Coolest thing you have found on the road while riding???

[bad Chad]

Okay, this it only for riding a motorcycle, if it was in your truck, car, I don't want it here.

What is the coolest thing you found on the road while out roustabouting?  I have found several rather pedestrian tools, but who hasn't; last year I ran across an almost brand new pair of good quality armored leather riding gloves!  The way they were laying, in the middle of a section of road marked by yellow lines, not to ride on, it  was clear a bike with gloves loosely bunged on road through the turn lane and lost the gloves.  I then on a leisurely ride came upon first one, then another, some 20 feet apart.  I thought, "Hey, those are gloves, maybe there worth checking out, no traffic, think I'll double back." 

Surly some of you can beat my find.  So lets hear it, what have you found.  It's January for God sakes, we have to get through this somehow!

[Aaron D.]

I found a REALLY big salamander. I put it in the grass as it would be a shame to see it splatter.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Surly

C'mon, Chad.. it's Shirley.

[normzone]

On that note [Aaron D.], I did the same with a huge tarantula.

Once while taking a roadside bio break I walked about fifty feet out into the brush, and there at my destination was an old pair of aviator goggles. The fabric and straps were rotted away but the frame was brass and the lenses were intact. I cut sheepskin for the fabric and found rubber straps to swap.

Vaguely related thread for reference:

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=69446.30

[Demar]

Swim fins

[bad Chad]

I forgot I did that with a big Snaper at the IL rally!  It was on the road, and I thought sure enough some azzwhip is going to run it over.  I turned back, when I got their a Game and Fish warden was already on the seen, trying to lure the big guy off the road, I felt good about how my Tax money was being used!

[ITSec]

Full-grown black timber wolf, in Jasper National Park on the Yellowhead Highway. Crossed in front of me, stopped to watch me go by then melted into the trees.

A pair of yearling grizzlies that ran straight across my path - I ended up catching the second one on the butt with my right foot as I avoided them. (Same trip as the wolf, 2003 heading from Edmonton to Hyder AK.) All I could think of was what it would be like, trying to pick up the bike with a mad mama bear heading for me; good thing i just twisted my ankle a bit. This was on the road in to Hyder, from Meziadin Junction on the 'alternate Al-Can' (BC 37).

A road gator. No, not a thrown tire casing, an actual alligator - and it wasn't Florida or Louisiana. I was riding southeast of San Antonio and came upon this 8-10 foot example of left-over pre-history just lying in the middle of the road catching some rays. It wasn't that close to the coast, but these beasts sometimes spend the winter near the cooling outlets for power plants.

[ohiorider]

As I was riding west out of Cody WT into Yellowstone in 2009, I was riding toward the western gate.  Heading uphill on the venerable R100GS, coming down the oncoming lane was a buffalo.  I decided 'I'm not stopping.' I just hope he/she knows the rules of the road. Amazingly, the buffalo stayed in his 'lane' and I stayed in mine. 

[Wayne Orwig]

Emu in the middle of the road in North Georgia.

[oldbike54]

 Chad , does it need to be something that can be taken home ? I mean like , Emus and Wolves might be kinda tough to stuff in a saddlebag 

 Dusty

[Gliderjohn]

Maybe not the coolest but it was wonderful at the time. In my early days of riding wearing a 3/4 helmet on a windy day I looked back over my shoulder at highway speeds and my near new prescription sunglasses left me. By the time I got stopped and returned to the spot a number of cars had passed and their were my glasses in the middle of the lane in perfect shape untouched.
GliderJohn

[Triple Jim]

Okay, this it only for riding a motorcycle, if it was in your truck, car, I don't want it here.

How about on my bicycle?  I found a nice smallish pair of Channellock style Craftsman pliers.  They have nicely designed jaws for gripping, and for holding a hex nut without gouging it.  Also the joint is locked in position with a spring loaded button so they can't slip to a different setting.  Oh, and the handles have a firm foam rubber coating on them.  And they have an attractive red band on each handle.  And they're made in Germany.

[fotoguzzi]

many turtles and a 5' Carpenters level..

[Adk.IBO]

A moose!

[mmcwhitehead]

Back in the seventies I had a 350cc Montgomery Wards Riverside (yeah, really). The throttle cable broke while riding on the interstate near Hartford one day. I had a pair of pliers in the tool kit but 2 pairs of pliers would have made it possible to jury rig the throttle cable and get going again. There, to my amazement, in the gravel on the shoulder was a pair of slip-joint pliers (must've fallen from Heaven). I got the bike going and made it to work on time. I still have those pliers to this day.

