I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but my preferred method of exercise is riding my 24″, 3 speed Desoto tricycle around the lakes of my neighborhood. It’s great because we have a lot of bike lanes and wide sidewalks. I have been triking since last August on a daily basis. Though I’ve had my trike for about 7 years, I’ve just rediscovered it as my form of regular exercise. I ride from 25 to 55 minutes on most days of the week. This is a great form of outdoor exercise for AZ because you can get out on almost every day of the year, even on the occasional rainy days (it doesn’t rain all day long). I’ve always been an active person but hsve not stuck with any one form of excercise for very long until now.
My bike is equipped with a coaster and 1 hand break, rearview mirror, LOUD airbulb style horn, LED magnetic operated front and rear lights (visible even in the day time), an odometer with time, mph, distance traveled, total and trip, fastest mph on any trip and average speed, a front basket for going to get the mail, a rear large basket for taking my sales to the shipping store (we have 2 in the neighborhood), all of this and an orange flag on a pole behind my ‘generous’ sized seat (the trike’s seat, that is!). Hard to miss seeing me, right?
Traffic is usually very respectful of my space and I am very respectful of theirs (they’re bigger that me!). I stay in my lane, I use my hand signals, I set my ipod at a volume so that I can still hear what’s going on around me, especially when a car is approaching from behind. When I’m at a crossing I go with the light. Most cars respect me although I’ve had to do a few panic stops when someone is not following the rules, really the laws, or just not paying attention.
For instance, this morning when I was out at 6:30 am on my ride and I was waiting at my usual light to cross over the 4 lanes to continue, I had a close call with a car. I was on the sidewalk when the pedestrian light turned white that told me I could cross. The car on my left suddenly decided that it was her turn to go and pulled right in front of me to make a right hand turn. I was shocked! I just yelled. Hey! Her window was slightly open on the passenger side and I could see that she was reaching across to her dashboard for something, maybe her radio, and was not paying attention. What a dummy! No, I didn’t give her any gestures of “cheer” with my finger or fingers, but I sure wanted to give her something, a rap along side the head, maybe?
Yes, I continued my ride, got 50 minuits clocked in for today. I was watching, and I will continue to ride my trike for fun and errands and especially exercise! But please! Please! Please! Watch out for the Bikes and Tricycles and don’t tread on me! The life you save may be my own. And for the woman with the short dark hair in the dark green suv, “watch out, I’ll be watching for YOU!”
Respectfully submitted
Pat
Beads I View by Pat
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