True Confessions - High Speed Chase

Tweet

During my four-year myLot absence, I wasn’t just sitting around. I was doing stuff. Chaotic stuff, as is my life. Stuff that allows me to add to my “True Confessions” series from way back - true stories. In this case, a high-speed chase. It was last year, during one of our weekly Wednesday Project Hero rides, and a ride where we were joined by our sponsor/community partner, Adaptive Adventures. In other words, a fantastic day for a ranger chase! So we stayed in the park that day, riding laps on the 2.25-mile loop. It WAS a nice, peaceful ride, until an uppity park ranger decided, for whatever reason, to hit their brakes right in front of me, forcing me into the walking/jogging lane so I wouldn’t hit them. Then, this “ranger” (looked more like a dweeby kid they pulled out of the swan boat rental to cover a ranger shift than an actual park ranger) yelled at me for being in the walking lane. They didn’t care for my “You forced me over here” reply, and demanded I get off my bike so they could give me a ticket. Again, “You forced me over here.” Followed by three attempts at cutting into me with their vehicle, which could have put me under their tires. So after the 3rd attempt on my safety, I pedalled off to the outside gravel trail around the park and headed for a safe place to exit the park (that street has no bike lane or sidewalk and is extremely high-volume during that time of day. It’s not safe.) This “ranger” then decided to teach me a lesson by endangering that entire side of the park by chasing me down on the trail. I’m on a bicycle, being chased by a truck that’s essentially trying to run me down. Did I mention that there were people walking and jogging on this trail? Didn’t matter to the “ranger.” According to Strava, it was the fastest I’ve ever ridden that particular 1 ½-mile segment. At the end of the park, the “ranger” then flew back up onto the trail like they were going to ram me if I tried to go back into the park. I have no idea how many complaints flooded in, but the head of Parks and Rec kissed my ass for a few days on email. Apologies for days. Naturally, it was yet another case of “We investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong,” because I saw the “ranger” working again about a month later. Typical. But that’s how I became Project Hero’s first and only high-speed ranger chase in the park. Was it stressful? A bit. But it was also a blast! Would I do it again? Hopefully, I won’t have to. But you never know. Because my life is nothing if not chaotic! Link is to “High Speed Chase” by Miles Davis: