Birthday Drive

I turned 65 on Saturday the 25th and to celebrate, I decided to take a nice friendly loop I know to "pedal off into the sunset" as I posted on Facebook.  I live on E Main St. in beautiful Downtown Hillsboro and followed a route that is used by several cyclists to get out of the city quickly and emerge in the quite and solitude of the countryside north and west of the city.

The 3rd Annual "Grande Tour de Parks", a metric century 'linking 7 parks in 7 cities' in Washington County, use these streets and roads in the beginning stages of the ride. The city of Hillsboro has the route on its master plan because of the very low traffic and fantastic sight distance on the road once the city limits and Urban Growth Boundary are passed.

Along the way, I encountered 3 pedestrians and 4 cyclists, 3 of whom were a mother and 2 children all on the same set of wheels (the toddler was in a seat mounted to the bike, the adolescent on a 3rd wheel attached to the seat post.  I also flew among scores of dragon flies who were taking the most of the bounty of fruit flies that were dining among the berry orchards along the road.
Using my GoPro camera setting of taking a picture every 10 seconds, I though that, when I came to a stop sign, I would change the setting to video to see if I could capture their flight and passing while in motion.

After turning on to NW Leisy Rd, I was pedaling along, enjoying the day and noticed a white SUV behind me about 100 yards back.  I was riding along in the right tire track, made by motor vehicles, as is my custom, when about 4 minutes and 20 seconds into the shoot the vehicle overtook me so close the front wheel well brushed my side.  Had it hit the bicycle, I would have been road rash, to say the least.
I'll post the video soon...

Dragonfly Summer

Dragonfly Summer, a set on Flickr.

Gotta love August