Attention

On my way to the river yesterday I stopped at a c-store for a mid-morning snack. 2 gentleman caught my attention in the line next to me as I was waiting to check out. They were holding up their line purchasing lottery tickets and asking quite a few questions about the lottery, one of which required the clerk to go get the manager for an answer. I checked out and was back outside packing away my snack and unlocking my bike when the same 2 men approached me. My fat-bike had got their attention. “Hey, where’d you get those big tires?” one asked. It’s funny because people always just ask about the tires on my fat-bike not realizing it takes a special bike to fit the 4″ wide tires. I proceeded to fill them in on fat-bikes and they continued asking questions. By my observations both men were intoxicated and this made for a fun and interesting conversation. One of them asked if he could ride it. I lowered the seat and leaned the bike so he could throw a leg over it. After a few false starts he was off and circled the lot. He was laughing and exclaimed something about being 70 years old and riding the bike. Once done he thanked me and and we talked some more. I cringed as the other man pulled a thorn he spotted from the tire. I raised the seat back up and we said our good-byes and they wished me a safe ride. As I rode off I could here them commenting to one another still in astonishment… “those were some fat tires”, “disc brakes, it had disk brakes”, “he said only two hundred dollars!”.

More attention…
Last time I rode the bike as I cut through a restaurant parking lot a man stopped me to ask about the tires. Later that day as I passed a school playground I could hear kids screaming about the fat tires. Another interesting encounter was a while back. As I rode down a street, a taxi pulled up, rolled down the window and drove along side me asking about the bike while his fair, an elderly lady, sat in the back.

As for my ride, it was a nice day as far as the temperature but the wind was terrible.

This fire was still smoldering. It was used to burn the insulation off of the wire. No one was around but I assume they would be back to get the copper or whatever metal it was.

I assume this is stolen, stripped then burned. Here’s another one I spotted last year right near this one.

Short sleeve weather.