This is the famous Swinging Bridge in Pontiac that you have to walk bikes across and it is enforced.
This was in a Webster Ohio type town on route 116 on the way and was very interesting. It is not a store just a place decoratedwith old nostalgic signs. The owner and his wife were around the back which has probably 10 times more stuff like front. I really wanted to talk to them but both were very hard of hearing and after a few minutes of shouting and still being misunderstood it was time to smile and wave goodbye.
This was sitting along side the road begging to have it's pic taken so I caved in and did it. From looking inside it appears that both steering wheels work and there may even be 2 working motors and transmissions.
As I rode away I am thinking to myself, "Maybe I can have my favorite nephew Joe Wilker build me one of those and I will give to Miss Sassy for her birthday which is near the end of June(either the 29th or 30th) and then we could go driving together like normal couples do but then I got to thinking about the reality of that type of situation. The language/communication between us as we decided where we would be driving would probably make a Teamster blush and it is a certainty there would be traffic laws broken that are not even on the books yet as we each struggled for control.
I quietly let that notion fade out of my mind just like that car did in my rear view mirror.
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Another good day to be riding a bike cross country. Rode about 110 miles of which 80 were in the right direction while 30 were the result of a misread map which is almost impossible to do on the grid like roads of middle America farm land. One contributing factor was that it was very overcast most of the day which blotted out the sun and my internal directional compass (the one on my handlebars always says I am heading due south), was compromised so I really had no clue what direction I was heading as I admired all the tall corn along both sides of the back road "shortcut" feeling good about myself. This was just another reminder that I constantly am straddling that knife edge thin line of being a bubble off when riding as well as life in general.
That overcastness turned into a goose drowning rain storm about 6 p.m. which kinda cut the day short because I wanted to ride around Renssalear and check it out. Maybe someof that this morning.
I also learned that I am still not into EASTERN time zone just because I crossed the Illinois/Indiana border (btw there was no sign of anykind to mark that border). Eastern time does not start until you are 50 miles into Indiana. This seems to be a trend in the USA and I am pretty sure it is a politicql situation that has been in place for awhile and now everyone is afraid to screw with it because it is more fun for the folks affected to bitch about it to every traveler who asks them about it.
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Another good day to be riding a bike cross country. Rode about 110 miles of which 80 were in the right direction while 30 were the result of a misread map which is almost impossible to do on the grid like roads of middle America farm land. One contributing factor was that it was very overcast most of the day which blotted out the sun and my internal directional compass (the one on my handlebars always says I am heading due south), was compromised so I really had no clue what direction I was heading as I admired all the tall corn along both sides of the back road "shortcut" feeling good about myself. This was just another reminder that I constantly am straddling that knife edge thin line of being a bubble off when riding as well as life in general.
That overcastness turned into a goose drowning rain storm about 6 p.m. which kinda cut the day short because I wanted to ride around Renssalear and check it out. Maybe someof that this morning.
I also learned that I am still not into EASTERN time zone just because I crossed the Illinois/Indiana border (btw there was no sign of anykind to mark that border). Eastern time does not start until you are 50 miles into Indiana. This seems to be a trend in the USA and I am pretty sure it is a politicql situation that has been in place for awhile and now everyone is afraid to screw with it because it is more fun for the folks affected to bitch about it to every traveler who asks them about it.
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