Lost To the Long Road To Nowhere Somewhere In the Abyss of Our Highway System
Today, I had an unfortunate situation.
Seventeen and a half miles into a hard paced 24-mile bike ride it happened.
Pop! Like a gun went off.
Yep, the back tire blew out and I quickly decelerated, stopped and dismounted, dammit.
I am not near any bike shop, and I have 6 and a half miles from home, the last 2 miles are up hill, great.
It was pretty bad so I tried carrying the bike for the first couple of miles, it's not heavy, but it's not as light as it seems after carrying it for 2-miles.
Finally, I gave up and walked it letting it roll under its own weight full well knowing that it was doing more damage - bummer.
Luckily, while walking and pushing I learned something very interesting, namely that in the US the debris alongside of our two-lane highways is greater than most of what's available at hardware stores in third-world nations.
Let me quickly describe some of what I had found simply looking off to the side of the road shoulder.
1.
A single rubber glove for chemical use 2.
A pair of wire strippers 3.
Carriage bolts (2) 4.
Smaller bolts of various sizes (4) 5.
Many bolts of various sizes with buggered threads 6.
Washers of various sizes (10) 7.
Nuts of various sizes (11) 8.
Rubber Hoses of various lengths and sizes (14) 9.
Tie Down Straps - various 10.
Hooks - eye hooks, S-hooks 11.
Agricultural plastic nozzle fittings for drip irrigation 12.
Tennis Shoes 13.
Hats (2) 14.
Springs of small and large sizes (7) 15.
Hubcaps (3) 16.
Plastic Bucket 17.
Zip Ties (intact) 18.
Nails (many but don't remind me) 19.
Screws (lost count) 20.
A Bible (So much for Thou Shalt Pollute) Well, I am not sure what I could make out of all that stuff, or the things I saw but didn't feel I needed to write down, but think about all the junk we leave around, stuff that others would really need in faraway places.
Amazing isn't it? After this observation and really what is there to do out in the middle of nowhere pushing a bike with a flat tire - I recalled an interesting bio from a famous California Psychology Professor with a super high IQ, Dean Simonton, who noted he collected junk he found on his walks and made them into art.
Okay so, I would submit to you that all that junk isn't junk at all, it's valuable stuff created by our abundant society, but we are too naïve to understand that.
Please consider all this and please recycle early and often.
PS.
On the last mile there was a parked car with a sticker on its bumper which read; "Recycle Dammit" and I thought to myself; "Yes, exactly!"
Seventeen and a half miles into a hard paced 24-mile bike ride it happened.
Pop! Like a gun went off.
Yep, the back tire blew out and I quickly decelerated, stopped and dismounted, dammit.
I am not near any bike shop, and I have 6 and a half miles from home, the last 2 miles are up hill, great.
It was pretty bad so I tried carrying the bike for the first couple of miles, it's not heavy, but it's not as light as it seems after carrying it for 2-miles.
Finally, I gave up and walked it letting it roll under its own weight full well knowing that it was doing more damage - bummer.
Luckily, while walking and pushing I learned something very interesting, namely that in the US the debris alongside of our two-lane highways is greater than most of what's available at hardware stores in third-world nations.
Let me quickly describe some of what I had found simply looking off to the side of the road shoulder.
1.
A single rubber glove for chemical use 2.
A pair of wire strippers 3.
Carriage bolts (2) 4.
Smaller bolts of various sizes (4) 5.
Many bolts of various sizes with buggered threads 6.
Washers of various sizes (10) 7.
Nuts of various sizes (11) 8.
Rubber Hoses of various lengths and sizes (14) 9.
Tie Down Straps - various 10.
Hooks - eye hooks, S-hooks 11.
Agricultural plastic nozzle fittings for drip irrigation 12.
Tennis Shoes 13.
Hats (2) 14.
Springs of small and large sizes (7) 15.
Hubcaps (3) 16.
Plastic Bucket 17.
Zip Ties (intact) 18.
Nails (many but don't remind me) 19.
Screws (lost count) 20.
A Bible (So much for Thou Shalt Pollute) Well, I am not sure what I could make out of all that stuff, or the things I saw but didn't feel I needed to write down, but think about all the junk we leave around, stuff that others would really need in faraway places.
Amazing isn't it? After this observation and really what is there to do out in the middle of nowhere pushing a bike with a flat tire - I recalled an interesting bio from a famous California Psychology Professor with a super high IQ, Dean Simonton, who noted he collected junk he found on his walks and made them into art.
Okay so, I would submit to you that all that junk isn't junk at all, it's valuable stuff created by our abundant society, but we are too naïve to understand that.
Please consider all this and please recycle early and often.
PS.
On the last mile there was a parked car with a sticker on its bumper which read; "Recycle Dammit" and I thought to myself; "Yes, exactly!"
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