Things You've Found While Touring
 

When touring, I see a lot of items along the road or trail. I always stop to pick up bungee cords or rubber straps. I also pick up sun glasses, and the occasional reading glasses--which are things I tend to lose. Once I found a horde of morel mushroom just a few feet off a bike trail, and this summer I found a wallet with forty bucks in it, which I was able to return it to the person who lost it.

What kinds of things do you come across?

I found a sweet fishing hat once. I slipped it between some straps on my bike and used it for like 5 years. I think I lost it; perhaps some other traveler is counting his lucky stars at such a sweet find.

This was July 2011, just outside of Wichita Falls.

The most docile snake I've ever caught in the wild. Not even once, did she try to nip me.

I labeled the images "bullsnake" but I think she was actually a Sonoran gopher snake.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=417540

Yup, got to let those things pass on.

You don't speak Parseltongue, do you?

LOL - I had to look that one up. My daughter would have certainly known the term.

When I was a kid and would traipse around town on my skateboard or bicycle with my pet snake tangled in my hair, folks got the impression that I could communicate with the bugger and I certainly didn't go to any lengths to convince them otherwise. :)

Water bottles galore, and rags to clean my chain with. A little money once in a while, a few nice tools. Wild onions. If I ever need to make a soda can stove while traveling, there will be no problem there.

Best score ever: an unused, prepaid cell phone, in a ziplock bag with charger. Years later, I'm still using it. Even though I didn't buy it, I can add minutes. It costs $20 to refill it every three months.

Folding Buck knife,money,bike tires,shoes,hats,water bottles,tape measures,tools,food,drugs......worse thing I found was a car on fire with people in it on my way to the Rose Parade one year.

Made new Friends along the way , they're not Things, though, are they.

one a nice Woman from New Zealand , I spent some weeks with.

spent my 50th Birthday in Scotland, the friends I made there, Forres, where I stayed for the late summer and early fall,
Gave me a lovely Sweater. Wool Of course..

I found fabulous new places to ride.

I once found a brand new fishing pole and reel spooled with line and ready to go. Found a nice set of wheel chocks about 5 miles from home. Money. Wallets which I turned into the police department. A unopened beer someone had left cooling in a creek, but forgot was there. Lots and lots of bungee cords and tools. An OSU baseball hat. Towels. A small inflatable pillow which I used for years until it developed a leak.

On one trip along the Oregon Coast with a buddy of mine, we found a black pirate hat with a purple feather. It was quite the hat. We stopped by an Indian casino and wore it into the casino. We got lots of complements and attention because of that hat. Before we left, we unexpectedly ran into my parents and I gave it to my mom.

One of the most timely finds was at a market while trying to adjust a fender stay. About the same time I told my wife, "I wish we had an 8 mm wrench", I looked down and saw a small wrench lying on the ground about 2 feet from us. It was an 8mm! It is still in my tool kit.

I found a bike pump the day after my friend's was stolen.

Get out of here - seriously? Buy a mega-millions?

in the wilds of australia, an unopened bottle of tabasco sauce.

True story:

Riding one of the bike trails along the Columbia river when some hikers flagged us down. "Be careful, there's a white horse in the middle of the trail," one said.

We rounded the corner, to a small, white plastic horse, the sort you might get in a toy farm.

Fellow rider attached said white horse to her handlebars for the remainder of the trip.

I have found myself lost a couple of times.

Good one !

I've been riding the same route every day this week, and on Monday's ride I noticed a broken pair of glasses with a glasses-strap lying in the bike lane. Well, I passed them again on Wednesday, then on Thursday, and today I vowed to stop and see what's-what. Still there, so I took the glasses-strap... will clean and use... I hate the way my glasses slip down when I sweat.

I didn't forget it, some jerk stole it!

--oh wait, you didn't say you drank it. Sorry.

I found a bike and whole campsite setup already. Just sitting there. As I already had my own, I left it for someone else to grab.

I did keep a camp stool I found by the side of the road that must have fallen off a touring bike.

I did actually - Sorry! I didn't know you were coming back.

(It was really good BTW)

Myself

I've found plenty of tools and bungees, a few almost full cigarette packs, a purse with a half oz of grass and a couple hundred bucks, lots of singular children's shoes, children's shorts and pants, a really really nice blown glasa pipe and a steel five gallon bucket full of brandless bars of soap. Seeing it all out in one sentence makes it seem like I live in a really skeevey area.

Every ride, though, there is always at least one article of children's clothing- usually one shoe.

I need to ride with you guys. All I ever find is an endless supply of used diapers... Now if someone starts a thread of what I have left behind, I will have a lit more interesting stuff to contribute...

Oh there is one thing I did find many years ago, a pair of aluminum cooking pliers that I still use today...