Salzilla and I hit the road today. He was skipping his afternoon nap and miserable. So we figure, why not be miserable in a huge helmet and with wind blowing in your face. He went to sleep maybe 5-7 minutes into the ride.
Luke used gmaps pedometer – but I noticed now that the Flash version of the Yahoo Maps also has the multiple “to” destinations (just right click on the map…). So I put in all the corners and twists and turns we took and it was a pleasant 9 or so mile ride. Nifty little tool that we no longer need to goto Google for.
But that’s not the point. During the ride, I encountered a situation that I spent the rest of the ride thinking about. We were on Homestead, which has a pretty generous bike lane. And we had some momentum going. And I think it’s some black sock up ahead and I’m not worried about it.
Background: (or is it foreshadowing?) most of the road kill we’ve come across has been tan – had been rotted for a while, run over several times, and for some reason, always oriented “in line” or parallel with our direction. Easy to pass on by.
Next thing I know though, I’m looking at a freshly killed black squirrel (quite common over in this area) and not a semi-formal sock. About seven feet infront of us. We’ve got momentum. It is also oriented perpendicular to the bike lane. It is too long to fit between the bike wheel and the sidecar’s wheel. The head is on my side. The tail is on Sal’s side. He’s asleep. I weigh 220 pounds. I only have a front shock on my bike.