The long-straight ride to work was very uneventful, except I (successfully) attempted to ride without hands for awhile. Changes up my posture and eases the saddle-soreness a bit.
I chose a new route home though. Very, very interesting. Mostly residential along a fairly busy street. Over the freeway to a very busy highway. There is a nice shady park at the beginning of my highway miles, so I decided to ride on the sidewalks in the park instead of along the highway. When the park ended, there was a dirt path along the weedy hillside, so I decided to follow that path.
After a dozen yards, it wasn't a big enough path to ride, so I dismounted and began pushing the bike through the weeds. When I started seeing luggage, mostly-full garbage sacks and blankets (see the photo below) along both sides of the path, I decided that I was in a make-shift homeless shelter. I was fairly near a road and was able to push the bike through the weeds and get out of their living room. I didn't see any people, so I don't think I disturbed anyone but myself.
Up ahead of me on the side of the highway was another bicyclist pulling a trailer. Most of the time, I get passed by other bicyclists like I'm standing still, so I got super excited when I found that I was catching up and could pass him! As I was passing, I asked how much his trailer weighs. 65-pounds.
He (Phil from Ohio) seemed chatty, so I slowed up and once we got to a designated bike path, we rode together up the long, long, long, long hill. He was pedalling from Ohio to California. Except that he didn't want to ride through Nevada next, so he changed his plan and is now pedalling to Oregon. Phil was going through some "life stuff" and decided to take 3 months and pedal. Said he didn't see another bicyclist for the first 900 long, flat miles. He really enjoyed Colorado and the mountains and was enjoying Utah too. And on the way home, he was probably going to buy a train ticket and bypass the flat states altogether.
It was really nice to have someone to chat with through the long hill, a bit of motivation - didn't want to be wimpy! Good Luck Phil from Ohio!
