Evening Cycling

Did you know that it is illegal to ride your bike at night without lights?  It is--in Byron, Illinois, anyway.  At least that is what the friendly officer told me.  The thing is, my bike has lights.  It's just that those batteries are finite little things--they only last so long.  I had a tail light, just not a headlight.

Do you know why it is illegal to ride your bike at night without lights?  Without headlights, you can't see.  These country bumpkins that live out in the boondocks track great big quantities of mud and dirt out into the roadway and don't think twice about it.  But you think twice about it when you hit them--fifteen or twenty of them--during your quiet little ride through the country after dark.  Believe you me, those little road tires on that fancy five-ounce bike aren't going to absorb anything.  It.  Is.  Unpleasant.

I didn't have anything better to do anyway.