Between The Geese and the Geezers

You could go crazy. It is hot and humid and Annie and I went out early, almost regular time. I intended to ride a couple of loops with her and then go on for a longer ride since today is a TDF rest day. As we arrived at the top of Kelly Drive, at Lloyd Hall there were hundreds of "walkers for wellness." Older, mostly woman doing what turned out to have been a pretty short walk and taking up the entire width of the path with not so much as a care about anyone else using it. They responded slowly, if at all to requests to move to the right, the constant ringing of the bell, etc. As we finally passed them I also passed one of their event coordinators to whom I said a few choice words about informing people to share the road. She replied that they had a permit. Of course they have a permit, but they did not have the police close the road so it was still a public access multi-use trail and they should have instructed their participants of that fact. Someone could have been hurt. In fact, unfortunately, as we were slipping by another cyclist coming the other way did run into someone. I don't think he was going fast or that anyone was hurt, but it needn't have happened.

Finally we were able to continue around and decided to double back on West River rather than go around the museum and back down Kelly. By the time we came around to the Falls Bridge from that direction we could see that the crowds had disappeared so we continued down Kelly the other way, which worked out fine, except for the incessant interruptions by the geese. Just about every time I really got rolling, we'd come to a gaggle crossing the road. Ugh. By that time I was hot and I'd forgotten to bring any food with me, not even a power bar, so I decided to call it a day after 20 miles. It really is going to be a scorcher and I think discretion was the better part of valor. I'll do another couple of loops tomorrow and hopefully a longer ride Wednesday when it is supposed to be a little less hot.

After watching the tour via DVR without commercials yesterday I am looking forward to Wednesday's very important stage and not watching it first thing in the morning. I'll go for a nice ride and come home and watch it without commercials. The only drawback is that I have to stay away from the computer so that I don't see what happened before I watch.

Finally, today, a little Brompton propaganda that someone in the Brompton users group passed along. Aside for its folding propagandistic virtues, it is incredible to me how well done this little film is and how typically European (Dutch) the enigmatic nature of the protagonists is. enjoy.