Driving home through rural Ithaca I saw, within 30 seconds:
- A snapping turtle crossing the road, long prehistoric tail dragging behind her. The turtles are laying eggs this week wherever they can, including parking lots, trails, and ditches.
- A great blue heron
- A vole running across the road. Voles are apparently susceptible to some sort of brain parasite that makes them go nuts and do stuff like this. A few weeks ago, cow-orker Mary Winston and I watched one running in a small circle for five minutes. I finally caught him and put him under the dock so he wouldn’t get stepped on. It was all very Wrath of Kahn.
- Two horses and riders walking toward me in my lane. Can anyone tell me if that is standard horse-in-street protocol? Because it was hella surprising.
30 seconds. Ithaca.
enjoy the memories erica … :)
^—- I thought you were supposed to go against traffic when on a bike, so you can dodge oncoming cars, rather than get clipped from behind, in the head?
and as far as horses go, I know they hold some special place in the road system, moreso than bikes and peds. I know on NYS Trails, peds yield to bikers, and everyone yields to horses (because horses are alot more unpredictable, being an animal and all)
On the horse question… I would think that this is not standard protocal. I would imagine that standard horse in street protocol is the same as bike in street protocol: you ride with traffic (not against!) and close to the shoulder.
One of my big personal peeves is people who ride their bikes in the street against traffic. Don’t they know how dangerous that is? Also, it is bicyclists like that (inconsiderate and ignorant of the rules of the road) that give all bicyclists a bad name…
Hm… if you lived in Ann Arbor you could see all that…
Did you know that spiders also are susceptible to a parasite — that makes them weave crazy looking webs. Weird.