Published on September 25, 2025
So I am catching up on the blogs. The other day google maps took me on a paved road that actually turned into an unpaved road halfway through with a sign saying that. Riding a bicycle on an unpaved road with significant weight on the back is both challenging and you could make the case unsafe because you fishtail all over the place. So when this happened I had a number of choices much like when this happens in regular life off the bicycle. I could go back 2 miles where I made the turn and try to reroute around this road. I could get off the bike and walk the rest of this road as I looked ahead on the map and the worst case was 2 more miles. In life, these kind of situations come up all the time and people say you have to "check and adjust." Well in this case I went with my gut and decided to walk a bit thinking maybe another option might come up. With about 3/4 mile left I saw cars and trucks passing across my unpaved road in the distance. As it turned out there was a paved road crossing an unpaved road which you don't see very often. So when I got to that intersection I was able to find a route around the rest of the unpaved road thank goodness! I have started to use google maps as a car with settings to avoid interstates and major highways and so far I am getting good efficient routes without a lot of traffic and they are all PAVED. "Thinking outside the box" works hand in hand with "check and adjust". We shall see how the rest of the Tour de five guys goes. Maybe we will need more adjustments to the strategy of "directions" just like that seems to happen so often in our choices each day! You gotta keep plugging along with that WHO DAT "can do" spirit!
