Today’s wierd thing:
Old guy on a mountain bike (on the road) with clip-on aero-bars.
But - not only are the bars pointing upwards at about 75 degrees but the guy is steering using the pads!!
Christmas Eve in Dallas I saw a guy “walking” his Akita (very large, powerful breed of dog) by hanging his retractable leash out the car window and driving slowly down the street.
Somewhat humorous story from early December. So I’m out running loops around the compound here at my deployed location. Normally running is a bit tedious – it’s 1.66 miles around the compound, scenery never changes, etc.
I get out on the back corner of the loop, and as I’m running along I start to hear this noise. It sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it. There’s always background noise here – generators, vehicles, airplanes, etc, so you get pretty accustomed to the different noises. I can tell when a cargo plane is taking off vs fighters just by the sound.
As I get closer to this sound, it starts to get clearer, and I realize – that sounds like bagpipes! Now I’m somewhat concerned – 90 days here in the desert has definitely gotten to me since I’m obviously hearing things.
I finally get to the corner of the road that marks the farthest point you can go within the confines of the compound. There’s a large earth berm just beyond the road edge. There’s a guy standing there by the berm playing a set of bagpipes. At least I’m not crazy. I stopped and listened for a moment – being a Scot by ancestry I love hearing a good set o’ pipes. He was playing pretty decently. Certainly made my night – something different in a place we call “Living Groundhog Day.”
Haven’t seen him since.
Thanks
• Jeff
Last summer I was riding with a friend of mine on a Sunday morning (early around 6:00 am) and as I looked ahead I asked him if he was seeing the same thing I was and he confirmed it. There was a guy walking his mule down the road with a collar like it was a dog.
On a run saw this thing with beady red eyes that resembled a cross between a chicken & a duck. It stared at me as I went by. I decided not to do an out-and-back that day.
Reminded me of the evil chicken from Courage the Cowardly Dog.
I’m a west coast guy but had a business trip to Florida last February. I thought bringing my road bike would be fun just to explore the Orlando area. I’m riding along and a monkey runs right in front of me. Only thing I could figure was that he escaped from a theme park or something.
The other day (christmas eve) I was running on the towpath just west of philly and stopped to take a leak while I was going I noticed a guy get out of his car and go to his trunk. He then changed his shoes. I thought no big deal he is just putting on crappy shoes since the towpath is cinders and it was a bit wet. Then he gets some bags out of his car and takes them into an abandoned building. I am thinking one of four things was happening.
He was a squatter
He had someone kidnapped in the building and was taking something to them
I was a drug deal
He was disposing of a body
Or could it be something totally innocent like…(please insert something that makes sense here)
For those of you from philly it is the far west end of the towpath were bikers would veer off and take the road into manayunk right when you get onto the cinders it was the second abandoned building.
Driving from Denver to Moab (I was on my way to a ride so this counts)…
Stop in Vail to go to the bathroom. Cutting through ski resort lobby I passed by the bar.
Saw two midgets inside beating the hell out of each other.
Paused…blinked a few times…confirmed what I was seeing.
By the time I came out of the bathroom they had been separated…
weird…
I had the suicidal squirrel experience a fe weeks ago. He was sitting at the side of the road and I went by him, pointing him out to the riders behind me when I hear a scream from behind. A friend two bikes back nailed the squirrel and was able to bunnyhop him with the front tire but squished him with the back. I was the only guy on the irde and the squeemish girls didn’t want to finish him off so I went back and ended his suffering. his back was broken. Stupid animals.
karma
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Being from the NYC area,I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff,but one thing that sticks out in my mind. Two summers ago I was jogging the Central Parl loop,and about 50 yards ahead of me I see this grossly overweight man proceed to take his shirt off,rub what looked like baby oil on his stomach,in front of group of women sitting on a bench. He continued doing this for about a minute, put his shirt back on,and walked away. I guess the ladies were used to seeing weird sh*^ like this,because it didnt even phase them.
The best thing was probably being roadblocked by a herd of cows on a small road in Cornwall. We had to stop and let them pass.
The worst thing I saw was junkies shooting up on one of the LA concrete river bike paths.
I’ve gotten used to the coyotes that roam Griffith Park in Los Angeles, though that was a surprise one late afternoon.
I would think that running at 2am through the streets of Hollywood would have given me some odd sightings, but I can’t really think of any. The transvestite prostitutes at certain intersections don’t count since they are there most of the time.
Being from the NYC area,I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff,but one thing that sticks out in my mind. Two summers ago I was jogging the Central Parl loop,and about 50 yards ahead of me I see this grossly overweight man proceed to take his shit off,rub what looked like baby oil on his stomach,in front of group of women sitting on a bench. He continued doing this for about a minute, put his shirt back on,and walked away. I guess the ladies were used to seeing weird sh*^ like this,because it didnt even phase them.
Huh?
<proceed to take his shit off>
Left out the r. Meant to say shirt.
Oh I know… it’s funnier with the “r” off, though 
a few weeks ago i was running with rroof, cincytri and another guy, it was an out and back, no big deal. on the way back there was a dog on the roof of a house, just barking away at us. strange, but quite funny. we saw that one angle of the house was very low to the ground and that’s how he got up there. probably the dog’s regular hangout spot.
In Highland Park, NJ…
I have see it… the illustrious Albino Deer.
meating skunks in the dark = wife won’t let me in the house after running
Thom.
This morning whilst having a gentle jog around the local forest I saw a pervet jerking off whilst stood in a tree.
I’ve seen a bunch of crazy animal stuff (beavers, snakes, deer, turkey in trees, etc.), but one really sticks out in my head from last year’s Alligator Creek Triathlon (O’Fallon, MO).
The bike route runs along some fairly desolate country highways. Most of the homes are on acreage with pretty good distances between them. I came around a turn to a flat section, and ~1/4 mile up the road I could see “something” in the road moving around. When I got a little closer, I realized it was a group of turkeys (1 male & 5 or 6 females). They kept trying to walk off the right side of the road, but, every time, they’d wait until the next rider was just 100yd or so away before making their move, and they’d run back to the middle of the road - only to repeat the process when the next rider came through. Lord only knows how long they’d been standing there (swim pool with 20s interval starts, so I was a good 15 minutes behind the first rider) or how much longer after I’d passed. The weird part was that there were open field on both the right & left. They were just determined to go off the right. I happened to be passing a female at the time we went by them, looked over and said “There’s something you don’t see everyday.” A pretty funny little distraction.
I rode that course probably 10 times in the weeks leading up to the race at roughly the same time of day, and never saw anything like that. Strange.
Steve
Christmas Eve in Dallas I saw a guy “walking” his Akita (very large, powerful breed of dog) by hanging his retractable leash out the car window and driving slowly down the street.
Are you sure the dog wasn’t pulling the car?