LIFE BIKE SEVEN

We are in the early 90’s.  Cell phones are on the verge of being invented at a price a regular person could afford.  They were a little bit bigger than what we are used to now.  In fact, they were a bag phone. They came in a soft bag and you could plug them into the cigarette lighter in your car.  Cell phones came into our lives and nothing was ever the same again.    My husband bought my phone for me as a surprise.  His thought was that I needed a phone when I was out there in the cement jungle.  I was very very pleased and had to come up with something to carry my bag phone.  Sad that I don’t have a picture of my bag phone on the front of my bike.  Few were the adults that rode a bike with a bag phone.  I was pretty proud of myself.  Some of you know how I love to advertise myself.  Well, I used to ride the bike trail that followed I-435 in Johnson County. When I was at a place where I was fully visible to the six lanes of traffic, I stopped, opened up my bag and called my husband to report that I was doing fine.  My conversations were just long enough for about a million Interstate commuters to see me.  I could hear them comment, “Look!  There is a woman on that bike and she has a phone!”

Oh, I was the coolest road biker ever…with my mountain bike!

On my road adventures, I was nearly killed twice by a truck and a car who thought bikes should not share the road with motorized vehicles.  I was riding in a busy area in the Olathe area and a truck with a large flatbed passed by me so close I could have gotten splinters from the flatbed wood of the truck.  I had no where to go…no shoulder.  Another time I was headed south on a busy 4 lane road in Johnson County.  I was trying to get out to the country roads.  A car passed me so close, it made me gasp and of course mad.  I saw that car turn into a gas station ahead.  I reved up my leg engine and made it to the gas station before the driver woman could leave. She had a young son in the back seat.  I asked her “WHY DID YOU RIDE SO CLOSE TO ME?”  She replied, “Because you don’t belong on the road!”  (Lordy).  I replied, “So you tried to KILL ME? ”  I also rolled my eyes in disgust and looked at her young son in the back.  Then I left and proceeded on my ride.  I still hate both of those drivers.  When I see a bike rider on the road, I make certain to give them their full lane when I pass.  It’s better than killing them.