On Thursday I was riding very early in the morning, before 6 AM. I entered the park over the Tamm Ave. bridge, took a left on the street by the zoo, heading west toward Hi-Pointe. Just past the zoo there is a bike trail on the right that goes through a small patch of woods. I took this, and it is level, I was in high gear and riding quite fast. As I rounded a bend a very large turkey hen darted across the trail in front of me. There wasn’t a second to reach for breaks, but I nearly jumped off the bike in surprise. The turkey must have been four foot tall, and she fortunately missed my by inches, I could have reached out and grabbed a turkey tail feather.
I got to the golf course over near Skinker before the maintenance people were out. That is really hard to do, they start very early. I was so hoping to see the coyote which often USED TO (I haven’t see the coyote this year yet) hang out on the golf course in the mornings. The people who work on the golf course aren’t really sure and just say: “I don’t see the coyote much any more.” When I press them as to whether or not they’ve seen one AT ALL in the past months, they just can’t fully remember. They sort of got used to the coyote and don’t pay attention.
Today (Saturday) I got up early and had a strong dose of sport’s TV. The opening day of the Tour de France, a sprint, and the finals of the Wimbledon ladies tennis (I love the British insistence on the ladies and gentlemen divisions, and everyone called Mr. So-and-so and Miss So-and-so).
The TV news made this sound much more like a Lance Armstrong exhibition ride than a bike race with more than hundred riders. Today started out with a sprint of some 12 miles. (19 KM). I got thinking about it, and figured next year I should enter the Tour de France, and Forest Park could be viewed as my training ground.
Today Lance did the sprint in 21 minutes for the 12 miles. Okay, I did 3 miles MORE than he, my normal 15. Now, I’ll admit, he would have some significant lead on me since my 15 miles took me 1 ¾ hours. Okay, so he’d have a first day lead of one hour and 15 minutes. But, surely I could make up a lot when we got to the mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees. After all, I ride up Skinker every day, a full 9/10 of a mile, and surely it’s nearly a mountain. Yep, I’ll have to think about training in Forest Park until next July. Dogtowner Jim Glaser is riding his bike again, I’ve got the beginnings of a team. Heck, they don’t normally allow women in the Tour de France, but Dogtown Historical Society secretary, Sally Sharamitaro is getting a bike today. She could be team number 2. We’d kill them.
And it would be fun. Every evening we could eat the prix fixe meal at a lovely restaurant and down a few bottles of good French red wine (I hear that is especially good for one’s health). Money for the team would be no problem. We could get endorsement money from the restaurants of Dogtown and we’d be rolling in dough.
Ah ha, maybe word has already leaked out and this is why Lance is planning to retire after this year; he wouldn’t want to have to go head to head with the Dogtown/Forest Park riders and our green and white uniforms…..
Hmmm, it was a very hot sunny day. I never ride afternoons, but today I did since I watched the tennis and cycling all morning. I forgot my hat and the sun beat down. I’ve heard that people can get too much sun in such situations and hallucinate. I wonder if that could have happened to me today?
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