About two weeks ago on my commute home, I saw several severely dented canned goods along roadside and in the driving lane. I supposed that someone may have driven from the market or Super Walmart approx 2 miles up the road with their groceries on the roof of their car?! Not sure how cans of veggies scatter about the roadway. I had a Holiday today and arrived home from a ride from the hardware store and found a large section of the crosswalk stripe stuck to my front fender. It conformed to the shape of the fender and mudguard and didn't rub on my tire! Looked like a dirty grayish extension of my mudguard.

Got a hoodie a few days ago, it's got a small rip in the back but it'll be fine for spring/fall yard work and the like. On Thursday on the way to work I picked up another dead inner tube littered on the side of the road by a roadie. Often I find a CO2 cartridge thrown out alongside it by one of these morons too. I pick them up, take them home and throw them away properly.

I found a dead male jogger off the side of the road down an embankment some years ago. I went down the embankment after hollered for him and got no response, so I went down carefully as to disturb as little as possible, he had no pulse. Later I found out he was jogger from the area and he had a heart attack, probably either sat down on the guardrail when he knew something was wrong then died and fell over backwards down the embankment, or possibly collapsed while running and stumbled over the guardrail and down.

Somebody else came across a body floating in a river a while back, and the recovery was underway at the time. I came across a guy face down in the dirt years ago, but it turned out he was passed out after overindulging again and one of the cops that showed up had seen him like that enough times to have memorized his drivers license number.

This is the weirdest thing I've found since my last post to this thread in October. Found it under a bridge where I'd stopped to photograph some graffiti.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=525266http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=525267

DING DING DING DING...WE HAVE A WEINER, err I mean a winner!

I hope you didn't take it home...

What about that folding knife, did you put that on the ground for scale, or was that a road find as well?

A 1-ft/sq orange microfiber facecloth, a similarly-sized green microfiber facecloth, a red "cowboy" bandana, a brand-new heavy-duty bungee cord, a used (but serviceable) medium-sized bungee cord, a slide-on eyeglass strap, and too-numerous-to-list screwdrivers and box/open-end wrenches. I washed the facecloths and bandana, and use all found items. I'm still waiting for the "big scores".

I found a large box of all kinds of different spices last week. I didn't pick them up and they were gone this morning so someone got a nice freebie.

Heck, no. I didn't touch anything. When I saw those two objects together I started looking around for blood or evidence of a crime, thinking I might report it to the police. But it appeared to be a prank or someone's idea of a primitive cave art installation.

Some graffitists consider themselves artists and philosophers, so I'm not surprised by anything I find while looking for new graffiti or street art.

A few years ago I met an artist from the midwest whose pet project includes assembling seemingly random small objects into small impromptu sculptures and installations. He arranges them in semi-public spaces, just leaving them for passersby to discover and choose their own interpretations for what it means. He let me photograph him in action, assembling an impromptu installation with objects that seemed to suggest concepts of fate, luck, fortune or misfortune. These were left outside a local symphony concert auditorium. I wondered whether anyone else saw it, or whether it was simply discarded by the maintenance crew the next morning. But the artist himself wasn't concerned. The clean-up guy himself is just as valid a potential audience as a formally dressed couple leaving the concert.

The sex toy and knife were exactly as I found them. I try not to touch or move anything when I photograph found objects, although occasionally I've moved discarded notes and photographs to photograph more or less in the same place I found them.

I didn't open or even touch the knife, but looking at it from all sides, it appeared to be a very cheap box cutter type replaceable blade fitted into a folding knife design rather than the usual push/pull design. Probably something available at any dollar store for a buck or two.

Knowing where the public trash cans are, I sometimes Pick up things slobs are too lazy or self-centered to dispose of properly , themselves.

Yesterday I rode 102 miles. I saw 26+ bungie cords, a 10" crescent wrench scratched up, 8 Hell's Angels getting tailed by 8 LEOs and a Wake Board that looked fine. I was too tired, sunburnt and cramping to bother picking it up. I already have 2 good crescents I picked up besides a bunch of other tool bits I gladly use.

I biked with the kids to a public beach at a lake last summer. Someone had strewn the beach with 5 or 6 diapers. We could avoid them easily, but they were a horrible eye-sore. I grabbed a 5-foot branch and used it to move them all to the trash can.

Horrific. Good for you.

I rode passed six or seven perfectly intact slices of white bread lying in the street this morning.

What's the best thing you've seen since then?

Yesterday evening driving to church, we spotted a baseball cap in the road, it had settled between lanes on the paint. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for it this morning. Sure enough, it was still there, in probably exactly the same spot. Really nice hat, fitted New Era padres cap, in my size! I'm not a baseball fan, but it's a simple black with white "SD" so no big deal.

You probably just threw away everyone's hidden keys

Elwood Blues would have a feast.

I was digging through them with my tree branch for Rolex watches and engagement rings. No such luck. :p

I saw two pairs of pants appearing to be in good condition. I didn't pick them up.

Found a "May is Bike Month" water bottle on the 15th tee at Ancil Hoffman GC. It will join me on rides in the future.

"Are you the police?"
"No ma'am. We're musicians."

Yesterday I discovered a couple rolls of paper towels; sadly they'd unrolled all along the side of the road. One had printed bicycles.

Also, 5 or 6 dead dragonflies and a yellow-and-black swallowtail butterfly. Must be summer.

Saw a perfectly good tennis ball on the ride home this morning.. if it's there tomorrow morning i'm snagging it for our new puppy..he loves them.

Wallets! That's what I see the most on the side of the road. I've seen three in the past month.

One was just laying there and the other two had the contents spread all over the road; most likely stolen and thrown out.

Seen a set of playgirl playing cards this morning.. should of picked them up and gave them to the ladies at work!

Interesting how different areas have different detritius. I have only ever found two wallets in 12 years of commuting, and both of them had cash in them, probably just fell off the top of a car where they were left. Both taken to the police station for return.

I've never seen a wallet in 40 years, but I have see a ton of cell phones. The other weird thing, I find lots of shoes, but only one, which begs the question...how does a person lose just one shoe? I also find quite a few CO2 carts from cyclists who had flats, and various cycling related energy wrappers.

RAISES the question!

logic nazi out!

This morning riding past the local Target, I found a pack of dominos (double-nines), which were originally in a steel box, but currently are spread down about 100yd of the bike lane, along with the crumpled box. Unfortunately, about 10% of the tiles are broken, so the whole lot is worthless (and detritus will stick around for probably a couple street cleanings)