Standard, evening commute. Williams is one way, headed north from downtown. Vancouver is a block away, is one way, headed south towards downtown. Been there, done that, that pics probably chosen as a bit denser in traffic than usual, but it's not abnormal.

Portlandia.

I see different animals every morning during my ride. But this was an odd one, turtle cruising down a country road. No water within a mile, just dry fields. Really seemed out of place.

I've found $200, $50, $5, and lots of ones, some in the city, some out on the open road.

Lots of tools, including two 8mm open end and ratchet end wrenches... Same brand, same place (Sloan ave bridge) but a year apart.

Two large and expensive chain saws. I didn't take them. A pickup truck stopped and I said, these yours? Guy said no, not mine. I said you want them? He said sure, loss then in the back. He offered to drop them at my house, but I declined. I'm not a chain saw kind of guy.

A German brass coronet, complete with its wooden case and maker's mark (Leipzig, 1846), but both were completely crushed flat by traffic. Someone had left then on the trunk instead of putting then in the car. Oops!

Also a dead mink. Road kill, but not badly damaged (just his little head crushed). My wife and I went back for that one in the car. She had him stuffed and he now stands on a piece of wood on her classroom.

Yeah I was on a 24hr layover in Seattle, Kayaking actually, instead of biking, on Lake Union and Lake Washington. Took the shot walking back to the hotel. You got a lot closer then I did, or have a way better camera in your phone. Tim

I was riding home late one night about 10:00PM. On a large main road. There was a small hot tub in the middle of the road. It was a brand new fiberglass hot tub enclosed in a wood frame for shipping. It was slightly busted up. But looked OK. I guess it fell off the back of somebody's truck. It landed upright. Very weird. Thought about going to get my own truck & going back to get it. But, nah. It was late & I was very tired.

Great thread!

I believe this proves the old adage that cycling makes the world go by at just the right speed. Not too fast that you miss things, not too slow to get bored.

Exactly! We can be moving fast or slow or somewhere in between. There's nothing between us and the wide open spaces so it's easy to see stuff from our vantage point. Not only that, but it's much easier to stop and "smell the roses" when on a bike.

That commuter pic is so cool - the Burke Gilman/Sammamish River MUPS have similar traffic, but only on the weekends

DD

I run across rattlesnakes pretty consistently in the summer when on my mountain bike up in the hills. Usually they are completely stretched out sunning on the road and I miss them by a few inches before I realize what it is. Only had one try to strike me as I went by.

I've had a black bear cross the road about 75 yards in front of me. He never saw me and continued across and down the hill to the creek. Also had a 4-5 pt bull elk on the road as I came around a corner. Spooked him, of course, and me. Was so close that gravel from his hoods was actually spraying up at me for a second.

craziest thing for me was the Oscar Mayer wienermobile.

Here's Rhino Guy just north of Ventura, CA at Bates Road. My friend in Seattle saw him up there and sent a pic, I spotted him while on a club group ride a few weeks later. I heard he made it to Mexico a few days ago (cycling from Canada). Good for the rhinos and good on him!

This was a while back but I found a nice little rest stop while on a local trail.

Link to video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLoM_i6A...en-by=zammykoo

"Drawers"

Cool, another turtle! I always get excited to see 'em in the wild because they just don't seem all that common. Anybody got a pic of a snapper?

Lots of bunnies on the Burke Gilman on tonight's quick slam down to Seattle and back. I pushed my big ring and 14 cog all the way back and am a little wiped out tonight - but in a good way. I'm getting it back, bit by bit.

DD

In other words, you've earned at least $255+ riding your bike. Not bad work if you can get it.

The stuffed mink story is a classic; I bet the kids get a kick out of hearing how she came to have it stuffed and mounted

DD

I had my first bike/bear incident only weeks ago. Not one but two. It was pretty spooky since nobody was around and I was halfway up to the Snoqualmie Tunnel on the Iron Horse trail. I guess if it had a mind to, it could've tried to have me for lunch, but then again, I'd have turned around and headed downhill at breakneck speed. Once self-preservation kicked in I'd have set Olympic if not World records for speed over distance

Here's bear #2 - sorry, I wasn't getting any closer:



DD

There's Rhino Guy!

Thanks for posting

DD

Albino squirrel, hiding acorns in a sump pump drain:

Reminded me of the old college party song with the refrain

Nuts, hot nuts
You get them from the P-nut man.
yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah
Nuts, hot nuts
You get them anywhere you can....

See that girl,
in the red dress
she can roast your nuts
without even tryin her best

Refrain......


See that sad boy
standin by the door
he needs some roasted nuts
like never before.

with audience participation it was a long song with a lot of verses.

I found a Texas driver's license on the street in Manhattan a dozen years ago... mailed it to the address on it, got a very nice thank you note in the mail a month later.

I found an nj driver license on my ride home a few years ago, along with some other cards. They were all spread out about fifty feet apart on a busy road, like someone has been tossing then out the window one by one. They belonged to a woman in Trenton. There was a phone number on one of them, so I called it. An hour later two muscular young men, classic NJ meatheads from the look, appeared at my door, took the cards, insisted I take $50 as a reward. Really nice guys, explained apologetically that their mother was still so upset about having had her purse snatched that she wouldn't deal with anything.

Out on a ride on Long Island I found a whole wallet, so stuffed with cards and coupons and photos and cash that it almost looked like a big Mac. There was an address on the license, about three miles out of my way, so I dropped it off. The woman who came to the door spoke no English, and probably didn't understand what I said, but she took the wallet and I rode away.

On a brevet in Southern NJ two years ago, with about a dozen riders ahead of me and as many behind, I found a wallet in the road. Figuring it belonged to one of the randonneurs, I brought it to the next controle and called the guy organizing the ride. Turned out the wallet didn't belong to anyone on the ride. In desperation I just dropped it in a mailbox.

Last summer I found another driver's license and associated cards etc along the road on my way to the train station. Not wanting to miss my train, I grabbed a handful and rode away. On the train I examined my find. Neatly written on the back of one of the cards were the guy's email addresses Yahoo mail, gmail, aol, all the same thing until at whatever dot com, and all the passwords. All the same password. Another business card had a hand written list of phone numbers, one of which was "my cell phone." I called it. Guy answered. At first he said he'd come to my office in NYC to pick the stuff up, but then he called back and asked if I'd just fed ex it all to him, so I did. On my way home that evening I keep my eyes open and collected all the other detritus that might have come from that wallet, including a b&w photo of a young man in uniform, might have been Vietnam era, and mailed it all to the guy. Some of it was dirty and traffic damaged, but I collected what I could. Got another thank you note and another check for fifty bucks in the mail.

Yes, I returned it. Even the money.

Yesterday, while riding the GT Tachyon, it was two racks of pork spare ribs.

Found cell phones on 2 different occasions. One was locked and I couldn't get in so I dropped it off at Verizon.

The second was not locked. I started reading the texts she had trying to figure out how to call her. About halfway through the texts she is chatting with a couple of guys and discussing buying a gram of this and a few lines of that. Then she discusses more illegal stuff. Not wanting to get involved with it, phone got thrown in a ditch. Made for some good reading mid-ride though!

I'm sure the mods will be along shortly to clean this up and ban you for a week, Stuart

DD

I'm assuming it was a wallet, but it could've been a Brinks truck, too

Photobucket strikes again!

DD