Encounters on the road

Well, I've now spent 15 days cycling on the road and one thing I'm learning to value is solitude.  You certainly get plenty of that when you spend on average 8-10 hours a day in the saddle, pedalling from A to B, and one thing I've noticed is how help is there when you need it.  Being a woman I'm more than happy to ask the way when I'm uncertain and it's been surprising how often someone has been available just at the right time:

• There was the time when the sat nav got confused with flyovers and underpasses so I pulled in at a service station to ask the way.  The cashiers both looked at me blankly, then I heard a voice half way down the queue offering to show me the way if I'd just wait for him outside.  Turns out he was an off-duty police officer who gave me the clearest and most precise instructions ever!
• Another time, in Sandwich, Kent, I was circuiting the town for the second time trying to find the bike shop which I'd seen first time around because I reckoned they'd be the ones to know the way to pick up the national cycle route.  I spotted this lady, about my age, walking with a Zimmer-frame, who told me where the shop was.  It turned out that their directions were rather confusing and this same lady spotted me some 15 minutes later, still trying to get out of Sandwich!  Where are you trying to get to? she asked.  I told her, never imagining that she would know the way.  And how wrong was I!  That taught me not to make assumptions about people.
• On Saturday I set off bright and early and by 6am I'd already got in a muddle trying to find my way out of Kings Lynn.  The town was dead, nobody about yet then as luck would have it, a taxi pulled up ahead of me to pick up a customer - taxi drivers have done the Knowledge I thought, what better person to ask?  And a few minutes later I was out of town. 
• Another time, in desperation, I flagged down a lycra-clad cyclist who kindly abandonned his route to escort me onto the right road, even cycling at my laden-touring-bike speed :-)

I've had help from postmen, dads pushing prams, walkers - some of them have been as clueless as me, some have thought they've known the way yet didn't, but many of them did and were right. But it's not just been people who have told me the way who have helped and cheered me up.

• There was a lovely sight in Exmouth which made me laugh out loud.  It was screamingly hot and this middle-aged, rather stout lady was pulling her equally stout little pooch of a dog through town in a dog basket on wheels!  The dog was sitting there like the Queen of Sheba, solemnly regarding her surroundings while her soft owner was sweating buckets!
• Then there was the seriously overweight man (probably over 25 stone/158kg) riding on a large tricycle and I thought well good on you mate, you may be attracting some looks but at least you're getting out there and that must take courage.
• Probably the most inspirational encounter I have had was when a charming, stylishly well-dressed older gentleman came up to me after church to thank me for the brief talk I'd just given about African Vision Malawi and my ride.  Immediately I realised that he'd had a stroke and I thought what courage to make the effort to come up to me and engage in conversation. It seems his ability to understand language was not impaired but his ability to construct sentences of his own was shot to pieces.  And yet, with goodwill on both sides, we managed to communicate and I was blown away by this man who evidently is intelligent and educated and has been trapped for years now with these thoughts and ideas and emotions in his head and no way of expressing them.  Total enforced solitude, completely unlike my own which I can break at any time. What courage to get up each morning, look life in the eye, take pride in your appearance and smile at the world.  Whenever I'm feeling disheartened I remember this brave man and let his approach to life inspire me on my ride.  If anyone from St Swithun's happens to read this, I'm sure you'll know him.

Well, that's just a selection of my encounters, on Wednesday it'll be Pet Hates on the Road!!  Until then...