In my area there is a cycling hotspot known as River Road. Officially it is the Henry Hudson parkway. There are two ways to get there. One is going south from the George Washington bridge and the other is approaching from the south along the actual River Road.
If you are leaving River Road and heading up to the GW bridge, there is a path along side the actual road. If you are going south, as I do, since I live in NJ south of the GW, you have to cross the road to get to the southward side. It’s not a street and not a highway. There is a light south of there, so if the north bound traffic stops, you can get across. Most southbound drivers will let you pass. If you do everything right you can lock in and have nice safe descent.
It was at this intersection I met the weird Australian girls.
I don’t know what was so weird about them. They just seemed out of place.
But they looked hip. Their style and bikes were just a mishmash. One of them carried a giant back pack that looked like a suitcase. They all had short hair, and might have been lesbians.
They were trying to go to Jersey City, which is long way down the actual River Road, which is a 35 mph road and there are only intermittent bike lanes.
Basically I told them to be careful and went on my merry way.
A few weeks later I participated in the Jersey City Ward tour bike ride. A slow as ride through jersey city with 2500 other bike riders. It was great.
We came to a rest stop near Lincoln park in Jersey city, and there they were.
I wasn’t sure it was them at first. But I kept staring at them from behind my Oakley sunglasses and yes, it was them.
I had to say hi. Ultimately I was recognized as “That guy.”
“You made it!” I said.
The leader, the one with the suitcase back pack, looked bemused an nodded.
Another one said, “A car actually touched me twice.”
The leader said, “Next time we’ll probably just go back the way we came.”
I agreed that heading south on that road was not that fun for causal cyclists.
And that was that.
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