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The Quirky Life

January 24th, 2012 Posted by . Published under Riding. No Comments.

One of the ways we keep ourselves entertained while riding our bikes thousands of miles is noticing the quirky little events and things along the way.  I thought we’d share a few of them with you today!

  • Starting near Orlando, FL, heading south, we followed a Hansel & Gretel like path of green beans leading literally hundreds of miles south to Homestead, FL.
  • The soil across the country has changed from brown in the Midwest, red in Georgia, white along the beaches in Florida and black as tar in the interior of Florida.
  • We’ve watched the crops change too!  Miles of corn in Indiana, soybeans and green beans and then cotton in Georgia, then free-range cattle and sugar cane in Florida.  Louisiana and Texas have rice apparently.  Who knew!
  • Indiana is rife with wooly worms.  EVERYWHERE.  We probably accidentally rolled over thousands.
  • Louisiana has a Hansel & Gretel trail of Mardi Gras beads.
  • The smell of skunk spray is 1000000000000000 times more appealing than road kill or factory farms.  We’ve actually even stopped downwind of it without even realizing because it’s that much more appealing.
  • There are a massive amount of frogs and snakes as road kill.  It’s also very sad how many dogs, cats and hawks we’ve seen.
  • The best way to stop a chasing dog quite literally in its tracks is to yell and wag your finger, “Go HOME!!”
  • We have become the ultimate “old people” because we go to bed with the sun!  Sometimes that’s 6pm since it’s winter.
  • Sometimes cars sound like Empire fighters coming up behind you depending on the type of road.  Then you can pretend you are a Rebel x-wing fighter.
  • The most random and annoying songs play on repeat in our heads for hours.  Examples include: FreeCreditReport.com song, that heartbeat song from Rent, the Dirty Jobs and Pawn Stars theme songs, and Moves Like Jagger aka most annoying song EVER.
  • Pancake mix can also be used to make calzones, pizza, garlic bread, pot pie and dumplins.
  • Jessica is no longer a vegetarian after 6 years of resisting.
  • Rachel is fascinated by Jessica’s new, insatiable desire for barbeque and chicken wings.  So many chicken wings.
  • Rachel is now in love with barbeque too.  New fave food.
  • On a long day, we can eat an entire pack of Keebler cookies.  Or any pack of cookies for that matter.
  • Camping under a bridge is a pretty safe and good, albeit smelly (from bat guano) and a little nerve-wracking.
  • People we meet at gas stations, on ferries, in restaurants, on the street, when buying jeans, etc treat us like the craziest celebrities they’ve ever met.
  • Cows and horses almost always stop whatever they’re doing and stare at us as we ride past.  In Florida, a few cows even did a double-take and then backed up quickly because two women on bikes with kitty litter buckets as panniers is THAT SHOCKING.
  • Sometimes horses (and once a whole herd of cows) run along with us.  It is seriously the coolest, most beautiful moment when it happens.
  • Indiana is set up as a huge grid.  Really.  Each square mile is divided up by a road on each side.  Sometimes they are only gravel, which made for nasty riding, but mostly, they were like big bike paths.
  • Georgia wins the prize for the least amount of shoulders on the road.
  • Florida wins the prize for most amounts of shoulders.
  • Texas wins the prize for the widest shoulders (so far).
  • Louisiana wins the prize for WORST ROADS EVER.

 

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