Roadfood dinner?
I actually read that as “Roadfood Diner” and tried to look up where it was. I didn’t find it, but I did find Roadfood.com and hey! It’s a pretty cool site. 🙂
Yes, the dinner was put on with Jan and Micheal Stern, the long-time curators of Roadfood.com, a few months ago.
Hey friends, if you are a fan of Dick van Dyke you can get the audio book version of his latest book “Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging” for only $1.95 today from Audible.com (and probably Amazon.com — the owners of Audible.com)
and Paulie (& Vern if you are back reading again) – JoAnna has broken her phone already not having her case on it.
For those not there – there was a discussion about cases & covering up all the phone’s beauty………. I left my case on – I know I’d break mine.
Oh man, I can’t believe that she broke it already! Good for my Apple stock I suppose…
Covering up a phone’s beauty – huh? I thought it WAS the case that made it pretty.
Stacy – some converations are just hard to explain………. its naked beauty……. LOL