What does a human and a dead armadillo have in common?

They both almost made me kiss the pavement this morning! Okay, lesson in bike safety, always be alert and never trust another cyclist (or a dead armadillo as I found out).

I enjoy going out for morning rides even though it means having to attach a few lights to your bike and wonder what those noises are in the bushes. I head out at 5AM on the dot and it is perfect riding weather. A little wind to get the heart rate up and no cars on the road. I am focused on the 4 feet of road that I can see from my light and all is going well. All of a sudden I look up and some guy is on my side of the road and I almost nailed him! Dude, learn to stay on your side of the road to avoid a nasty wreck! He said sorry after I tossed a few choice words his way. I survived kissing the pavement…nice!

Now I am hitting where it is pitch dark so I get up on my hoods for better control but still hitting 19 MPH and BAM! I totally went air born (I got like three feet of air that time…dig Napoleon Dynamite). I realized it was a dead armadillo from the crunching noise. This was a big guy and yes, another round of specifically selected words came from my mouth. Somehow I clipped out in mid-air and when I landed my foot kept me up and I just kept turning into the skid (thanks Dad for teaching me how to drive on ice…worked well on the bike too) until I stopped.

Lesson for the day: BE SAFE out there and make sure you have a light on your bike that has more than 4 foot of visibility. Oh yea, watch out for cyclists that don’t know their right from their left and for armadillo’s that are not smart enough to avoid cars 🙂