Bellflower and bus stops

[alanmcorcoran]

Found a new excuse for a ride - guy needed some help installing his wireless router. Lives in Bellflower, about 24 miles away - sounded like a ride to me. Most of the trip was California "super street" - this is two or three laners with lots of traffic lights. Got a lot of start/stop and downshifting in. Did 13.2 miles of La Palma in 4 different cities and went right past Knott's Berry Farm. Didn't take the camera because I figured there wouldn't be anything photo worthy.

Ran into a unique and pretty nasty hazard:

For about a two mile section they were resurfacing La Palma. The road has concrete pads for the busses to stop on (I guess they destroy the asphalt? Not sure...) Well, in a few cases, there was either a Evel Knievel type ramp connecting the now lowered, scraped away pavement with the elevated (and hardened) concrete, OR, a nice "moat" (of air) around the bus pad. In a few cases, the width of the moat was just about the right size to grab your front wheel and launch you over the bars.

Fortunately I noticed this on the way out when going at slow speed, and was able to avoid the parallel ruts. I wouldn't be surprised if the road conditions hadn't caused some motorcycle or bicycle accidents.

I'm still about 28 miles shy of my first 1K.