Maybe you never had this happen to you as a kid, but I did. I can remember driving on a main four-lane road and being stopped as railroad crossing gates came down. Traffic would line up on either side of the crossing. After 30 seconds or so, a guy in a little yellow railroad work car would toodle past at a slow speed and wave as he went through the crossing. I would think, "We had to stop for that?"

Well, this morning, I was that guy. As I rode my normal route, which cuts through a church parking lot and exits at a stoplight on a main four-lane road, there were no cars on the opposite side of the intersection to trip the light. So, thanks to info my dear wife had found, I stopped on the traffic switch that is about three car lengths back from the intersection in the church lot, where no one could see me. I waited about 30 seconds and listened as the traffic from both directions slowed to a stop. My light turned green and I took off. I had to pedal quickly because the light doesn't stay green very long and I was three car lengths back. As I pumped accross the intersection in my bright yellow shirt on my bike with blinking lights and small wheels (lwb recumbent w/16" front and 20" rear), I knew people are thinking, "We had to stop for that?"

At that moment I was thinking, "I have the power!"

Least ways to say, the ride was good!

Bruce