Friday, May 14, 2021

Road Hazards

 


I took the Himalayan to the post office yesterday morning. It was a pretty nice day, especially when compared to what we've been having. When I got about a 1/2 mile from the house I saw something laying in the road. I thought at first it might be a big bull snake like we get around here. Instead, it turned out to be a piece of 2x2 tubing. It must have been on some expanded metal or had a piece on top of it to form the scale pattern from the rust. I stopped the bike and tossed the tube off to the side of the road and then came back later with the truck and picked it up. 

Since it was such a nice day, lots of farm machinery out on the road. I got stuck behind a planter for a bit but the farmer pulled over as soon as he got a chance. Nice thing about the bike is that it doesn't need as much room to get around the machinery. Some of this stuff is damn big for our rural roads. On the return trip I saw a farmer with what looked to be a brand new Case tractor. Most of the stuff around here is all green, so the red Case really stood out. Especially since it had two polished stainless steel tanks on the front of it. It had a 16 row planter behind it. Don't know what that rig cost, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap.

Besides all the dirt on the roads from the farmers moving from field to field, there was an old dude who was mowing his lawn and had just thrown a bunch of grass clippings in the road. A little closer to home a guy was mowing the grass on the roadside with an offset rotary mower. Not much he can do to keep clippings out of the road along with bits and pieces of beer cans, whiskey bottles and all the rest of the crap people toss out of their car windows. 

I don't mind any inconvenience caused by the farmers in the spring and again in the fall. They're just earning a living and feeding all the rest of us. As for the rest of the crap that one finds in the road, there's probably not much a motorcyclist can do other than being careful. "There's old riders and bold riders, not many old, bold riders." Be careful out there. 

2 comments:

Surly said...

That really looks like a bar of cast bronze with the pattern on it.

Shop Teacher Bob said...

It was a cool morning and it was laying in a sunny spot on the road. It's not unusual to see snakes warming themselves up in the sun, so that was the first thing I thought of. I don't know what a 2x2x48" bar of cast bronze would be worth, but I'm sure it's more than a piece of 1/8" wall steel tubing. However, I'm sure the tube will be put to some use eventually. Don't know if I've ever had any use for a big stick of cast bronze other than scrap value.