Bicycle Trip People
On my recent bicycle journey from Kansas to Annapolis, I met quite a few really interesting folks. I’m doing a series of posts on these wonderful and interesting people, and this is an installment in that series. While there are others I met along the way as well, these are the ones who I was able to spend enough time with to get a feel for their story.
Rick in Kansas
My first day out on this leg of the trip started in Council Grove, Kansas, and ended up in Ottawa, Kansas. There isn’t a lot in-between. It’s a pretty lonely stretch of road – perfect for cycling really. On that first day, I had a cross wind, though it wasn’t terribly strong. I had trained well for this ride, and was feeling strong, so I pushed myself hard on that first day.
It was only about a 70 mile day, and while it was hot, it wasn’t over 100. I figured I was pretty safe pushing hard, and not at much risk regarding water.
There’s just one little town along that 70 mile stretch – Osage City. By the time I rolled into town and found the c-store, my water bottles were past empty and I was thirsty. I filled both water bottles, and took in quite a bit of extra liquid.
While I was enjoying the shade and liquid, a fella came up and started a conversation with me. Rick was his name, as I recall. You don’t expect to find fellow cyclists walking up to you in small towns in Kansas, but that’s exactly what Rick was. Turns out he used to cycle a lot, but isn’t able to cycle anymore as a result of a disability. We swapped stories back and forth.
You always know if someone’s spent a lot of time cycling on the road, because they have stories of getting run off the road and/or having things thrown out car/truck windows at them. Rick was no exception, and had his share of such stories.
It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? That criminal behavior like that – assaulting someone with a car or truck by running them off the road or throwing things out the window – would be so common. I really don’t know many folks who’ve spent a lot of time cycling on the road who don’t have at least one story – most have several.
It’s a harsh statement on the state of civility in our nation when such a level of cowardly abusive behavior is so common. I have no doubt that it’s a small percentage of people who behave like this, but the fact is that there is rarely any criminal or civil action taken against them when they are caught. Like any other criminal behavior, it only stops when the culture won’t tolerate it any more, which means severe consequences have to accompany the behavior.
What causes the behavior in the first place? Are there folks who have a hatred of anyone who’s trying to be a little green? Or maybe a hatred of anyone who’s trying to keep themselves in good shape? I’m sure some folks are just such craven cowards that they get off on attacking someone much smaller and more vulnerable than they are, someone who can’t possibly retaliate. It could be that there’s great overlap between the folks who attack cyclists on the road, and folks who prey on children.
It’s beyond me, but Rick and I had a great conversation about it, and enjoyed sharing war stories. In the end, he ambled off to pay for his gas, and I headed down the road – a little more cautious…
I was in Ottawa by noon. That night, my brother drove down to Ottawa to share dinner with me, and we had a great time. I went to bed early, pleasantly worn-out by a few hours of hard riding in the hot Kansas sun, looking forward to day 2 of my adventure.
