Day 246 – Attraction

246/365 (Sept 3, 2011) – We knew we’d go for a ride today, and I knew it would probably be a bit painful for me after yesterday, but the best way to power through stiffness is to work it out again…. and take a few Aleve pain pills. So we decided to shoot for the backroads to Hope and then up to Hell’s Gate. But we got moving late (big surprise) and by the time we made it to Hope we decided to call it a day and head back home, back roads again. The long weekend is on us and the weekend warriors were definitely out on the roads. High speed lunatics, road ragers, and several new or learner drivers sporting their decals and driving like their vehicle was some sort of weapon. One kid almost rear ended me at least three times while we were both doing over 70kph on a backroad with a posted limit well under that, and another got himself in between Kirk and I for a spell on the Number 7. When we hit a straight stretch and I passed to catch up to Kirk the driver (sporting an L on the back of the vehicle – I decided that rather than Learner it should stand for Loser) into the left lane after me and when I tucked in behind Kirk the driver continued on down the left lane with a line of traffic coming straight at him. I thought we’d be diving for the ditch but somehow he made it in and then had to nail on the brakes before rear ending the car in front of us. MANIAC!!! And he is driving like that with LEARNER’S licence!!!

He proceeded to almost t-bone a car coming out of a side road and was just generally driving like a lunatic in front of us. Kirk finally pulled off the road and we just took a breather to let the driver get far far in front of us.

We jumped on the freeway for the last bit of the ride and that was the usual blast of maniacs passing us going 30-40kph faster than us, and we were going 10-20 over the limit ourselves. We were rather glad to get home in one piece.

We did stop for a bit to take a few photos of the corn fields. It seems as if they have sprung up out of nowhere and it makes me happy that all that wonderful sweetness is available for the eating! When I was a kid corn and potatoes were my two favourite staples. My grandmothers were British and Scottish and of a generation where meat must be cooked to the consistency of shoe leather and vegetables cooked until they were falling apart. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled with food as a child. But corn was something they always did right, and it reminded me of late summer and early fall.

Tomorrow, assuming I can still move after 800 km in two days, we are heading for the Sunshine Coast. It should be a tad tamer…..maybe. And although I just put the 10,00th km on my bike yesterday, I am rapidly putting the 11,000th on and should probably be there before the weekend is out.