Commuting - A dust devil just about took me out? Yow!

Crazy commute home. I just about got taken out by a dust devil of all things. Basically I went through a miniature tornado.

During monsoon in Arizona, we've been having a lot of very windy days and the conditions are right for those suckers to form here with our heat. But this was nuts. I'm trippin along down a major street cruising at about 25mph. I'm dealing with a serious crosswind when in a split second a dust devil side swiped me from the right and knocked me into heavy traffic. Cars had to swing out wide to miss me. I countered by leaning to the right, but as I did this, the winds shifted in the same direction and took me to the right with all my momentum and I just about crashed the curb.

Unbelievable. Whatever happened to the common hook taking you out? But a dust devil taking you out? I'd have to ask God for a do over on that one if it had happened.

that's a scary story. I have ridden in some pretty tough headwinds, but the gusts weren't quite that dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4kiXh8YOzk

Bahaha, you know what happens next! :)

On the news a few nights ago they had a video clip of a "fire devil". It is a dust devil that forms over a grass or brush fire and the column of spinning air is fire. See, God was not being so hard on your after all....

Ken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4kiXh8YOzk

Bahaha, you know what happens next! :)

Lol Ahhh yes. The ultimate classic "bike movie" for us. Whodah thunkit that the wicked witch would be a vintage steel bike commuter, later upgrading to a carbon broom stick. Lol

On the news a few nights ago they had a video clip of a "fire devil". It is a dust devil that forms over a grass or brush fire and the column of spinning air is fire. See, God was not being so hard on your after all....

Ken

I've seen that too. There are a couple of guys that have a show where they artificially create gigantic fire devils at night.

You know the other thing is that I'm a weight lifter, 6'4" & 255 pounds and this thing just tossed me around like nothin'. I can hold my line pretty good in some tough crosswinds where I see lighter riders really struggling. I wonder what would have happened to someone 100 pounds less than me?

This also doesn't help either. I live in Scottsdale, AZ and we have a bunch of huge city mall projects that came to a screeching halt with the real estate crash. This particular stretch is on Scottsdale Rd going south along side a halted project called City North. The combined flat desert and partially stripped land can pop up these dust devils. Their formation is primarily due from the heat though, but they need flat land and we have miles of undeveloped land just sitting. (I like the desert anyway.... too many malls. But I digress.)

One thing I can always count on is a serious wind out of the west on my commute home. It's a headwind for a great deal of the way until I turn south on Scottsdale Rd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4kiXh8YOzk

Bahaha, you know what happens next! :)

Oh, That is just CLASSIC!!!!

Interesting to watch the opening scenes of "W.O.O", the story originally was set at about the turn of the century, contemporary with the time it was written. Gulch's bicycle could be almost any vintage from the late 1890's forward
...BUT, in the opening scenes, there is clearly a tire swing hanging in the yard outside the house.
And not a skinny, white rubber tire from one of the handful of cars on the road at the turn of the century, but a black balloon tire of the type which had only become popular since the mid 1920's onward.
So, I'm thinking that the MOVIE is set at roughly the time it was filmed, 1939.

The first time I ever saw one, I was helping unload a furniture van near Tuscon. I chased it across the yard and jumped into it. Imagine my surprise when it filled my eyes and nose with dirt and gravel...the crazy things we do as kids.

There is a woman that looks like her that rides near me on the lakefront path. She always wears a long black dress and a wide brimmed black hat, and has a bike with baskets fore and aft. I always hum the wicked witch tune when i see her. I figure she is Mennonite or something like that, since she wears the same thing no matter how hot it is out.