Missed connection

[Mikey]

@consularrider 88108 wrote:

That repeated and repeated and repeated U-turn is making me dizzy.

At first I thought it was a looped video but then realized U-turns happen on that road about every 4 seconds.

[Terpfan]

Almost made connection, but not quite…[ATTACH=CONFIG]5900[/ATTACH]. Saw another one 5 miles further down on Coastal Trail in Anchorage.

[lauraemills]

Not exactly a missed connection, but maybe some missing brain cells.

Today on Rock Creek Trail, I came upon two preschoolers wandering around the trail.

There must be an adult nearby, I thought.

Much further ahead (maybe 50 yards or so) I saw a woman on a cell phone.

After I safely passed the kids I said to her “Um, you might want to supervise them a bit better”

Just giving her some friendly advice………….

[bobco85]

@Terpfan 88237 wrote:

Almost made connection, but not quite…[ATTACH=CONFIG]5900[/ATTACH]. Saw another one 5 miles further down on Coastal Trail in Anchorage.

How was biking around Anchorage? I’m interested to know because I will be heading there in September and spending a day biking around there. I found the Anchorage bike map to be the first one I’ve ever seen that has “areas of increased bear activity” on it. I look forward to learning more before my trip.

[Terpfan]

@bobco85 88274 wrote:

How was biking around Anchorage? I’m interested to know because I will be heading there in September and spending a day biking around there. I found the Anchorage bike map to be the first one I’ve ever seen that has “areas of increased bear activity” on it. I look forward to learning more before my trip.

I believe it on the bears. I didn’t see any, but the rental place guy said the people returning their bikes ran across a mother and cubs. This was the first of two moose I saw on their Coastal trail (easy 13 mile long trail). There was a map of a bunch of onroad lanes and trails that seemed pretty extensive. I also saw a rider along the Seward Highway. It’s a beautiful road, albeit 65mph. It also had a mup-like trail for a 10-15 mile stretch, but that was about 30/45 mins south of Anchorage. I am sure you will love the riding here as I did (i should add their traffic is almost non-existent both on road and even on mup)

[dasgeh]

@lauraemills 88251 wrote:

Just giving her some friendly advice………….

She may have been ignoring them. She may have just gotten a disturbing call and you caught the one moment she was that far away. She may know her kids well enough to think they’re ok on the trail at that distance. Parents of toddlers get enough judgment. Unless they were doing something wrong, there’s no reason to pile on.

[bobco85]

@lauraemills 88251 wrote:

Not exactly a missed connection, but maybe some missing brain cells.

Today on Rock Creek Trail, I came upon two preschoolers wandering around the trail.

There must be an adult nearby, I thought.

Much further ahead (maybe 50 yards or so) I saw a woman on a cell phone.

After I safely passed the kids I said to her “Um, you might want to supervise them a bit better”

Just giving her some friendly advice………….

@dasgeh 88283 wrote:

She may have been ignoring them. She may have just gotten a disturbing call and you caught the one moment she was that far away. She may know her kids well enough to think they’re ok on the trail at that distance. Parents of toddlers get enough judgment. Unless they were doing something wrong, there’s no reason to pile on.

Honestly, if I were to come across 2 preschool-age children playing on the Rock Creek Trail with no adult in the immediate vicinity, I would have looked for the parent(s). I would have asked that lady if those were her kids and maybe have mentioned that I was not sure because she was so far away. No judgements are implied there, and I think it is responsible to try and make sure that young children are safe even if you are a stranger and may offend someone.

Regarding the situation, I think that you should have said something more constructive, but I do think that noting the situation was potentially dangerous (if the kids wandered off the trail, they’d be completely out of sight to the lady) was good on your part. At that moment, if I thought the situation was a matter of child safety, then I wouldn’t excuse her from any responsibility. I could be wrong with my perception of their safety and maybe looked at as a jerk for saying something, but I am willing to make the mistake of the false positive (assuming danger when there is none) than the false negative (assuming no danger when there is some).

[dasgeh]

@bobco85 88306 wrote:

Honestly, if I were to come across 2 preschool-age children playing on the Rock Creek Trail with no adult in the immediate vicinity, I would have looked for the parent(s). I would have asked that lady if those were her kids and maybe have mentioned that I was not sure because she was so far away. No judgements are implied there, and I think it is responsible to try and make sure that young children are safe even if you are a stranger and may offend someone.