[Darren Williams]

A nice series of curves.  Yes, I live in the flat part of the country, so easily amused.

[PeteS]

As I was riding west out of Cody WT into Yellowstone in 2009, I was riding toward the western gate.  Heading uphill on the venerable R100GS, coming down the oncoming lane was a buffalo.  I decided 'I'm not stopping.' I just hope he/she knows the rules of the road. Amazingly, the buffalo stayed in his 'lane' and I stayed in mine.

Apparently Yellowstone Buffalo know the rules of the road. Seen in 2015.





I have had numerous animal encounters including black bears in Yellowstone and northern Pennsylvania but the oddest was seeing an Ostrich or Emu running through a cornfield in western New York. I suspect it escaped from one of the local farms that raise these birds.

Pete

[oldbike54]

 Apparently there is no restriction on the size or ability to haul it home . In light of that , there was a llama in Arkansas , a herd of pet goats in Oklahoma , and a brunette au naturale near Lake Travis in Texas  No interest in taking the first two home , but the third find , well , I did try . I mean , she seemed lost and in need of rescuing , having wandered at least 100 FT from the rest of her herd frolicking in the water at Hippie Hollow . Poor thing , she just looked so hungry 

 Dusty

[wavedog]

 Couple of months ago I found a wallet in the road. Looked up the address and returned it.

[Wayne Orwig]

Apparently Yellowstone Buffalo know the rules of the road. Seen in 2015.

I saw a lot jackasses in the road in Custer Park, South Dakota. But those are actually pretty common, even around Atlanta Georgia, if you know what I mean.

[chuck peterson]

Found at sun breakfast, Marcus dairy, one large cast aluminum fire hydrant wrench

A cork that fit my missing r60 carb bottom

Wolf loping along, casually crosses, all at walking pace, Adirondacks

Black bear, hi noon, vt rt 100

A Loon convention in Rangely Maine

The road goes on forever..

[fotoguzzi]

[Johncolleary]

Three bull elk one kept snorting at me as I went by in Rocky Mountain National Park

[rodekyll]

Ice?

[blackbuell]

Both in the Chiricahua Mts. of SE AZ many years ago: 4 foot long Mojave rattlesnake sunning in the middle of the road; I got off the bike and cautiously moved it off of the road. Road-killed javelina; thought about cutting off the head to have skull as a specimen (I'm a retired biology professor), but my girlfriend convinced me to just move the carcass off the road.

Jon

[severely]

Had a Jaguar run in front of wife and I last year in San Blas Nayarit Mexico last year. Violated my one rule in mexico, DON'T RIDE AFTER DARK.

[Scud]

I found this old Ford on a dirt road. I took a souvenir - the hood badge.

[Noguzznoglory]

Saw a little white dog standing on the back of a donkey which was in some ones front yard. The house actually had 3 donkeys in the yard. Only one canine rider though.

[John A]

Going home from an Oklahoma rally in early 80's found a couple puppies some lower life form abandoned in a wayside rest. I was trying to stuff them in my 'stitch coat when a family pulled up in a motor home . Problem solved, happy kids!
The creepiest I've ever witnessed was two pairs of shoes on the side of the highway. It was a busy north- south along the Texas& Loisiana border. At home in Shreveport that evening on the news they said there had been a hit and run where someone had hit an elderly couple who walked there. Knocked them right out of their shoes into the ditch where they died. Showed the shoes, two pair, the ones I saw. I feel sad when I think of the old couple in the ditch as I rode by. When I see shoes on road I remember.

[vstevens]

A duck lay dying on a busy intersection.   Gathered around it, several ducks refused to yield to human traffic.  They quacked loudly, flapping wings and acting agitated.  The driver ahead of me plowed across the intersection, narrowly missing the small flock, scattering them initially but they quickly returned to their wounded partner.  Parking my bike on the road with hazards flashing, forcing those behind me to stop, I dismounted and approached to ducks.  The wounded duck was clearly dying, but still conscious.  I lifted up the duck and carried it to a grassy embankment on the side of the road.  The duck assembly followed in my footsteps.   He died as I laid him on the soft grass.  As I walked back onto the road and mounted my bike, the small duck family surrounded their dearly departed, touched him with beaks, rubbing feathers, certainly grieving.  And after a minute or two, they flew off into the sky. 

That was the coolest thing I ever saw while riding.