3rd April
At a housing complex called Villagers Twin Lakes Pet and Spa, and I had a fabulous wind but uncertain line of travel. Roadworks consumed my attention. From being a quiet and often carless road this morning, the 380 has suddenly turned into the busiest highway I've come across since LA. Three lanes of fast transport, no hard shoulder so I just had to speed up to give everyone behind a bit more time so they see I'm there.
I must be one of a very few number of cyclists crossing the United States right here, right now and especially since the other side of the Plains. Like a river maturing to carry the big volume it can as it gets wider, this once gentle 380 has turned into a grown up road, only the most senior of roads can carry such transport. I feel I’m surfing in a sea of twitching throaty traffic sometimes surrounded, stuck in a middle lane on a highway in America is amongst my most painful memories. Good that Danny in Roswell fitted a mirror to my helmet because seeing what's coming up behind me is my life-saver and under a blue sky, lots of flags, trucks turning on new concrete, immaculate construction all very orderly. I rode on.
The beauty of construction is that after the difficult bits the best of the rest is good, well paved and in some places a bicycle path separates me from the lunacy. I have out stayed my welcome on the 380.
Drivers are strong owners of space around their vehicle, including the space needing to enter and exit areas, anywhere they manoeuvre belongs to the driver as cars regularly cruise past and turn directly in front of me to. No quarter given, it's their intended route and it's their statement that nothing will impede it. Making sense of the new traffic pattern has to happen instantly, to become familiar with dense fast traffic that suddenly happens unexpectedly.
10 miles to go traffic has a pause, I pass another Starbucks and a cycle path, the sun is behind and the driving setting is peaceful with no turbulence from any wind more a breeze. And so I tumble into the lounge area of my nights accommodation and as much as I like living in the moment throughout the day, I'm glad it's over.
Map of the Day
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