Mixed ride

Just when I think Missoula drivers are behaving themselves....there's always a jerk that goes by (like today) revving his engine -> leaving me in a trail of black sooty smoke for a quarter of a mile! You you know the ones I'm talking about - the pickup trucks with the sticker of a silhouette of a naked lady on the rear window (tinted windows of course, so that you can't really get a good look at the piece of work he really is! Total hick! Tryin' to 'show me who's boss'). Boy, I really wanted to flip him the bird this afternoon (like I do on occasion to motorists who deserve the treatment - I mean, come on it's all a biker CAN do!). But (Mom), I thought better of it - since I was just far enough away from the nearest house in case the guy really went crazy on me.

The anger motorists have towards road bikers is something I have never understood, but now, while pregnant, it makes me a little more fearful than I've ever been, too. I go a little slower on the road these days, but for heaven's sake, I'm not taking up any extra room in the road than I ever have before. Maybe I'm just extra sensitive about it.

Road bikers are not allowed on sidewalks in Missoula (I was ticketed twice when I first moved here before I realized how serious an offense it was! It was common to ride on the sidewalks in Maine.) and we are supposed to follow the same rules as any motorist, but it makes this sport even more difficult when you have a 1/2 ton trying to run you down! I can pick up my vehicle (my bike) with my index finger - so in a battle she wouldn't win - and most likely I'd end up dead.

Besides the jerk who assaulted me with his black smoke it was a ride mixed with snow showers and patches of sun and clouds and lots and lots of good brainstorming, which is the whole reason I went.