Hah, I just got this email from a friend who I cycle with regularly:
"Hey,
Well I will be out there too, as usual. I thought of you this Sunday when I was out there, doing pretty much the same route, because there was one more thing that would have been great for you to have seen.
I'm crusing along the relatively flat stretch of road just after going through that newly constructed hill w/ smooth black pavement, about 1 hr into the ride... all of a sudden I see a car about 1/4 mile ahead of me swerve wildly on the road. I can't figure out what the driver is thinking, when the car comes towards me with the window down, and they yell something at me. It sounds garbled, so I don't know what they're saying. I continue on, starting to tell that there is something blocking the road. I'm thinking it's a fallen tree, from a storm or something. Going about 20 MPH at that point it came up fast, and suddenly I realized that ain't no tree. It was a GATOR - absolutely hugest, fattest thing I've ever seen, parked right on the hot pavement. Must have been 12-14 feet long. I had zero time to react - I froze on my bike, and ended up crusing right past its head. I was staring at its beady eyes, praying it would not chose to lurch at me or something. Thankfully, it didn't move. But oh MY @#$*@&!& I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest. Craziest thing I have seen yet in 5 years of cycling out there.
see you out there then.
Robin
"
"Hey,
Well I will be out there too, as usual. I thought of you this Sunday when I was out there, doing pretty much the same route, because there was one more thing that would have been great for you to have seen.
I'm crusing along the relatively flat stretch of road just after going through that newly constructed hill w/ smooth black pavement, about 1 hr into the ride... all of a sudden I see a car about 1/4 mile ahead of me swerve wildly on the road. I can't figure out what the driver is thinking, when the car comes towards me with the window down, and they yell something at me. It sounds garbled, so I don't know what they're saying. I continue on, starting to tell that there is something blocking the road. I'm thinking it's a fallen tree, from a storm or something. Going about 20 MPH at that point it came up fast, and suddenly I realized that ain't no tree. It was a GATOR - absolutely hugest, fattest thing I've ever seen, parked right on the hot pavement. Must have been 12-14 feet long. I had zero time to react - I froze on my bike, and ended up crusing right past its head. I was staring at its beady eyes, praying it would not chose to lurch at me or something. Thankfully, it didn't move. But oh MY @#$*@&!& I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest. Craziest thing I have seen yet in 5 years of cycling out there.
see you out there then.
Robin
"