With all the posts lately about how badly cyclists are disrespected and poorly treated, I thought I'd relate a couple of incidents that happened when my wife and I were riding up near Portland last week.

My wife and I were stopped at the side of the road so she could photograph some really nice fields of red clover. I was holding her bike and she was across the ditch line bent over with her camera. A guy in an older pickup truck stopped and asked if anything was wrong. Assured that she was OK and only bent over to get a closeup picture, he smiled and wished us a nice day.

About an hour later we were taking pictures in front of an old church, and another guy stopped, and jumped out of his pickup truck. He came over to see if we wanted a picture of both of us in front of the church. He took a couple of shots, chatted for a few minutes, and continued on his way.

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The bottom line for me is that the random acts of kindness more than make up for the actions of a few jerks.

We made up these "thank you" cards for people who helped us in our travels. On a couple of extended tours we have actually run out of cards.


And Finally!!!

Today in Eugene, Oregon I finally saw a bicycle police officer give a citation to a cyclist that blew through a stop sign

Where is the "Like" button... BF.net REALLY needs a "Like" button.... I guess a has to suffice...

Pretty Neat.

All the many of us, all the so so many who frequent the forums I visit and I see just a few threads now and then about Jerks.
All those miles people are out there riding but still we see these threads now and then and we think like most,,'Its bad all over out there'

I think it's a rare occasion, these jerk encounters. I think it's more like the news on the boob tube. You know, people say,

"Oh my all the crime, It wasn't like this before, It's getting so bad out there" They fail to realize that 'back then' there were less people and less news reporters and less news channels on the Idiot box.
A town of 100,000 people,, a big crime, murder, BIG story so the stat,rate is now 1 per 100,000 per year In that town.
A city of 8 million, the news reports a murder or two a month,,,or a week...

I think people love to talk about the jerk encounter more than the simple smile or someone asking, "You ok ?, Need help "

I think Doug and Donna and the little card they hand out is a wonderful idea. I think that little card holds lots of power !

Remember the saying, 'Pay It Forward' Help two total strangers then ask each of them to pay it forward by helping two others...
a pyramid thing,,,,,

Ok I'm done.

Angeli della Strada ... they are truly everywhere. Thanks for the reminder!

It's good to hear the story. When a car hit me on my bike years ago several good Samaritans stopped including a nurse and an emt. One driver picked up my bike and drove it to my house when the ambulance drove me to the hospital. There are goo people out there we often don't hear about them.