Route

Main to Bandemere Park to Huron River Drive to Zeeb to Joy to Webster Church to North Territorial to Whitmore Lake to Bandemere Park, and back - 22.33 miles.

Interesting Happenings

This was my first ride on the road bike since my accident. I'd gotten warmed up to biking again last weekend, so biking wasn't new. But biking on a bike with skinny tires and that can go pretty fast was going to be a bit new again. I'd also have to jump the bike, as I had when I'd had the accident.

I had planned to wait for Ian to go with me, but he is so busy on the weekends with his own things, I didn't want to wait for him to get on with my biking, so I went by myself. I figured I'd take it as easy as necessary, the point was just to get out there and do it.

As I approached the intersection where my accident happened, I knew I'd have to jump one of the bumps on the bridge (not the bump I jumped on the night of the accident). As I approached the bridge, I looked back to see whether there was any traffic, in case I lost my nerve at the last minute and had to do something weird at the bridge. There was no one coming.

I had the sensation of needing to pay very close attention as I jumped because I'd lost consciousness the last time I'd done this. I wanted to remember executing the jump, no matter what happened. The jump went fine, although I did not really enjoy it. I guess it will be awhile before I jump that bike without even thinking about it.

As it turned out, I felt pretty strong. I'd been wondering why I'd been feeling so weak. I wasn't able to do much at the gym, and last weekend, I hadn't been able to go very far on the mountain bike. But today, I felt almost back to normal again! I had no trouble with the hill on Zeeb, and seemed to be moving right along.

I hadn't planned to take North Territorial because it seemed risky, and wasn't sure I was up to it after the accident. But then I decided I didn't want that road cutting me off from the Whitmore Lake route, so I took it. I'd been on that road plenty of times before and nothing had ever happened.

The only strange thing that happened was that when a second person honked at me (the first was a large truck alerting me to its presence, I think), I got really mad. Very very few drivers ever honk at me. When they do and I'm not doing anything wrong, I consider it to be one of the rudest things they can do, other than running me off the road. There's absolutely no excuse for it, and it makes me very angry.

I flipped the driver the bird several times. The van slowed down to a stop, and so did I. I wasn't coming anywhere near that thing! I figured I was either going to get chewed out, or punched out! I flipped the bird one more time, and then gestured to the driver to get going, get out of there. The van moved on shortly.

But I didn't know what sort of person was driving the van - whether he'd wait for me at the next intersection to chew me out, or come driving back the other way, or whatever. So at the next side street, I cut off North T., and waited for awhile, hiding behind a curve, watching to see whether the van came back. Then I continued on my way, hoping that if the driver had been waiting for me at the next intersection, he'd (or she'd) given up by now.

The rest of the ride was uneventful - fun and energetic. I realized that I'd taken an unnecessary risk by overreacting. I don't usually do that - my policy is not to react when people do rude things, other than to maybe give them a dirty look, or shake my head at them. Flipping the bird, I've always figured, invites trouble. Dunno why I did it today, but I did.

Impressions of Ride

I felt really strong compared to how I thought I'd feel. I felt almost as strong as some of my previous rides. I rode well, and did not feel tired when the ride was over. However, as I was to find out the next day, I probably stole a little of the next day's energy today.