Yes, they have Halloween, even in Kona, Hawaii. This home is on Alii Drive. Note palms in the back ground.
Those of you who read my blog know that it’s all about exercise safety in addition to caring for the injured athlete. One of our better local triathletes was beginning a ride near his home last week when a slow moving minivan approached with the sliding side door open. At first the biker heard explosions to his right and then very quickly he felt fire crackers hit his shoulder and neck! As the driver sped away, the athlete took chase. But who can catch a car on their bike?
Unfortunately for this driver, he passed the athletes wife in her car at the next stop sign where a quick cell phone call from our boy allowed her to follow the van getting the license # and a description of the driver. He was apprehended that evening and a confession quickly followed. Charges have been pressed against the 11th grader from a nearby high school, and since he’s under 18 and this is his first offense, he’ll avoid court and go straight to the probation officer. As the athlete noted, “I make my living as a pilot and can’t afford to lose my hearing or eyesight.”
Our athlete was uninjured, although I suspect many of us – me included – would have crashed or run into a phone pole if the firecrackers were thrown at us. I believe I might think some one was trying to kill me. So what do we learn from this? Always carry your cell phone. Get in the habit of looking at license plates, even jot them down, which is easy to do if you keep pen and paper in your fanny pack with your emergency first aid kit. Don’t confront rude drivers alone.
It’s easy to think about retribution, about getting even, about finding those who run us off the road and putting a potato in their exhaust at night or flattening the tires on their car…or worse! But our goal is to live to ride another day and some of those folks on the road where I live might be just crazy enough to run me into the weeds if they thought I’d done something to them. Or worse, they’d run you into the weeds for something I did. And then we’d all lose.
Be careful………….. it’s a jungle out there.