Overjoyed with the freedom afforded to me by once again having a rack to transport my trike so that I needn't just ride near home, I went to Hudson Mills Metropark at Dexter today to ride. Admittedly, there was a bit of nostalgia factoring in, as this was where I did my very first trike ride, on the afternoon of Saturday, May 2, 2015, after Michelle and I picked it up from the dealer. She got this picture of me as I was just setting out that day.
However, the ride was not quite carefree. As I was starting out today (within the first mile), I came upon an older woman (probably 75 or 80-ish, and quite crabby, as it turned out), walking her dog. I slowed and pulled carefully around them, but she nevertheless let loose an unintelligible diatribe, concluding by spitting out quite derisively, "FELLA!" Sighing, I stopped my trike, unclipped my feet from the pedals, and slowly and laboriously got up to walk back to her and apologize for whatever offense I had committed. I showed her my card, but reading it seemed to make little difference, as she told me, heatedly, "When you pass you're supposed to call out "On your left!" or "On your ride!" So I told her sorry as best I could, and she went on ahead, looking over her shoulder. Once I was ready to ride again, and caught up to her, I choked out as best I could, "On your left!", hoping that that satisfied her.
I had wanted to do two round trips between the park and the village of Dexter today via a nice paved trail that runs the approximately 5-mile length. But this little contretemps had cost me enough time that I could not afford to do that long a ride and still make it back in time to do some cooking I wanted to do (tonight's dinner—Cream of Broccoli soup). As well, my confrontation with her occurred right near the spur I have to take from the trail within the park to get out to the trail to Dexter. I missed that spur, and so went another lap in the park before setting out for town (about an additional 3 miles). So, given these delays, I held myself to a single round trip to Dexter, riding the 15 miles in 1:52, on an absolutely glorious spring day! When I began, at 11:00 a.m., it was in the upper fifties, and when I finished it was 65°, mostly sunny throughout, and with not too much wind early, but it had picked up quite significantly by the time I was done.
On the way home, I was quite thirsty, and since i have to pass right by the Dexter Dairy Queen, I decided to stop in for a treat. I asked the girl at the window, "Small cone, please." (I know, it doesn't make a lot of sense when I was thirsty, but it was good, anyway!) She asked, "You want vanilla?" So I asked, "What else you got?" (Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that I said "got" rather than the more grammatically correct "do you have?" In my defense, though, I'll plead the relative ease for me of pronouncing the "g" phoneme as opposed to the more difficult, aspirated "h.") Upon learning that they also had chocolate and twist, I asked for a small twist, and sat down in the sunshine to eat it before driving home.
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