Maiden Voyage, Probable Cause, and Road Rage

My bike came in yesterday. I spent the night building it and putting on the racks and panniers. This morning I then drove to Pocatello, a three hour dive, and sold one of my other road bikes!! A financial blessing. So of course today I had to take the new bike out for a ride.


I threw my camera and tripod into the packs, filled three water bottles and headed out. I thought I'd do it at the hottest point of the day so that I can work at bringing up my tolerance to the heat. And damn... it was hot. I was going through water fast, and my mouth was still dry.

I find myself always thinking about drivers on the road. I know so many people who have stories about close calls with cars almost hitting them, drivers harassing riders by throwing bottles at them, water, garbage, swerving at you, etc. The other night Julia and I rode our bikes to go out to dinner. As we were coming home a pickup truck pulled out of a parking lot. He made the turn really wide and was in the wring lane slightly. Then when he saw us he swerved at us, crossing far over into the lane. Then today I was riding across the bridge over the Snake. Traffic was slow and these young men were driving along side me when they sprayed their windshield washers, which were aimed out the side, and hit me, while yelling out the window, "Hey want some water?" Needless to say I wasn't too happy. I caught up to the car and asked them a few questions, then they drove off.

It made me dread something about this trip for the first time. It made me dread dealing with all those immature/dangerous drivers who feel the need to make close calls/harass cyclists. Something that I've known is a problem for a long time. In Europe they have a 5 meter rule. Drivers have to give cyclists a 5 meter girth! I wish we had that kind of protection.

So I headed home with a rush of adrenalin to get me up the next few hills. Then I decided I give the bike and racks a good weight test and I headed to the grocery store. I stocked up on all the needs and loaded them into the packs. I only had 6 miles of uphill riding left so it wasn't exactly grueling, and the bike and racks passed with flying colors.

Maybe you noticed the new logo on the right hand side of the page? That's my cause! This is what I've decided to ride for!! I'm riding for the Equity Campaign. This is a piece of legislation that is going through congress to end the discrimination of Americans with mental health and substance abuse needs. You should check out their website for more information! There is so much you can do to help! Stuff as easy as writing your senator! I'm going to be writing about this more in the future, so I'm going to leave you with this for now.