Tuesday, December 10, 2013
This Was Just Great!
Another few examples of simple courtesy while on that Vulture Mine route a few weeks ago. Both are notable and one was a little odd.
I was riding my Bacchetta Ti Aero and came to the turnaround point of an 80 mile solo ride through the utterly and completely empty desert ( http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2038355 ). It was a truck stop off I-10 in Tonopah, AZ. Busy place with nothing but 18 wheelers, big vehicles pulling horse trailers and hay wagons. Gnarly guys who seemed happy to stop for a while and interact with folks.
I rode up to the place and wanted a sandwich and something to drink. Didn't want to leave the Bacchetta Ti Aero outside so I went in and asked the cashier if I could park the bike just inside the door. "Sure." He looked at me for a while because you don't see many guys with road kits and helmets.
I went outside to get the bike and was about to navigate getting the bike inside two double doors. Next thing I know a lime green (looked like it was painted with a brush) early '90's Ford Escort `Taxi' pulls up and out gets a very smiley dark black fellow. Really dark brown skin. Beautiful, deep brown skin. Smiles with brilliant white teeth and rushes to hold the doors open for me. Thanking him he energetically responded "You're very welcome" with what seemed like a Nigerian (I taught lots of Nigerian students) accent.
I get my sandwich and drink and head the bike toward the two sets of double doors again. This time a fairly attractive middle aged woman opens the outer door, again, with a very smiley face. I thank her and after the door closes she says: "You want to come home for lunch with me?"
I was caught completely off-guard and (believe it) speechless. Not out of fear or worry, but mostly out of shyness or nervousness I responded "Thank you but I've got to get back" while motioning in the general direction of north. If I were less of an uptight, anxious guy I might have developed a conversation with her. And who knows about lunch?
It was just another of many great experiences I have riding out here. Not to mention a few of the drivers who were friendly, one complimenting me, saying: "Oh, you're that hot rod we passed up the road."
That's probably one of the reasons I give a wave to passing vehicles out on these empty roads. You never know.
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Interesting. I can't help but wonder how the situation would have played if the genders for yourself and the female door-opener were reversed. A man asking a strange woman to go home for lunch with him. The world would be suspicious.
ReplyDeleteDawn, the `serial killer' paranoia lurks barely beneath the surface. If, e.g., I had asked a female cyclist home to lunch with me `my head' tells me that that would be the act of a slime ball `pre-vert.' As it was, it was my own timidity that `eschewed' her offer. It wasn't until shortly later that my many `-noias' started chewing on the event.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there was the time in the early '70's when I was hitch hiking through Mississippi (big red beard, long hair, etc) and a beautiful blond lady in a red convertible stopped and offered to give me a ride. Then, too! I was speechless and did one of those `thanks anyway but never mind' things.
Thank god for timidity. The LAST place I want that kind of overstimulation to go is to my prefrontal cortex for thoughtful calculation and decision. Things go there `to die.'