It was a good thing I wasn't armed

I had a real close call yesterday. So did the other guy because if I had been armed at the time he would have gone home with a pronounced limp and a severe speech impediment.

I was riding along highway 224 from Eagle Creek toward Clackamas, following a green SUV. Traffic was slow primarily because there were so many people out on the road. We entered the small town of Carver, and immediately after taking the slow right hand turn in the middle of town, Mr. SUV turned on his right-turn blinker and pulled over onto the gravel shoulder, completely off the pavement.

It was my reasonable assumption that he had either reached his destination or was merely pulling over to let me by. Keep in mind he had pulled completely off of the road and came to a brief but complete stop. I say brief, because as soon as I began to roll forward to continue down the road, he turned left right in front of me to cross the road.

I did an emergency stop and my front tire touched his left rear tire. Just enough of his fender well touched the top of my front fender to put a one inch scratch on it. I shouted a very loud obscenity while he stuck his head out his open window and shouted "Hey hey hey!" It seemed he didn't want me to hit him.

He pulled into a parking spot at the Carver tavern on the left side of the road, while I made the choice to continue on. What I wanted to do was pull in behind him and start beating him senseless while everyone watched -- it was a busy intersection and I'm sure I would have had a dozen witnesses willing to testify that the SUV made an illegal and stupid move and deserved the ass beating he received.

Mad as hell but making a strong effort to calm down and focus on riding safely, I continued on to my destination.

Beware: Soccer moms in big SUVs

After having lunch with some buddies, I had to ride about a mile away to my credit union. On the way there, a soccer mom in a Nissan Armada cut me off, missing my front tire by about 3 feet. She probably had no idea I was even there. I'm fairly tall when sitting on my V-Strom and I can see most truck and SUV drivers in the eye, so it was surprising she didn't see me.

Not two blocks later she did it again, this time moving back into her original lane position. Several blasts on my horn made her look in her rear-view mirror, probably 'seeing me' for the first time. I noticed she had a young one (soccer mom larva) in a safety seat in the second row behind her.

I wear all the gear all the time (ATGATT) even when it's hot out, and assume that cars will hit me until they prove otherwise.

I should upgrade the horn on my bike. Maybe install one of those Stebel blasters that crank out 130db of sound. That will be useful when I need to embarrass a soccer mom into paying more attention next time.