I went out for a long solo ride yesterday morning. Marni had a training session at the gym and with the heat as it was, I didn't want to wait until she came back at 11AM to take off. I decided to bike through George Bush / Terry Hershey Park since its a place with bike and pedestrian only trails and it being a working day, I didn't want to fight the traffic any more than I had to. There are posted signs that say that when bikes overtake or pass pedestrians they should slow to no more than 10 mph. With the number of idiots out there using the park, I obey that law for my safety if not theirs.
I didn't beat the heat. Its a 10 mile ride up there and it was already 90 plus by the time I got into the park. At least there was no wind and there are a fair amount of trees that shade the path. The park was full of cops in all their guises. I have no idea why. I saw three on foot patrol, two on motorcycles, one in a park golf cart and even two mounted on horses. I wish I had the nerve to photograph the two on the horses because they were bigger around than the horses they were riding. Those horses looked like they were sagging in the middle and there was no chance of breaking into a trot let alone a gallop. I swear that one of the horses rolled its eyes at me and sighed as I rode by.
Anyway I was coming off a bridge over a creek that had an immediate 90 degree right turn after it. The view right was blocked by bushes. There was a runner coming toward me who had just reached the apex of the turn. I slowed to the required 10 mph. At that instant a biker came out from behind the blocking bushes going at least 20 mph, headed right at me to pass the runner. I shouted "Look out Dammit" at him because he was looking at the runner instead of where he was going which was straight at me. I started bailing out to the right.
He jerked around to look at me and started bailing to his left which kept him coming straight at me. I bailed farther right headed for the bushes and he kept bailing left into my path. At this point I screamed "Oh SHIT" (I'm not great a dialog in emergency situations) and turned sharp left just behind the runner to end up in the grass. He ended up in the bushes. The runner kept going, never looked back, and disappeared over the bridge.
I was out of my cleats at that point and dragging my toes for stability on the rough grass. I caught a toe and now have a big pedal sized bruise and 4 long gouges on the back of my left calf. The other guy was wearing twigs and leaves for decoration. He came screaming out of the bushes and berated me for having screamed at him. I was in no condition and had no desire for confrontation so I spent about 5 minutes calming him, convincing him that I did not blame him for the accident and finally agreeing with him that it was all the runner's fault. He finally took off down the trail after the runner to give him a piece of his very small mind. I hope that he caught up with him at a point in the trail that had some of the cops around.
All of that sort of put me off the ride so I cut it shorter that I had planned and tooled on home. My short cut took me through an area I haven't ridden before. Houston has a large Asian population and they have congregated in a sort of "China town" on the West side. This is not to say that they are all Chinese. There are Vietnamese, Koreans, Cambodians, and many other nationalities. At least half the business signs are multi lingual (English and XXX) and some are entirely in foreign script. Even the street signs are multi lingual. See below. I wish I knew what language that is and what the non-English really says. Bellaire into Japanese or Chinese can't be a direct translation, can it?
I did have two consolations to make up for the idiot. First, I got a picture of a new wild flower for my collection. See below. It was growing in a lawn area in the park which had been recently mowed, right out in full sunlight. It is about the size of and looks like a crocus but this is the wrong season for crocus, they don't bloom in South Texas and its far too hot and dry for them to grow. Its not in any of my wild flower books. Anyone who can identify it will receive my enduring gratitude.
Second, I met a very nice person almost at the end of my ride. I had taken what I thought was a short cut and had gotten lost in the maze of one of Houston's ubiquitous housing developments. I stopped an ATT repairman and asked if he knew the way to an intersection that I knew was close but had no idea how to get to. He stopped, pulled out a GPS mapping device and proceeded to give me detailed directions on how to get there and from there the rest of the way home. He opened up the back of his truck and gave me a bottle of ice cold water from a cooler and chatted while I drank, then wished me well as I rode off. That quite took away the bad taste from the idiot in the park and put a nice feel to the end of the ride. I ended up with about 36 miles, having gone through 5 large bottles of water drunk and one poured over my head. All in all, not the worst of ways to spend a comp day.
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