Bee-cee-clette question

First of all, I have a serious question for the bicyclists among my five or ten readers. You know who you are. I was gonna ask this yesterday but, when we got back to the Landfill, I got caught up in the usual vortex. Unpacking. Peering into the refrigerator trying to take inventory and form some kind of meal plan. Giving up to go off wandering through the grokkery store grabbing stuff willy-nilly off the shelves. So I forgot. Late yesterday morning, I was on the southbound I75 SUV Speedway. I was in the yooperland about 10-15 miles north of St. Ignace and traffic was light, as it always is in that area. As I was passing another vee-hickle, something on the right shoulder caught my eye. At first I thought somebody’s motorcycle had broken down. As I got closer, I realized that it was five or six *bicyclists*. They were dressed in neon green gear with flags on their bikes and slow-moving vee-hickle triangles attached to the back of their clothing (?). My question, as if you can’t guess, is whether there are ever circumstances under which it’s legal to ride a bicycle on the freeway. The only thing I could think of is that they were forced to ride on the freeway because the adjacent two-lane roadway (Old US2) was flooded in some places. But did they have to get special permission? Or what?

So another summer has ended. The furnace kicked on this morning, the sky is leaden, and we’re trying to hold off until October to replace the screen in the front storm door with glass. Just last Thursday it was in the 80s. The moomincabin is closed. I can’t take much credit for that. All I did was put some silverware away and empty the refrigerator. The Commander’s cleaning buddy had already swept the floors and washed the windows. The GG drained the water and put the storm windows on and loaded the Landfill kayaks up onto the Dogha (I did help a bit with the kayaks). I know how to put the storm windows on but I can’t say I’m all that interested in learning how to do the plumbing up there (or anywhere). I know that it isn’t that hard but I’d rather have someone else do it, even if I have to pay, which I didn’t this year because the GG did it. Thanks.

As much as I love it up there, I really don’t want to make a permanent move back there. I think the GG would do it in a heartbeat and he didn’t even grow up there so go figger. I complain about the Planet Ann Arbor sometimes. I call it slodgy and I get annoyed by the vapid blah-de-blah of some of the pseudo-intellectuals around here. Oh, you probably know the kind. But, I have always loved it here and, when I was a kid visiting my cousins here, I always wanted to live here. As a snotty, bratty teenager, I regarded the yooperland as a rugged outpost. Boring. No malls or cool hippy stores or even McDonald’s. Snow in the woods until the end of May, fer kee-reist. Throughout the years I have lived here on the planet, I have grown to love and appreciate that rugged old outpost for what it is. But I raised the beach urchins here on the planet and this is their home. And not everybody around here is an annoying pseudo-intellectual. So here I will stay, see-sawing through a life carefully balanced between the yooperland and the planet A-squared.

So. What about those bicycles on the freeway?

8 Responses to “Bee-cee-clette question”

  1. mac Says:

    If it is your only choice yes you are allowed to ride on the shoulder of the freeway. I had to do that part of the way when I would ride from Salt Lake City to Park City.

  2. Margaret Says:

    I don’t bicycle, so I can’t answer that question! It sounds like you have the best of all worlds. 🙂

  3. jane Says:

    ahem – I live on the planet and am not a pseudo-intellectual. or an actual-intellectual for that matter!

  4. pooh Says:

    On our trip to move Dan to La-La Land we noticed that I-40 in Arizona had signs stating “bicycles must ride only on the shoulder”, so apparently it is legal to ride on the interstate there. You could also legally ride on the Interstate bridge to Galveston, TX, which went up (and up) and over the Intra-Coastal Waterway. However, we chose the flatter route of sneaking across the railroad bridge which had a lift gate across the ICW. Fortunately the lift gate was down. (Thanks to the bicycle shop in Gas City, TX for this helpful information!)

  5. kayak woman Says:

    Oh Jane, you know the kind 😉 😉 😉

    <3 KW

  6. jane Says:

    sadly, yes. I do know the kind. and I know that you know that I am not that kind. 😉

  7. Uncly Uncle Says:

    Good post Anne-
    -UU

  8. Sam Says:

    Some Western states have open range laws that trump the usual interstate highway regs, so that in Texas, for example, you can drive from the frontage road right up onto the interstate, no fence in the way, and no ramp required!