Regarding the situation, I think that you should have said something more constructive, but I do think that noting the situation was potentially dangerous (if the kids wandered off the trail, they’d be completely out of sight to the lady) was good on your part. At that moment, if I thought the situation was a matter of child safety, then I wouldn’t excuse her from any responsibility. I could be wrong with my perception of their safety and maybe looked at as a jerk for saying something, but I am willing to make the mistake of the false positive (assuming danger when there is none) than the false negative (assuming no danger when there is some).

I completely agree with what you’ve written, except I don’t have enough information to say that the situation was dangerous. Depending on the kids and the surroundings, 50 yards may not be too far. Some parts of the RCP trail are in places where wandering off the trail wouldn’t put kids immediately in danger and/or out of sight – some are.

Making sure preschoolers are being watched makes total sense. That would be require a slow down, stop, honest question, not a “um, you’re doing it wrong” as you zoom by.

[Steve O]

You: Silver SUV turning right on red from Wakefield St. onto the I-66 ramp (near Ballston). This is the intersection that placed the new “No Right on Red” signs a couple of months back.

Me: 40 yards from the intersection, so too late to catch you prior to the turn and politely point out the sign. Maybe next time.

(BTW – I have noted that most drivers seem to have noted the new restriction and are abiding by it. Not all yet, but most.)

[baiskeli]

@bobco85 88274 wrote:

How was biking around Anchorage? I’m interested to know because I will be heading there in September and spending a day biking around there. I found the Anchorage bike map to be the first one I’ve ever seen that has “areas of increased bear activity” on it. I look forward to learning more before my trip.

Cool! Post pics.

Time for my two Alaska wildlife stories – both of which are missed connections.

1) Just a few miles from Anchorage is a cool little nature area we visited. Walking on the trail, a wolf appeared behind us! Then he followed us! He got closer and closer, and we got more and more nervous until he was so close that we could see…his dog collar. He might have been half-wolf, but he wasn’t stalking us for dinner.

2) I spent a week in Alaska once and looked everywhere for a moose. Never saw one once. But that week I read in the newspaper that a moose had wandered into downtown Boston. So thousands of people in the middle of the city of Boston saw a moose then but I didn’t see one in the wilds of Alaska. Dammit.

[lauraemills]

Actually, I was concerned about both the safety of the kids and of people biking and running through that section of the trail.

They were running on and alongside of the trail and I know that kids are very unpredictable as to where there will go……….

And the fact that the adult was pretty far away from them and on the phone also concerned me……….she was smiling though, so I guess the phone call wasn’t a crisis…………

I’ve also never seen such young kids on the trail before…………

Sorry if others feel I was judging her too harshly………….I guess I didn’t consider stopping and having a conversation with her to be an option………

[dkel]

So I’m on West Street in Falls Church, sitting behind some cars at the light, waiting to cross Rte 7, when I hear someone in a car behind me yell, “get out of the road!” Immediately Dirt comes to mind, and instead of turning around and doing something I might regret, I start trying to think of some positive response that I can deliver when they drive up along side me for further heckling after we get going again. Well, it turns out that obnoxious driver was Rockford10, who had pulled up behind me with our kids in the car. Very funny…:rolleyes:

[Rockford10]

@dkel 88406 wrote:

So I’m on West Street in Falls Church, sitting behind some cars at the light, waiting to cross Rte 7, when I hear someone in a car behind me yell, “get out of the road!” Immediately Dirt comes to mind, and instead of turning around and doing something I might regret, I start trying to think of some positive response that I can deliver when they drive up along side me for further heckling after we get going again. Well, it turns out that obnoxious driver was Rockford10, who had pulled up behind me with our kids in the car. Very funny…:rolleyes:

OMG! That was you?!!

Wow, this is embarrassing.

[consularrider]

And I was having such a nice morning until:

The pedestrian walking on the wrong side of the Custis/MVT trail at the blind curce coming down from Lynn St to the GW Parkway, he first almost collided with a cyclist climbing up the ramps, then glared at me since I couldn’t move over very far to the left to avoid colliding with an oncoming cyclist. This made the third time in a week I’ve had serious issues with someone on the wrong side of the trail at that location (the other two were cyclists passing runners).

Then the woman driving the white SUV with Virginia plates on the I-66 exit ramp who gunned it when her light turned yellow at the Intersection of DOOM and entered the crosswalk to make a right turn well after her light had turned red and the pedestrian light was showing the white walk light. There were six pedestians entering the crosswalk as well as myself who were endangered by this homicial, self-entitled maniac.

[rcannon100]

Yup. It’s pretty much an automatic reaction – I always say “on the right please” when passing people walking on the left side.

Please drop a note to ArlCo about the Intersection of Doom. Every time one of these incidents happen, I think we should pepper Arlco with another round of messages.

[Author]

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