When Jaine and I were about 10 miles outside of Newton KS, we came upon this unusual sign:
Jaine and I immediately stopped.
"That's an Adventure Cycling sign!" I said to Jaine. "We gotta get a picture of that!"
For those not in the know, the maps we were using to make our trip across America are produced from Adventure Cycling Association. It is a non profit organization who's mission is to inspire and empower people to travel by bicycle. Jaine and I have met many (at least over 20) people and every single person bar none have had Adventure Cycling maps to help them navigate their trek across the United States. Believe me, there is no better organization that provides bicyclists the ability to see America by bike, as they have mapped over 40,000 miles of trails all over the US.
The maps are very informative and well organized and are made of a material that won't fall apart when the map gets wet.
To give you an example of how the maps work, Jaine and I bought the maps for the pink trail from San Francisco to Colorado called the 'Western Express' trail, then bought some of the maps for the orange trail (called the 'TransAmerica' trail) from Colorado to Virginia. We bought one more map from the set of maps for the Atlantic Coast trail (yellow trail) that would take us to Kitty Hawk, NC. If you buy any maps, I suggest you become a member for $45 as members get a big discount when buying maps. Generally you'll get your membership money back when you buy the maps for a given trail. Jaine and I are proud members of the organization and are in full support of their mission.
A couple of more miles down the road we came upon another sign that was even more cool:
A sign that suggests drivers to give some distance to bicyclists when driving past them. "How nice!" I thought. I particularly like the 'It's the Law' in the sign. Now that's bike friendly!
As we came into Newton we started to realize who was responsible for this strong bicycle support in the area. It was none other than the Newton Bike Shop run by James and Heather Barringer who are the nicest people you could ever meet and are probably one of the strongest bicycle advocates on the planet (and that is without hyperbole).
They call their shop 'an Oasis in the Grass Desert'. Their shop is a Mecca for all bicyclists crossing America as it is not only a bike shop, but a hostel where bicyclists can stay overnight for a reasonable rate. James and Heather literally open their shop for bicyclists to stay and sleep the night. When you think about it's really quite amazing. To open one's shop to complete strangers to stay the night takes a huge leap of faith, but this trust in bicyclists to do the right thing is apparently well founded. Appreciative bikers share their experiences traveling across America, sign their names on the wall, sleep with their dogs and even give impromptu concerts.
Truly an exceptional place run by exceptional people!
Read more about James and Heather in this article: http://www.harveycountynow.com/profiles/an-oasis-in-the-grass
James and Heather promote automobile/bicycle safety in their area with the excellent signage shown above, but sadly this standard of excellence doesn't span the nation.
The other day, Jaine had an unfortunate situation where a cattle truck driver actually slowed down and waited until Jaine was about to cross a narrow bridge before speeding up to cross the bridge while another semi truck was crossing the bridge in the opposite direction. With little margin for error, Jaine had to concentrate so she wouldn't be sucked into the offending semi, or blown into the bridgework as the cattle truck sped by.
Two days ago I was traveling on Highway 54 which is very bike friendly with huge smooth shoulder for bikers to safely travel. Unfortunately, there was a short section about a mile where there was road construction and no white line was painted on the road to designate the driving lane. There was enough shoulder for a bike to ride and cars and trucks to pass, but to be safe, I stayed on the far right of the road literally inches from the gravel shoulder. There was a lot of traffic going by me in this bottleneck and all was well until one truck pulled up next to me and blared its horn in an effort to scare the bejesus out of me and possibly drive me off the road. I kept my cool and just waved back but internally I was thinking "There's a name for people like that and it starts with an 'A' and ends with a 'hole'." I know people felt sorry for me after that as almost all of the drivers behind the truck slowed down and gave me a wide berth like they were trying to say "Not all of us are like that guy".
Jaine and I have found that the vast majority of drivers all across America are courteous to bicyclists. It's the unfortunate few that don't know how to share the road and actually instigate dangerous situations between drivers and bicyclists.
My personal feeling is that driver/biker safety is a two way street. Drivers should try, if possible, to give a wide berth to cyclists. You don't necessarily have to slow down if there is a wide enough berth, but the closer you get to the biker, the more you should slow down. Also, bikers have a responsibility to stay to as far to the right of the road as possible. Cyclists who ride down the middle of the road thinking they have just as much right to the road as an automobile usually are 'dead' wrong.
As for those drivers that that tried to squeeze Jaine off the road or honk to scare the bejesus out of me, I sometimes wish I had the power of Samantha Stevens of 'Bewitched'. Remember her?
I know this sounds sophomoric, but after that guy scared the crap out of me by honking his horn, I thought it would be nice if I could just twitch my nose like Samantha Stevens and cause an uncontrollable bout of diarrhea coupled with extreme flatus for that insensitive clod as he chuckled to himself driving down the road. It would be poetic justice to hear an "OH, S***!" out his window before he had to hustle to the next truck stop to sheepishly scoot into the men's room for a massive cleanup. Same to the driver who put the squeeze play on Jaine.
Sadly, in reality, nose twitches don't work, but it was a happy thought all the same. 