Drafting a bus downtown and drive thrus... on an Xtracycle

Rode Tuesday and Thursday this week, and interesting things abounded.  Tuesday the wind was steady West at 15mph- riding to work seemed to be "uphill" the whole way.  Riding home was like I had an extra pair of legs under me.  Average time to work (5.5 miles) has been 25 minutes, today was 35.  Average time home has been taking usually 35 minutes with that mongo hill at the end of my ride- today it was only 25!  Backwards day, sort of.  Awesome.

Today it was colder, breezy, but nothing out of the ordinary.  However, I had the great fortune to catch a senior citizen bus at an intersection in the city going my way.  Serendipity intervened and the bus and I hit all the green lights for about 7 or 8 blocks, so I cruised behind the bus the whole way at about 25-30mph almost effortlessly.  One of my greatest adrenaline rushes of all time is drafting a bus, dump truck, van, or any similar vehicle in city traffic, you can fly and people wonder what the (*&(*& just zipped past them. 

I got a lot of weird looks from pedestrians, possibly surprised to see a) an Xtracycle, and b) that such a huge bike was hurtling past them directly behind a bus.  I was grinning like a madman.  I pulled up beside the bus at an intersection, the bus turning right, I was going left.  When the driver looked over at me, she jumped when she saw me, since she had seen me pull behind 8 blocks back nd probably assumed I was long gone.  She realized what I had done and gave me a grin and a thumbs up. 

On the way home I detoured to Rite Aid and pulled the Xtracycle into the drive thru lane.  After a car pulled away, I eased up to the window, and the clerk was obviously surprised to see some weirdo on a bike with a helmet on instead of the usual SUV clad suburbanite.  Funny thing was a colleague of mine from my college walked up to the counter inside the store and was equally puzzled when he saw me, it took him a minute to figure out what I was all about, then he gave me a big smile.  The clerk was nice to me and helped me, and off I went.

Saw another colleague of mine and his significant other en route home, took them a minute to recognize me, and two blocks later, ran into another friend of mine and her friend, stopped to chat.  Not easily possible in a car, for sure.  Just about home, I looked up into the shrubs along the road (try doing that at 40 mph) and saw three birds nests I never knew were there.

The things you can do on a bike/xtracycle that you just never get in a car.  Great week.

Later!