Marnet, I’m sure You look faboulus on that bike. You go girl. 
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In a lot of areas, riding a bicycle is VERY dangerous
So are you quite sure that bicycles are a better alternative?
I prefer to survive . . . so for me the “indoor health centers” are the better alternative
I ride a bike on the Tanglefoot Trail quite a bit. Planning on attempting to ride the entire distance this fall if I don’t chicken out. It’s around 43 miles, but I plan to make an entire day of it.
I think it’s a good thing, the trails. I’m not sure the money couldn’t have had a better use. But I’m positive politicians have used money for worse things too.
I’ve enjoyed the Tanglefoot trail on and off for years @Scrapyard_John, and in 10 mile increments I have ridden it all with the stretch from New Albany to Ecru being the most often traveled. I met a 79 year old man in Houlka who had ridden from Houston while I had ridden from Algoma. He was a Korean War vet and planned to ride the full length and back home on his 80th birthday. I was never so optimistic myself. Getting over the Pontotoc ridge once in a day was all I could handle I can’t imagine grinding up that 3 mile stretch going and coming and I’m just 70.
It’s a shame that it’s a 40 mile + round trip for me to ride the trail with nothing comparable nearer home for me. I hope you can make the full ride and enjoy it.
One caveat, I don’t plan on making it round trip! I plan to have my wife drop me and the bike off on one end, then ride back. So I’ll sort of have to make it! I think I can do 43 miles. 86? Nah. I may be too optimistic, but I’ve done 24 miles several times in the summer heat. I think 43 is doable in cool weather.
Watch for snakes out there. I killed this one lying in the middle of the trail inside the New Albany city limits, near the Owen Road intersection.
And how near Owens road did you come across that cotton mouth? I seemed to have dodged a similar snake within a rocks throw of that first house at Owens Rd. That swamp along the trail must be full of cotton mouths and copper heads.
And speaking of the trail, @Scrapyard_John, do you know who owns all the old Fords near Ingomar? Someone here asked about a good source for old Mustang parts quite a while back but looking at Google Earth doesn’t give any indication of a house being lived in on the property. There are well over 100 old cars there just rusting away.
Yes, I’ve seen those. Several 60’s and early 70’s Mustangs there. “No trespassing” signs everywhere. I have no idea who owns them. Kind of a shame, it appears they’ll just sit and rot.
I’d say 1/4-1/2 mile north of Owens road. You hear people say they saw a snake “as big as your arm”. This one really was as you can see by the hat in the photo for reference!
Those are likely the worst snake in the southeast @Scrapyard_John. Dad lost several head of cattle over the years from cottonmouth bites from the stock pond. By the time anyone recognized a cow having a problem it was too late and we had to put them out of their misery. I would regularly run a bush hog along the shore and well into the water in the summer while carrying a shot gun and shooting them. And they are very thick snakes that are easily identified when they are swimming. I had guessed that the one I saw near Owens road had come out of the swamp and moved up the trail until it found some sun to get warm for the day. I often saw rat snakes and king snakes in low places along the trail on cool spring mornings all along the trail.
And BTW, does the special education class still walk that swampy area. I hope if they do one of the teachers knows how to use a hoe and carries one. Most kids are afraid of all snakes but not all of them are.
And, conversely, walking in the presence of bicycles can be hazardous.
My usual route for my powerwalks takes me along the path adjoining the Delaware & Raritan Canal.
At the entry points to the path, there is signage stating that bicyclists are supposed to yield to pedestrians, and that both pedestrians and bikers are supposed to yield to equestrians.
Despite that posted protocol, as a pedestrian I frequently have to dodge bikers who have mistaken that dirt path for the NJ Turnpike, and who think it is appropriate to approach me from the rear at TOP SPEED, and to not provide any warning of their approach.
One of these days, this senior citizen is going to be so “startled” by one of those marauding cyclists that he… somehow… manages to pitch both the cyclist and his bike into the canal, in his effort to avoid being run over.
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Common courtesy is disappearing from coast to coast it appears @VDCdriver. And I’ll throw a rant at the opposite side and say that pedestrians on trails I visit seem compelled to walk shoulder to shoulder giving no room to pass until shouted at repeatedly. But then the wannabe French Open stars also run shoulder to shoulder at 20 + mph and by the time I hear their warning they are crowding me into the dirt unless I notice them in my mirror. I haven’t been on the bike trail @Scrapyard_John mentioned in many months but if I go I am somewhat accustomed to who I will be sharing the track with and weekday mornings before 9:00 gives me the least prospect of friction. On weekends I need to drive 35 miles to find a quiet stretch of trail.
And FWIW I mentioned a group of special needs kids who walk the trail in an earlier post I I’ll say that I am amazed how a couple of teachers can keep more than 40 young people under close control and enjoying themselves. If I knew who they were I would call their school and congratulate the administration for employing such extraordinary people.
I walk alone, as do almost all of the other elderly folks walking that trail.
When I first began walking there about 20 years ago, I would estimate that at least 80% of the cyclists would warn of their approach. Now, the percentage of cyclists who warn of their approach is most likely only about 10%.
I have had speeding cyclists who are approaching from the rear pass me with only a couple of inches to spare. What if I happened to veer slightly to that side as they approached, simply because I don’t know that they are bearing down on me?
Last year, I witnessed a mother who–luckily–was able to pull her very young daughter out of the way–just in time–before the child would have been hit by a speeding cyclist who had provided no warning.
Maybe we just aren’t important enough @VDCdriver. Obviously a lot of people think they are and I suspect some of them are mistaken.
I thought Napoleon Dynamite lived in Idaho. 
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Sometimes a company needs to die. It’s just the natural order of things. I won’t be sorry to see Cadillac fade into history.
What kind of transphobic crap is this? And why in the hell is it being tolerated? @cdaquila, I’m talking to you.
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Good morning. Thanks for bringing it up. I missed it at the time. You’re right. It has absolutely no business here.
For years I have taken the tack that I ask people to stay on topic (broadly car-related) and not only trust that people will bring it back on their own, but also focus on what brings everybody here: you really like talking about cars. For the most part, that happens.
Lest anybody think I’m being PC, fine. I wouldn’t have to be PC if it wasn’t brought up. There are plenty of other platforms on the internet to argue about liberal media. Comments like this add an extra dimension to the need to be welcoming to people who come here. Trans people own cars, too. Perhaps some have posted here, and we don’t know. Really, the only trans discussion I need to be seeing is about shifting gears.
I regret it wasn’t picked up at the time it was posted. It’s not much of an excuse, but I am very part-time here and I read what I can. There’s a culture here of not using flags much. If you don’t want to flag, send a PM. I do ask your assistance in identifying these comments. Thanks.
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I’ll just slip back to the Cadillac theme by mentioning that the American public is spending $2245 each for Peloton exercise machines and in just a few short years has made the man who markets them worth upwards of $450 million.
This country seems to be sitting on ready, eager to jump at whatever is marketed that gives them the allusion of becoming whatever it is they want to be or measure up to what others expect. And let me guess… They offer 12 months same as cash with ZERO interest financing. And the husband can buy the new truck he wants and pay for it with the money he saves on the great deal he’s getting and if they both put the monthly payments on credit cards they’ll get 1.5% kick back every month on the transactions. How can anyone be poor in such a grand economy?
Indeed
Yet I see them every day on my way to work . . . in the bushes, on bike paths, under freeway overpasses, next to freeway entrances/exits, on the sidewalks, and so forth
They’re even living IN the Los Angeles River . . . you’d have to actually live here or know the area to understand how that’s possible