Many years ago I was doing an early morning ride in the fog. Tootling along at about 20kph, trying to stay safe until the fog lifted and I could get back to normal speed. I spooked Bambi in the middle of the road. It clattered on the cold wet road searching for grip then bounded over a roadside fence into the woods. Full rack of antlers, scared the crap out me thinking that I could have been run into by 30 points of death!

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I was on a group ride way out in the country. I passed a property with a sign by the road that said "Nothing at this property is worth dying for.", with a picture of either a firearm or a deaths-head.

so i guess i've mentioned here before that i've traveled a bit and usually run/ride when i travel, so i've seen my share of the bizarre while i'm out training.

at the moment i live in sierra leone, where i'm working on an ebola vaccine trial. about once a month while i'm out i encounter secret societies having 'devil parades,' where people dressed up like this



get escorted down the road to singing and drumming, and protected by people carrying (fake?) rifles.

makes me more self conscious than usual about being the white dude standing there in a singlet and short shorts.

-mike

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Giant purple butt-plug during a trail race.

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Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

Once I came across a garden with hundreds off dolls hanging in the trees with ropes around their neck somewhere hidden in a forest. If i remember correct it was somewhere in Sauerland. Stopped there for a while, it was really a scary scene. There where also some protest signs in the garden, requesting to stop cutting trees down.

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Dosis sola facit venenum

We have some large deer herds in the area. My wife once came around a corner on her tri bike in aero position and popped right into a herd of 20 or so. They were moving down the road in the same direction and paid no attention to her at all. She said she slowed down and rode gradually through them- some were close enough to reach out and touch. She obviously wasn't a car or a person - maybe a really weird looking cow (?) - so they didn't consider her dangerous and just went about their business. She always says it was one of the strangest and most enjoyable things she ever did.

I was running through town this morning on a road that parallels the NJ Transit Commuter Railroad track. I could see a police car up ahead at the crossing but thought he was there just for the morning's 5K. Then I remembered that street wasn't on the route

I could not see what the issue was because of the overgrown fence that runs along the RR right-of-way, which keeps people off the tracks and serves as a catch-all for little bottles of Fireball and Bud Light cans [although I DID spot a Clown Shoes bottle cap on the side of the road once, so not ALL of the Pineys are completely without taste]. With the wild roses and honeysuckles in bloom, it was a very pleasant way to enjoy the morning

When I finally got to the crossing I saw what the problem was: a 4' long boulder, about 3' in diameter, in the middle of the lane on the far side of the crossing. Apparently, a landscaping truck had come to the crossing, maybe a little hot, and when it went over the grade, the bed bucked enough to pitch the rock out the back and into the street, Observing the scrapes, dust and debris in the road, I could tell that it had landed between the rails, but had taken a fortunate bounce in the direction the vehicle was traveling and cleared itself out of the way of any trains that would be coming ... and one was due withing the next 15-20 minutes

I had run over that crossing about half an hour before, and it wasn't there then, so it must have been a recent development

Which begs the question: what kind of chump landscaper drops a HUGE rock in the middle of the street and either doesn't notice it, or [worse] says "Oh fuck" and just leaves it there, continuing on his merry way?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

hanging dolls is creepy as f

Maybe he was going to get the forklift to get it back on the truck? Sounds too big to hand bomb.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Someone had found a dead rabbit, stuck a pair of kids sunglasses on him and a cigarette in his mouth. They crossed his legs, put one arm out like hitch hiking and propped him up leaning on a sign post. He looked like a hipster version of the old Playboy rabbit illustration. Must have been a biker or runner from the area who knew his friends would go by there and see it.

Just under a year ago I was on a multi day touring ride. We were passing through all sorts of terrain in the city, villages, and the country side.

I recall approaching a wooded field. A brown shrub looked out of place so I kept my eyes on it. As I approached to pass it the thing turned to look at me with eyes, snout, and a mouth. I nearly fell off my bike.

It turns out we were passing by a traveling circus and I had just passed a camel that had laid down and had a wooly neck.

I don't scare easily, but that would creep me the fuck out.

Last year I was riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway near my house and I was going up a slight incline over a bridge.
I knew there was a car waiting behind me to pass and there were 2 cars coming in the other direction.

