Funny you would say that. I posted this up on my FB page a couple of days ago:
Angeli Della Strada
This picture was taken on a cross country tour some years ago.
We had just done a BIG climb up the Big Horn Mountains, and were about to descend into Buffalo, Wyoming on the other side (a waaaay cool town, by the way). But there was road construction, leaving one gravel lane for both directions, and we needed to be shuttled down.
There was a long line of cars waiting to be led down ... it looked like they had been waiting at least 15 minutes. Being on bikes, we were able to bypass all that, and pleaded our case with the construction workers to carry us down in the back of their trucks when they led the next round of cars down the mountain.
Bruce and I got in the back of this pickup, and he took my picture just as we were heading down.Shortly after this picture was taken, I gestured with my left hand and knocked my mirror right off my helmet. It flew over the side, and into the gravel.
Crap. Good luck finding something like a rear view mirror in Buffalo, Wyoming. Now I'll have to spend the rest of the trip without a rear view mirror. For me, that's like being naked.
But wait! I watched incredulously as the driver of the Jeep directly behind us stopped in the middle of the road. With everyone waiting patiently behind him, he got out, picked up the mirror, got back in his Jeep and waved to me.
Holy crap! I like to think of myself as pretty damn friendly to cyclists, but I don't know that I would have done that.
We finished the long descent down to the bottom of the pass and pulled over. The driver of the Jeep stopped, got out, and handed me my mirror ... again with a long line of cars patiently waiting for him. He had to get going, so all I could do was say thank you.
I offer this up as a reminder that although us cyclists occasionally get abuse on the road from misguided or misinformed motorists, the overwhelming majority give us the respect we need. And some give a lot more ... some are downright heroic.
Thanks again, angeli della strada!