Incident at S. Vine and E. Riverfront Dr.

Incident at S. Vine and E. Riverfront Dr.

Lunch rides.  Lunch bike rides along the Arkansas River Trail, that is.  I don’t get to take them often but this past Wednesday was a good day for it.  Highs in the 70s and a little breezy.  Blue sky with fluffy white clouds.   Beautiful.  I crossed the Clinton Bridge and was coasting along East Riverfront Dr. on my way to the River Trail.  At S. Vine I passed a woman talking on her cell phone who suddenly screamed “I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FA-ACE!!!”  Excuse me?  I turned around.

“What did you say?”

“I said, if you pass me again without a warning I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FA-ACE!”

She was shouting this as I now passed her on the right.  Caucasian, dark hair, acne, purple sweatpants and a white T-shirt, she was holding her iPhone to her right ear as she screamed at me.

“You are the SIXTH person TODA-AY who has passed me without a WARNING!  You are supposed to yell ON YOUR LEFT when passing people on the River Trail!!!”

Wow.  She was PISSED.

Then she said into the phone, “These bikers keep whizzing by me without saying anything.”

By now I had done another 180 and was on her right side.  I was tempted to shout “ON YOUR RIGHT” but thankfully the smart-ass in me kept quiet.  Instead I asked, “Did I alarm you?”  Dumb question.  Obviously I alarmed.  She kept talking on her phone but turned to glare at me.  She was freaking out.  Anger boiling in her eyes.  Time to move on.  “I’m sorry” I said and as I started to ride away she yelled “And you BETTER tell those people up there you are passing.”  I turned into the River Trail entrance before overtaking the two pedestrians up ahead.

First off, it was totally peculiar to be in a confrontation with someone glued to their phone.  The whole time I was involved with this woman, she was on her phone.  She’d yell at me and then return to her conversation.  She’d be like “I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FA-ACE!!!” at the top of her lungs and then, in a normal voice, be like “I am yelling at a biker”  to whoever she was talking to on her phone.  Crazy.

Secondly, this woman was waaay over the top with me. But essentially she was in the right.  I didn’t call out when I passed her and I should have.  That’s protocol for riding on the River Trail as well as just plain common courtesy.  Now if you don’t do it, should you get PUNCHED IN THE FA-ACE!!!??? No.  But still.  I was in the wrong.

The irony here was that over the weekend I took my  family for a walk on the River Trail and was amazed by how many cyclists didn’t call out when overtaking us.  It wasn’t alarming but I was a little disappointed in my fellow cyclists.  I mean, here I was ambling along with my little group, a teen, a tween and a baby in stroller. And, as you can imagine, we were a pretty lose group. Not jogging, not power walking, we were straight up meandering along the river trail. My son kept drifting across the trail, head down, eyes in his bangs. My daughter too was skipping around, sometimes to the right sometimes to the left. And of course, the stroller can’t keep a true line to save it’s life. We were a slow-moving, weaving, unpredictable group. So you’d think the cyclists would give us a shout out.  But, I think,  1 in 8 cyclists gave us the requisite ON YOUR LEFT when passing.  Dudes!  Give us a heads up.

No big whoop but my takeaway from our stroll was the one thought: I need to say ON YOUR LEFT more when I’m passing people on the River Trail. We cyclists need to remember to warn anyone walking that we are going to pass them.  There are all kinds of people walking on the River Trail and they all deserve a heads up.   From the friendly to the frazzled, whomever you may be passing needs an “ON YOUR LEFT” or “PASSING ON YOUR LEFT!”  Just shout it out and also say “THANK YOU” once you’ve passed.

And then, there I was Wednesday, silently cruising by pedestrians on E. Riverfront and almost getting PUNCHED IN THE FA-ACE!

Moving on.  This morning during spin class the instructor cued up “I’m Shakin'” by Jack White which I’d never heard before.  Cool production!  Reminded me of Joe Henry a lil bit, production value wise.  I youtubed it when I got home and found this cool tribute video.  God.  Don’tcha love Soul Train?  The get-ups. The dance moves.  So awesome.  The whole line thing looks so freaking cool. Such a cool shot.   And lookey there. 02:23.  Face punch.  Girl jabs boys.  Dayum!  Can’t tell if that’s staged or not.  Don’t know why “face punch” keeps coming up this week.  Weirdness.  “I’m neuvous.”  Sing it Jack.

I’m Shakin’ – Jack White has soul (originally by Rudy Toombs)