Finding Joy in the Journey. . .: A Head on collision. . .

. . . With A BUG

Honestly, after logging over 7100 miles on my bicycle, I have never experienced this one before.

Can you see the open wound on my forehead? It’s right between my eye balls!

yeah, the bright red spot. . . .

This is the result of a head on collision with a huge bug of some kind! I remember it well, it was in Weston, ID cruising along at about 21 mph, and I saw this thing headed straight toward me.

With the exception of butterflies, bugs are typically pretty good navigators and are pretty quick to avert disastrous consequences (think about that pesky mosquito that you try to smack, or the fly and the fly-swatter) and avoid things like my head and stuff like that. This guy was probably looking at the scenery, enjoying an afternoon fly-by in the country. As flying critters do, when they see they are about to run into something, he took a sharp correction of direction, but instead of going left, he attempted the upward dive going completely vertical, but it was too late. He was headed right for my eyes (gratefully, I ALWAYS wear sunglasses).

Out of instinct, I ducked to avoid the unavoidable. Unfortunately, he didn’t dart in the best path for him, and probably ended up as a fatality, since this was obviously more than a simple fender-bender! However, to be honest, I'm not sure of his fate. It wasn’t until after I was home that I realized that he drew blood!

This unfortunate event, occurred during the MS 150, in the small Idaho town of Weston. I don’t know if this is the current city building or not, but it appears to be a functioning building anyway.

The MS 150 is a ride that takes place over two days and actually covers 175 miles. I have always done the Sunday route on Friday, and then the Saturday route with event participants on Saturday, (the reason being is, I do not train or ride on the Sabbath). The MS 150, is a ride that I look forward to with great anticipation each year, however, being the most expensive ride I participate in, this year I determined that it was out of the budget range and decided to tackle this ride without “Officially Participating”, meaning I ride the route, but not with the support of the event. I rode the Saturday route on Friday, followed by the Sunday route on Saturday. It was a long lonely ride, and I missed the presence, motivation, and the energy of other riders, but I saved some money, which was my objective in the beginning. And, I still got to ride my bike, that being the most important!

following the route is not complicated, which is one reason I choose to ride the same weekend. GPS, will guide you the entire way once you put it in your Device. For those who don’t have GPS as an option, which is most peeps, they have the road marked well for which direction to go. they always have three options 40 miles, 75 miles, or 100 miles for Saturday. For the Sunday route there are two options 40 miles or 75 miles.

Riding in Cache Valley is generally a beautiful experience!

beautiful farms and fields

Flowers

rivers and streams

mountains and foothills

Reservoirs and spill gates, this spring has been so wet and rainy there is TONS of excess water everywhere, this is blacksmith Fork Canyon and the spill gates are still open to full capacity, which is unusual this late in June.

horizons and hills

The first time I saw this road, I almost had a stroke! it's a wonderful long gentle down hill, but then up in the distance you can see how it goes

again!

However, once you get there, you realize that it’s an optical illusion at it’s best.
In reality, it’s just a short, not so up hill. So in less than 5 minutes, the panic is nothing to panic about in the first place and you easily crest the top of this little road.

just me on the open road somewhere in the country. I missed riding with people, and I’m confident that I didn’t push as hard as I would have if I had other peeps around me.

(this was before “the bug”, no gleaming red wound)

One thing that I consistently get distracted by is watching my shadow on the road. . .

I find it amusing

I have always liked this bridge

I don’t know why but I look forward to riding over it every time I travel this way on my bike

Interesting things along the way. . . . just part of the scenery

Old falling hay barns

Handcarts.

There is probably a youth group getting ready for a “Trek Experience”

I ride these familiar roads on a regular basis throughout the season and this guy is a regular part of the ride. I think his job is to keep the grass mowed down along the fence line, because he is in a different spot each time. Goats are also commonly used for this mowing purpose also.