Don't Mess with Texas (Cyclists)

So about two weeks ago, I wiped out.

It was thoroughly embarrassing, and messy, and ultimately rather expensive as I ended up at the ER despite the fact that I thought I was just fine (which I basically was, I just now get to pay $1300 for the pleasure of them telling me that I was right).

Yesterday I took my first ride back through the area where I had my accident, and it became abundantly clear why I might've fallen in to the road for no apparent reason.

As you can see, the bike lane is strewn with debris.

Now, I don't remember a ton about the bike ride that day & subsequent crash (I blame adrenaline), but I do remember my handlebars turning suddenly and depositing me in to the path of a Suburban who, thankfully, stopped.

Corpus Christi isn't the greatest with planning, and so obviously they plunked a bike lane in to the shoulder of a road without figuring out that the road was originally designed to shuttle debris over there on those rare occasions that it rains. Nor did they plan to ever clean out the bike lanes, because they can barely maintain the roads (No, seriously).

So I've submitted a street maintenance request and now try to give this area a wide berth--which is tough because it's the most convenient of the few bike lanes in town.

Or maybe I'll just watch a little better.

...or maybe I'll become a vigilante street sweeper.  Like Batman, but with a broom!  And, of course, a bike. 

Bicycle Renaissance

Obviously I'm not so great with updating.

Which doesn't mean I haven't been biking; it's just that I often can't think of a single thing to write about my favorite hobby.  I biked to the store yesterday; it was hot and windy. Who cares?

That, of course, is apparently the point of blogging, so here I go again.

I've had a bicycle Renaissance, and it's all San Francisco's fault.

In July, I visited a friend in San Francisco.  It's a glorious town for biking (aside from those monstrous hills for which the city is so famous), and so every day I would take the BART in to town, rent a bike, and spend the next eight hours or so (until my friend got off work) biking around town.  I biked the Golden Gate Bridge, I biked the Presidio, I biked every bloody thing in between.

It was a beautiful week for it--highs around 80 degrees, sunny & very little wind.  I got sunburned down to the knuckles simply because, unlike in South Texas, it didn't feel like I was going to spontaneously combust when I stepped outside.

And when I returned home, despite the heat advisories, I found I still wanted to be on my bike.

...and hopefully update this blog a little more often...