“Ride #82: Flip Would Have Been Proud of Me”

Went for a slightly longer ride today, still building back up to where I was before I caught my cold last week.

I came to an intersection and saw four people standing on the side of the road waving their hands around a lot. As I approached, I realized they were waving a map around.

The four people were two older cyclists, and two older tourists whose car was parked on the side of the road. The lady cyclist was trying to give them directions to Charlestown, RI. Man oh man were they lost. Like, 40 miles lost. To make matters more confusing, there was no common language. The cyclists certainly lived in the area, but they had a rather thick accent... I think it was German, but I'm not sure. The tourists were French, and didn't speak English well at all.

The lady cyclist asked what I would tell them, and i said to just put them on Route 1 and stay on it all the way. She said trying to stay on 1 through Westerly would be confusing. I said they don't speak English very well, but that doesn't mean they can't read signs with nothing on them but a big number 1. :-)

The alternative was a long list of directions... left, right, left, left, get on the highway, take this exit, blah blah blah... Um, no. Just turn right here, and keep going straight until you can't go straight anymore. Turn left on Route 1. Watch for the signs where Route 1 turns one way or another, and stay on it all the way to Charlestown.

As they were leaving, the driver (an older gentleman) said, "merci beaucoup." Without even thinking about it, I responded, "de rien!" (That's why I thought Flip would be proud of me.) That made the guy smile, and of course he corrected my horrible pronunciation, but then I remembered a better response and said, "pas d'problem." He didn't correct me that time, just yelled "tres bon!" with an even bigger smile on his face.

I imagine it was nice to have someone make the effort to speak his language.

Stats: 37.6 miles (60.53 km) in 1h 53' 48" for an average speed of 19.82 mph (31.91 kph).