When I looked up I saw 2 large deer trotting along in the grass shoulder coming at me. They stopped when they saw me. I kept riding, one ran across the road into a lovely pasture, the other jumped off the bridge. It seemed to happen in slow motion. I heard a loud crunch. I didnt have the heart to look at the road below. I am happy it didnt land on a car driving below.

I had an uneasy feeling the rest of the ride.

Two things this morning:

1) A big ass knife - folding style; the handle was kinda beat up, but the blade looked sharp as fuck. There was no blood to be seen on it, so I surmised it was NOT a murder weapon [recently, anyway], but I dared not pick it up just the same and just kicked it off the road

2) While waiting at the final stop light on the way home, a contractor pulled up in his work van. Being a polite little shit, I waved over. He acknowledged and took a big pull of what appeared to be a pint bottle. Now, he didn't go for the full Jack Nicholson / Carl in "Easy Rider" so I can't be 100% sure, but the size & shape of the container certainly didn't register with me as Wawa iced tea

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

A random naked guy walking along the gulf shore in pre-dawn light, and at the end of the same run an Armadillo trundling across the road who basically gave me the stink eye and moved along....One summer along a narrow road in Idaho a Bald Eagle guarding road kill who was not about to move, he was there on the out and back, gave me chills scooting around him.

As it happened, I missed her that following fortnight, and again today [I'm off every other Friday] so with school being out for the Summer next week, it looks like I'll not be seeing her for a while ... or ever again, for that matter, if she gets another job, or even another route

Now I kinda know how The Prince felt after Cinderella ran out of the Ball

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Stay strong brother. Sexy school bus lady will be back for you in no time!!

Saw this mixed in with everyone else riding on the bike trail:

http://vicpd.ca/...a/420%20Bike1%20.jpg

Similarly, dude riding with one arm and taking hits from a giant bong with the other. Everyone was quick to get around him.

Just last weekend got passed by a mom riding a steel bike pulling a kid trailer behind her. I wonder who she was?

Does this count? Heard an unmistakable noise of a multi radial engine airplane. Looked up. Saw a B-17.

Once I was biking in Lake Mead Recreation Area and saw a nice LG phone on the road. I turned around and picked it up to hand into the Ranger Office. I assumed it had fallen off the back of someone's boat. I get to the office and go to hand her the phone and leave, but she insisted on getting all this information from me and see some ID. I thought it was a bit of overkill just to turn in a lost item. I was annoyed. A few days later I get a call from the Police Department. They asked me where I found the phone etc. Then they told me it was the phone belonging to a woman who was murdered there the week before. I was shocked and freaked out. I told them I could take them to the exact spot I found it, if they need me to, but I never heard from them again. Her murder was never solved.

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No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
Laura

Deer at the side of the road with a red bow tie around its neck waiting for me to pass before it crossed the road.

I actually saw a pair of deer standing by the side of the road once, right where the deer crossing sign was

A couple hundred yards down, there was a dead one

"See. Dave THAT's why there's a sign here"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Few weeks ago I was starting my ride and saw two cyclists pulled over on the side of the road looking at something. I rolled up, asked if they were ok, and they asked what is the strangest thing I've seen while riding? I found a nude magazine with three boobed women once. The one guy points to an 18 inch dildo and a green plastic belt...

I was out in the boonies on a training ride one day and saw a lady standing at her mailbox. As I got closer I realized she was half dressed. As I got even closer I realized she was about 70, a bit overweight, and reading her mail in her bra and underwear. I hope I can un-see that someday.

Coolest running encounter was on the Mountains to Sea Trail around Falls Lake. I spooked a bald eagle and it took off towards the lake. I was only about 40' from him and it startled me. I just stopped and watch him cut through the trees out to the lake. Really cool.

Funniest run was through New Orleans at about 6:00am on a Saturday. So many walks of shame happening I just quit counting.

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Team Zoot - Great Lakes

Massive purple dildo in the road at IMUK 2014 on the bike course.

In grad school in Rochester, I was running on the path along the Erie Canal one day when I noticed something glint in the water. Stopping to get a closer look, it was an adult deer, drowned and staring up at me just like that scene in Dances with Wolves.